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By Carolyn Baker

Speaking Truth to Power

In early 2005 in anticipation of my sixtieth birthday, I began working on an autobiography. Certainly, I reasoned, now entering my sixth decade, I should be putting in ink my reflections on life as I officially become a senior citizen. Following the publication of three books and countless articles, it seemed that my “memoirs” was the very next step.

Little did I realize that in the fall of 2006, just a few weeks after the release of my third book U.S. HISTORY UNCENSORED, a bombshell breaking news story that would hit a pivotal nerve in my own personal history would compel me to integrate the almost-finished memoirs with commentary on the story, not merely from my intellect but from my personal life experience. That news item was the revelation that fundamentalist Christian icon, Pastor Ted Haggard of the New Life Church of Colorado Springs, Colorado, ostensibly rabidly homophobic, had been involved for three years in a sexual relationship with another man.

Memoirs just lying around, serving no purpose except navel-gazing, are easily ignored and postponed for “some other day.” But when one’s autobiography so eerily parallels breaking news on CNN, one should consider taking it out, dusting it off, and disclosing to the world that human beings do not have to live a lie in order to follow the calling of their hearts in pursuit of the sacred.

Every day of Ted Haggard’s exposure in the news, I watched, listened, and read obsessively, and as the reader explores this book, he/she will soon understand why. Ted Haggard’s story is in so many ways, my story, but with one colossal difference: At the age of twenty-six, I realized that I was not willing to a live a lie for the rest of my life and came out as a lesbian to myself and to the world. Had I not made that decision, I might have perpetrated almost exactly the same excruciating deception on loved ones, colleagues, and admirers as he did.

Thus, I set to work on the completing of my new book which will be released in about two weeks, Coming out Of Fundamentalist Christianity: An Autobiography Affirming Sensuality, Social Justice, and The Sacred. In the Appendix section of this book the reader will find my November, 2006 article “Ted Haggard And Fundamentalist Christian Soul-Murder” that was posted on a number of Internet sites, including my own. It ultimately set in motion the completion of my autobiography.

I have taken enormous risks in writing my story, as well as my opinions regarding the American lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) communities. This book will strike raw nerves among homophobes and anti-gay members of the religious community, and LGBT folks may not appreciate my taking our community to task politically, but the story must be told, and for me, it cannot be told without dividing the book into two parts: 1) My story, and 2) Our World. The anguish of my coming out process was exacerbated by a childhood devoid of social, political, or economic justice, and my notions about them today, inextricably connected with my sexual orientation, have determined the paradigm by which I intend to live the rest of my life. In other words, for me, the personal and political cannot be polarized, and anyone who knows that at a cellular level, also knows the distressing path that consciously integrating the two necessitates.

Except for mine, the names of all persons in the book have been changed in order to protect the innocent and the guilty. Two of my college years were spent in a fundamentalist Christian bible college which to this day I deplore, yet without its painful evisceration of my innocence, I would not become the person I now cherish. As most fundamentalist Christian colleges are, in my opinion, it was nothing less than a hothouse for blossoming homosexuals which it delighted in confining in the closet then castigating when impetuous latency could no longer be repressed.

This book is entering print as one of the most corrupt and conservative political administrations in the history of the United States is about to leave office. For me, it has been excruciating to witness its machinations for the past seven years, mirroring to me so much of what was an inhumane upbringing and what was so emotionally and spiritually devastating in the first half of my life. Yet, it is one thing to have grown up in a household terrorized by it and quite another to watch the same dogma, hypocrisy, and neo-fascist ideology perpetrated on an entire nation.

Approximately six weeks after the resignation of Ted Haggard from New Life Church, youth leadership minister, Christopher Beard of New Life, also resigned in disgrace over “sexual misconduct” the orientation of which at this writing is unknown. On Monday, December 11, 2006, the Associated Press broke the story of the disclosure and subsequent resignation of Englewood, Colorado’s Rev. Paul Barnes, pastor of another Rocky Mountain megachurch who confessed to his congregation that he had been involved in a number of homosexual relationships and was stepping down. I winced as I heard one sentence from Barnes’ mea culpa, so reminiscent of my pre-coming out years: “I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy. … I can’t tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, begging God to take this away.”

