USA v2.0 – A Narrowly Avoided Disaster?

OK so heres the blog I originally wanted to write (if this is your first visit you could take the time to catch the first 2 blogs as they are scene setters).

Firstly let me just say that the recent Presidiential election in the US and the inauguration of President Obama made me feel extremely proud OF America.

The last 2 terms under Bush saw the world slide inexorably towards the brink of disaster as civil liberties fell by the wayside to religious delusion, holy wars and economic and environmental mismanagement – Bush really was a cowardly and ignorant leader, given that he refused to tackle the real issues facing the US (err global warming? What global warming…?) and preferred to skim over the cracked infrastructure and divert the public attention by engaging in hostile foreign policies.

Now, controversially I initially supported the military action in Iraq, in as much as I felt that Saddam Hussein was a brutal totalitarian leader who needed to be removed for the good of the people of Iraq. That was all the justification that was needed, no smoke and mirrors about WMDs which never existed, and no billions spent in Halliburton infrastructure contracts doled out to the economic facists running the ‘free market economy’.

And where did all the profiteering get them? The worst global recession in 200 years, trillions of Dollars, Pounds and Euros squandered in deals aimed at propping up a corrupt and unjust economic system, recession looming and governments collapsing (yesterday the government of Iceland collapsed as a direct result of the global economic failure).

The pressure is really on for Obama now and I hope he has the conviction, backbone and balls to be able to deal with many truly gargantuan tasks – Mr President I wish you luck!

While personally I would have preffered to see the Jefferson Bible used instead of Lincoln’s Allegedy Holy Bible, the fact that the second time Obama took the oath there wasnt any kind of Bible in sight at all was awesome. Watching the inauguration last week I was struck by a huge sense of relief.

(aside) There follows a series of sweeping generalisations about the 20th Century.

While pondering how things could have turned out had McCain and Palin won, something occured to me – this recession could have been so much worse. Historically recessions have been tied up with an increase in global conflict and were significant