Was 2006 just a bad year for Colorado Christian fundamentalists? A series of coincidences, perhaps?

Or maybe December, 2006 was a bad year for fundamentalists in general as the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported on the 20th that church leaders announced that Rev. Paul Williams, a Bellevue Baptist Church staffer for 34 years, had been placed on paid leave pending an investigation regarding a “moral failure”—a disgustingly vague and abbreviated description of the pastor’s alleged sexual abuse of a relative some seventeen years prior. Supposedly aware of the incident, Senior Minister, Steven Gaines, had done nothing and complicitly assumed that “the incident had been resolved.” Fundamentalists would have us believe that only in the Roman Catholic Church is sexual abuse rampant and that only there does the non-offending clergy collude with it by moving priests from one location to another, thereby protecting their dirty little secrets.

On the contrary, I have for decades believed and publicly stated that there is something inherent in Christian fundamentalism that attracts individuals who are fleeing the impact of coming to terms with their sexual orientation, dealing with their own experiences of being sexually abused, or confronting other issues regarding sexuality and that fundamentalism not only draws such individuals but fosters their hypocrisy, thereby exacerbating their suffering and the suffering of everyone close to them. While a thorough exploration of this hypothesis is yet another book in itself, my book will endeavor to shed light by offering my own experiences and reflections on them.

In my experience and that of countless others, fundamentalist Christianity is intrinsically spiritually abusive, and I have painstakingly explained why in the pages of my book. Moreover, its homophobic and bigoted agenda has so infiltrated and influenced the pillars of power in the current fascist regime that governs America that all LGBT individuals residing in the United States need to be vigilant regarding the eroding and elimination of their civil liberties as a result of that reality.

Here is yet another example of how history repeats itself. Replete with homosexual activity, the Third Reich officially condemned homosexuality and hypocritically relegated homosexuals to the same status in German society as Jews. In fact, during the height of Hitler’s reign, homosexuals were required to wear pink triangles on their clothing, just as Jews were required to wear yellow stars on theirs. As I listen to the ranting of homophobic hatemongers such as James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Albert Mohler, and Janet Parshall, I hear not the essence of Christ’s teachings, but the deranged blathering of ideological neo-Nazis who would delight in slapping a pink triangle on me and shipping me off to a death camp.

In terms of the civil liberties of lesbian and gay individuals in the United States, these people are not harmless, or merely over-exuberant true believers. In his brilliant article, “For The Christian Right, Gay-Hating Is Just The Start,” Harvard Divinity School graduate Chris Hedges states:

These attacks mask a sinister agenda that has nothing to do with sexuality. It has to do with power. The radical Christian right — the most dangerous mass movement in American history — has built a binary worldview of command and submission wherein male leaders, who cannot be questioned and claim to speak for God, are in control and all others must follow. Any lifestyle outside the traditional model of male and female is a threat to this hierarchical male power structure. Women who do not depend on men for their identity and their sexuality, who live outside a male power relationship, challenge this pervasive cult of masculinity, as do men who find tenderness and love with other men as equals. The lifestyle of gays and lesbians is intolerable to the Christian right because its existence is a threat to the movement’s chain of command, one they insist was ordained by God.

In the Appendix of my book I have included an extraordinary article “The Psychology Of Christian Fundamentalism,” by Professor Emeritus, Walter Davis, Ohio State University, in which the author’s extraordinary insights into the emotional underpinnings of fundamentalism address that “something” in it that backfired, and in my opinion always does, on the three Colorado clerical homophobes and one Southern Baptist sex offender. “Morality for the fundamentalist,” says Davis, “is not about a life of charity or the pursuit of justice or the need to open oneself to the depth of human suffering. It’s about avoiding certain sexual sins and fixating on that dimension of life to the virtual exclusion of everything else.”

Because I am also an historian, I want to emphasize that fundamentalist Christianity as we know it today in the United States is a relatively new phenomenon in the Christian religion. From the official establishment of the Christian Church dating from the fourth century until the present time, myriad doctrines, traditions, practices, and biblical interpretations have existed in the Christian religion. Within the past two hundred years, the so-called mainstream denominations that were born in America’s Great Awakenings and some that evolved from the religious communities of European settlers—Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Episcopal, Lutheran—have experienced diminished membership as the evangelical or fundamentalist factions of Christianity have skyrocketed in popularity and enrollment.

In this book I use evangelical and fundamentalist interchangeably. Both adhere to clearly delineated, strict “fundamentals” resulting from a literal interpretation of the bible, and whether one identifies as an evangelical or a fundamentalist, evangelizing or attempting to recruit believers into one’s religion is pivotal in accomplishing the mission of fundamentalism/evangelism, namely, enlarging Christ’s church on earth. “Fundamentalist” is a more nineteenth-century term associated with specific “fundamentals” that conservative Christian literalists believe are the backbone of Christianity whereas “evangelical”, a twentieth-century word may have been chosen to cosmetically alter the presentation of fundamentalist teachings, thereby making them appear more contemporary and less stodgy. Not wishing to evoke images of sweaty, red-faced Victorian ranters such as William Jennings Bryan or Billy Sunday, evangelical ministers adorned with blow-dried hairstyles and Rolex watches, their sermons preceded with hip-hop rhythms, synthesizer extravaganzas, and digital light shows, may not be any less theologically pedantic than their predecessors, but they are decidedly more marketable.

Coming Out Of Fundamentalist Christianity is not merely an autobiography—one woman’s coming out journey, but is intended to facilitate confluence between the integration of sexuality and spirituality and how individuals in the LGBT community struggling with that challenge, influence the society at large and are influenced by it, endeavoring to discern our limitations, our infinite opportunities, and the difference between them. In the Appendix the reader will find in addition to my article on Ted Haggard, an extensive list of articles, books, documentaries, and websites pertaining to sexual orientation research, spirituality, and issues social, economic, political, and environmental justice.

On February 6, 2007 , our collective intelligence was profoundly insulted with Ted Haggard’s “official” pronouncement that he is “completely heterosexual.” Even graduates of repulsively-onerous, long-term “ex-gay” therapy implied that this declaration by Haggard didn’t even pass the laugh test. Not only was American fundamentalism doing damage control, but once more, Ted Haggard opted to wallow in the same lie he has lived for over five decades.

Dr. Robin Meyers, United Church Of Christ minister and author of WHY THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT IS WRONG: A Minister’s Manifesto For Taking Back Your Faith, Your Flag, Your Future, states in his chapter on homosexuality:

Religious fanaticism itself is a symptom of compensatory behavior. The most rigid, the most compulsive, the most paranoid religious devotees are often hiding their own dark secrets. They seek the rigidity of authoritarian systems in order to cope with their own feelings of shame. Their inner conflicts are turned outward, and the collateral damage is all-too apparent….In my own ministry, I have noticed an unmistakable pattern, and it is more than mere coincidence. The most homophobic people I’ve ever met do not live comfortably inside their own sexual skin.

I am well aware that despite the vast sums of money and energy spent by Christian fundamentalism to convince its followers and the rest of the world that its dogma holds all possible answers to every human predicament, there are countless women and men within its fold whose souls, like Ted Haggard’s, and mine at the age of twenty, are eviscerated with conflict between their innate sexual orientation and a religious system and attendant community that proclaims them the worst of sinners for their impulses. Some have repressed their desires, some have shoved them into unconsciousness, some live double lives as Haggard did, and some have graduated from “ex-gay” therapy programs that promise a biblical transformation into lifelong heterosexuality, only to discover that they cannot annihilate a God-given, yes I said God-given, part of themselves. Others have become alcoholics, addicts, psychotics, or suicide statistics.

It is for those individuals, as well as those who are authentically content with their orientation, that this book has been written. As a tormented fundamentalist Christian in the second decade of life, I might have found liberation, comfort, and affirmation had I had access to a book that blessed my sexual orientation as compatible with, rather than at war with, my unquenchable heart’s desire for the sacred. Inexplicable suffering and a couple of suicide attempts might have been averted. And, I might have loved myself and others more attentively had I been able to love and honor the most forbidden aspect of all in my psyche.

But there are times and places when sexual orientation does not matter—or at least, when focus on LGBT “rights” must be considered in the context of the macrocosm of planet earth’s current condition. At this moment, planet earth is headed for cataclysm unless its inhabitants very quickly address daunting issues of climate chaos, hydrocarbon energy depletion, and global economic catastrophe. (I hasten to add that I am not referring to a Rapture/Tribulation scenario.) Such issues are far more comprehensive than sexual orientation—or are they? Yes and no. Perhaps they are macrocosmic mirrors of how humans have conducted themselves in their span of years on the earth. War, greed, and patriarchy—that is, attitudes of power and control, have put earthlings on a fast track to annihilation, and persecution of diverse sexual orientations has been an integral aspect of humanity behaving badly.

In the light of these daunting realities, I do not believe that the LGBT community can afford to focus only on the dual issues of gay marriage and HIV/AIDS. I do not oppose concern with these issues, but I cannot help but be appalled that LGBT political leaders have become fixated on them with little awareness or discourse about what I continue to name as The Terminal Triangle of climate change, Peak Oil, and global economic meltdown. While I support the right of every lesbian and gay individual to conceive and birth children, I cringe at what in some instances is an obsession with doing so in the face of earth’s carrying capacity, population overshoot, and the die-off that may occur as a result of the Terminal Triangle’s devastations. In one of the chapters of my book “Tunnel Vision In The Rainbow Nation”, I state that while the LGBT community desires a “place at the table” in the American political discourse, its overall lack of understanding about the nature of that political discourse and the realities of the Terminal Triangle guarantee that its misguided focus on gay marriage and HIV/AIDS assures that it will have a place at the table, but it’s place will be “dinner” for the ruling elite.

I hold little hope for the avoidance of civilization’s collapse, and in fact, it may be the only process capable of reconstituting humanity’s priorities. Much anguish will ensue, and when humans are desperate, they tend to blame someone—anyone for their misery. I therefore expect the LGBT community to be one scapegoat, among many others. I fully anticipate that as the severity of collapse intensifies, we are likely to see pink triangles or their equivalent foisted on the LGBT community. The ruling elite’s “need” for social control will intensify and with it, increased monitoring of all who do not conform to a lifestyle sanctioned by the empire’s pseudo-Christian, fascist agenda.

But if the LGBT community is capable of transcending so-called LGBT politics and addressing issues that affect all humanity, we may decrease our vulnerability. What would happen if thousands of lesbian and gay individuals in the United States, identifying themselves as such, began organizing to prepare for collapse and reached out to the heterosexual community in doing so? What would happen if gay and lesbian families began organizing with heterosexual families on issues of debt slavery, healthcare, childcare, and myriad concerns that affect all families?

Likewise, if the heterosexual community is capable of increasingly repudiating fundamentalist Christianity’s ghastly condemnation of all forms of diversity, civilization’s collapse may facilitate the creation of small communities of individuals who are willing to move beyond mainstream society’s media-manipulated, fundamentalist-fed culture wars and experience themselves on a cellular level as one human family.

In terms of human rights and civil liberties, sexual orientation matters enormously. In terms of the perils that threaten every life form on earth, it’s no longer about “us” and “them.” The lifeboats we create must honor the diversity of every passenger whose well being depends on the well being of every other.

Coming Out Of Fundamentalist Christianity: An Autobiography Affirming Sensuality, Social Justice, and The Sacred, is now available for order at Amazon. To order click HERE. The book will also be available very soon on this website.

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By Paul A. Donovan

5/30/07

With the 2008 election approaching fast, I find myself with the same unsettled feeling I had in the last presidential race to the bottom. Perhaps it is because I feel that the age-old maxim, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” is as true for today as it was in 2004. Fact is, if we do not wake up quick, and start pressing the current Democratic Party frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama, to be more leftist, or in other words to be more like Presidential candidate Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), then we can hope for little substantive change in the next administration.

Recent polls reflect that President Bush’s approval ratings have fallen to a staggering low of 28%. As a result, many feel confident that it may very well be an easy stroll into the Oval Office for most Democratic hopefuls, who seem to be operating under the false illusion that Bush himself is running for a third term. If this assumption were false, how do we explain how little the frontrunners have done to win our affection? Leaving all the spin-talk aside, what is their true vision for a new America? (I guess that in itself is a useless question, especially when attaching it to a professional pol.) And why are they so confident that they can defeat Time Magazine’s 2001 man of the year Rudy Giuliani with such ease? As a native New Yorker I know first hand how slippery Giuliani is, and he should not be underestimated—ever.

So far, the Democratic Party frontrunners are behaving like a bunch of out of touch, over-privileged elitists. The frontrunners need to learn that the public—especially the Democratic base— won’t tolerate any more of the G.O.P-lite formula, which, to the party establishment’s shame, has come to typify recent elections. Contrary to their old stratagem of playing it safe, of cynical “triangulation,” a new formula must be adopted, one which presents the candidates as people of real conviction (assuming, of course, that there is someone in the front ranks who possesses this admirable quality). Without that there is no way to invigorate an otherwise alienated public, an electorate that feels more disenfranchised and apathetic than ever in regards to the search for a principled winner.

Flip-flops and examples to follow

The recent vote of “NO” against the Iraq spending bill by Senators Clinton and Obama came as a surprise to many of us, in light of their former support of the spending bill this past March. This change of heart by the frontrunners clearly demonstrates that the candidates are responding to the negative publicity they have been receiving by commentators on the Internet, and the liberal wing of the Democratic party, who are vehemently opposed to letting the frontrunners think we will accept “Anybody But Bush” as an alternative recipe for success. It failed Kerry and it will fail them if they don’t start taking a principled stance. There is political wisdom in principled consistency. It is very likely the Republicans will seize on any change in position as another reason to portray the Democrats as indecisive. The current frontrunners must have been aware this tap dancing technique would land them in hot water, but after calculating the risk, I suppose they felt it was worth it to respond to the public. See what playing the center gets you?

In light of all of their apparent shortcomings and evasions, it might be useful to ask them if they have comprehensive solutions in place to solve our myriad of problems, solutions that do not contain huge loopholes and compromises. Why is it that, so far, only Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich has bills on the floor attacking the roots of the health care crisis, and a plan for immediate withdrawal from Iraq? What’s more, Kucinich keeps making the correct voting decisions and has yet to waver on anything. In a town, in a political environment, where everything revolves around self-preservation and advancement, and the scrupulous avoidance of risk, some would say with ample justification that he has often gone beyond the call of duty. Is it that maybe Kucinich needs to receive 25-26 million dollars in contributions for media campaigns before he will be taken seriously? I guess “money talks” after all—literally.

Meanwhile, Congressman Kucinich, who, unsurprisingly, receives little to no media attention, and for some odd reason which defies all reason, is every “realistic” voter’s worst nightmare, has a concrete plan to end the war in Iraq starting right away, as outlined under bill H.R. 1234, as well as the Universal Health care bill known as H.R. 676 which is brilliantly designed as “Medicare for all.” What are the frontrunner’s plans to handle the health care crisis, and a clear exit strategy for the troops in Iraq? So far I have seen them do nothing but pay lip service to the issue that effects 46 million Americans, and many more under insured, not to mention the 600,000 plus dead Iraqis and Americans, who suffered and are suffering for a war Hillary Clinton voted for. I suppose the largest demonstrations in the history of humankind didn’t signal to Senator Clinton that maybe voting for this debacle was a bad idea, and then afterwards continuing to attack Bush, while slipping a blank check under the table so he may carry out his exploits. Furthermore, and I may add, characteristically, Senator Obama and Clinton have recently voted to reauthorize a slightly watered down version of Bush’s Patriot act, while Dennis Kucinich, yes folks, you guessed it, voted it down, with a swift raise of the hand.

It takes no more than five minutes to examine Denis Kucinich’s policies, and to realize that they are every progressive’s dream come true. Kucinich provides the left with a new route, which would steer America clear of impending disasters. If this enormous cruise ship does go down, the waters will be much more brisk, and painful than when the actual Titanic sank - we can be sure of that. If I sound hyperbolic, then I must stress that you reevaluate the current predicament. Dennis Kucinich may not win the great American billion- dollar beauty pageant/popularity contest we call “presidential election” in this confounded nation, but he still may win a few hearts by actually telling the truth, a novel concept these days in American politics.

Not content with a record that many of these media favorites would envy for sheer honesty, Dennis Kucinich has also filed impeachment papers against Dick Cheney, a man emblematic of the revolting corruption and criminality that characterizes this system, and, as mentioned earlier, has bills ready to go on such urgent matters as “Medicare for All.” In addition to that, he has endorsed a policy that involves a multilateral coalition effort to rebuild Iraq. As we know, the United States plutocrats and energy corporations don’t want multilateral help because there is too much potential profit on and under the ground in the Middle East…if they only could get pesky Iran out of the picture, and grab their oil while they are at it, too. This is thieves’ calculus, and the whole world knows it, even if the American media and people do not.

Putting the ear to the ground

To Senator Obama’s credit he did vote “NO” on CAFTA. However, the newly elected Senator has already started make the appropriate presidential noises [read: the willingness to use military force] and to apply camouflage warpaint, if only to appear ready to handle— according to the “crise du jour”—any “threat of terror from Iran.” In keeping with this wrongheaded posture, recently Senator Obama started beating the drums and ratcheting up the rhetoric against Iran when he stated, “All options are on the table” with that nation, while repeating the poisoned media mantra, that they are “developing nuclear capabilities…and they must be stopped.” This bold statement by Obama excludes the fact that it is the right of Iran, a sovereign nation, to develop nuclear energy, and if they are developing weapons, as it is widely claimed, they should be supervised by the international community, not another meddling agency of the by now most hated foreign power in the region, who as we all know, is more than casually interested in oil, and in “stabilizing” the region strictly in its own terms.

At the same moment Gary Kasparov is being harassed by Russian police, the Democrats here at home, are in a scurry to the center of the political chessboard to appear to the public as “tough on terror” once again, just like their corporate counterparts in the G.O.P. Have they all forgotten, or did they never know or care, that it is our government’s meddling in Middle Eastern affairs that has given rise to “terrorism”—the Frankenstein that now threatens our seriously weakened democracy? Meddling such as the history of propping up oppressive regimes like the Shah and his SAVAK in Iran; the hot and cold wars in Iraq; the selling to both sides chemical weapons during the Iraq-Iran war (which, as Jesse Jackson notes “we have the receipts for”); and our government’s politico-economic love affair with the decadent Saudi Royal family? These are just a fraction of the crimes and irritations that are enraging “terrorists” and Arab nationalists alike, and which have created another, significantly larger crop of more ferocious enemies and demagogues throughout the Islamic world than we ever had to confront in the past. Yep, all of these wonders we owe our munificent foreign policy, whose motto should be “not a country left behind.”

Any rational thinking human with the intelligence of a stick of Juicy Fruit can easily arrive at the logical conclusion that the facts just stated would signal to our government that maybe it is time for a clear change in policy, but instead the Newspeak wisdom being touted by our politicians and their counterparts in the billionaire- controlled media, is that this raging desert fire is mostly a result of warring sects with different religious interpretations of Islam. In other words, it’s their fault, and we have nothing to do with this insanity.

Against this surreal backdrop, what level of narcissism do these politicians need to display before they have officially lost our complete confidence? Do we need to quickly go down memory lane, one more time …just to 2003 when all this extraordinary adventure officially began? Do we need reminding about the authorization and implementation of an ingenious plan to start an immoral preemptive war with a bullying anteroom called “Shock and Awe”…the whole criminal exercise according to these crooks meant to spread democracy in a nation we never gave one damn for before…as evidenced by the destruction we have rained on it for almost 3 decades…and which we continue to this day. Naturally, considering the greed that courses through some of the corridors that determine US foreign policy, it doesn”t matter one whit that almost the entire population of Iraq (except maybe for the Kurds) wants us out; that we are perceived as occupation troops and not as “liberators;” that some of our soldiers are returning home so psychologically distraught that they are killing themselves in increasing numbers; and that even some upper echelons of the US military are now also thinking that Iraq is far too costly an investment to maintain without damaging the force for years to come.

Splitting hairs if it’s politically convenient

Most people feel the Iraqis and the American soldiers are both victims of this war, yet Obama doesn’t evidence the same sympathy, and instead is happy to follow the line of least resistance and scapegoat the Iraqis as the primary problem preventing peace in Iraq. The audacious shamelessness of this position is breathtaking—to any decent and impartial observer, but not to a crowd lacking in all elementary moral reflexes, and where Newspeak is the only language they understand.

Accordingly, again straining to sound statesmanlike and presidential, Obama read the prevailing cues and intoned:

“To reach such a solution, we must communicate clearly and effectively to the factions in Iraq that the days of asking, urging, and waiting for them to take control of their own country are coming to an end. No more coddling, no more equivocation. Our best hope for success is to use the tools we have – military, financial, diplomatic – to pressure the Iraqi leadership to finally come to a political agreement between the warring factions that can create some sense of stability in the country and bring this conflict under control.”

In the most matter-of-fact fashion Glen Ford, editor of the Black Agenda Report, responded to this statement by quipping acidly that, “The U.S. has ‘coddled’ 600,000 Iraqis to death.”

(Well, of course, that was a few months ago).

In May 2007 Senator Obama sings a different tune, and, along with Sen. Clinton, states with unconvincing resolve that “enough is enough”, and that “we cannot give a blank check to continue down this same, disastrous path.” By now at least some of us recognize that Hillary Clinton is nothing more than a careerist establishment politician, a characterization requiring little explanation, but Barak Obama still has the audacity to present himself as a “champion of the people,” claiming to be a man sensitive to the plight of the struggling American worker and the “Middle Class.” Yet a statement in his new book declares without any sense of shame or contradiction that, “Serious concern over the nation’s harsh disparities is consigned to leftist ‘cranks’ and other assorted ‘unreasonable zealots.’” Does this sound like a man in touch with what this country needs to get done?

Senator Obama’s statements lead us to presume that he feels that those who speak out against socio- economic injustice, and 46 million still living without healthcare, are simply whiney babies who don’t appreciate all they have. Obama, basking in the establishment’s embrace, acts as if the working people of this country owed these corporate criminals something; even if it is they, after all, who are collecting the most welfare. Is it too unfair to suggest that, fully in his establishment persona Barack Obama sounds like a right-wing Harvard crank, totally out of touch with his roots as a community organizer in Chicago, and who in his climb to power “inadvertently” erased his memory of what it is like for everyday people? Barack, take a tour of the real Washington DC area, for example, leave the fancy confines of the Beltway, and reacquaint yourself with the reasons why us “cranks” feel distressed about domestic inequities.

A party worth voting for

I urge those who haven’t recovered yet from the post traumatic stress disorder of blaming Nader for Gore’s defeat in 2000 to get over it quick, and not be afraid to get tough on the frontrunners. I am well aware that many think voting for Dennis Kucinich is impractical or an impossible victory, and which may have a similar precipitous effect as the 2000 election. If you won’t cast a vote for a candidate you feel has no chance, please at least consider demanding that the Democratic Party frontrunners themselves abandon the “G.O.P. Lite” centrist formula which lost Kerry and Gore their elections, and make sure they start sounding (and feeling, if that were possible) more like Kucinich. If the mainstream Democrats happen to win and don’t follow through on their promises, they should be reminded that we, the people, will demand they get out of office immediately, or they will have to answer to a politically conscious, and completely disaffected public in no mood for more doubletalk.

I often find myself having flashbacks to 2004 as I watched Ralph Nader walk into a conference room with John Kerry to give last minute advice on how to drive the nail into the coffin of baby Bush’s campaign. As we watched the doors behind them close shut, I thought to myself maybe Nader could appeal to the once anti-war activist, turned Ketchup guru, John Kerry. When the doors reopened my fears had once again been realized, but it was not in the least bit surprising.

As Nader walked out of the room trying to mask the disenchantment on his face, and the defeat in his eyes, I knew at that moment that Kerry had cataloged Nader’s advice as “too risky or too left for his liking.”

But Nader knew that if John Kerry didn’t become more than just an “Anybody But Bush” he would not be able to conquer the fear mongering, and “tough on terror” platform of the Republicans. As anticipated, Nader proved to be once again correct. Even though Kerry ostensibly won most of the debates, he did not win the hearts and minds of the people nearly enough, which could have inspired them to go and vote in even greater numbers, armed with a hope for the future, instead of simply being motivated by the near paralyzing fear of another four years of George Bush. The sins of the 2004 election have not been so easily washed away by the ebb and flow of time, there is more blood on our shores now, and the stains of the Kerry defeat have by no means disappeared from the American psyche. Hopefully the 2008 election can draw in more voters than a vote for American Idol.

I was quite confident that Bush would win again a year before the election took place, quite certain in my gut feeling because I had seen the obvious: that the “GOP Lite” formula is a bankrupt centrist ideology with no principles, and which inspires far too few to go out and vote the decadent neocon murderers—or whatever branch of the imperial tree happens to be in office—out of power once and for all…

This time around, I urge readers to mobilize and vote against the “Anybody But Bush” formula for victory. History has been overly gracious and patient with us, and has kindly granted us a bit more room to maneuver, and maybe a small chance to redeem ourselves, even in the wake of eight years of George W. Bush. But history doesn’t stand still, or return to the exact same point in time over and over again, even though things at first glance seem similar. Thus, while, if lucky, we might just survive this regime’s second term, four years of another Reaganite might very well be the curtain call for what is left of our fading republic. Not to mention much of the world.

If we are, as some adduce, actors on the stage of history, I suggest we all note that we are approaching the final scene if we don’t adjust our failed formulas. If we don’t follow the path of social justice, as Kucinich has challenged us to do, we won’t be able to whittle away at the apathy and cynicism which infect the hearts and minds of people all over this vast nation. “Anybody But Bush” is not strong enough of a vision to steer us out of harm’s way.

Maybe now that Senator Obama has tasted his own blood again by voting “No” to Bush’s 120 billionaire check, he himself will be ready to draw up a bill to give us real Universal Healthcare, and have a clear exit strategy for Iraq just as Kucinich has already done. We see through you Senators Obama and Clinton, and we will not be fooled this time around. Either get tough or get out of the way and give Edwards and Kucinich a shot. I would feel much more confident having a Kucinich-Edwards ticket than an Obama-Clinton ticket, even if their belated conversions, which may prove illusory, align them, at last, with the majority of their party’s grassroots.

Paul A. Donovan is Assistant Editor at Cyrano’s Journal (http://www.bestcyrano.org/).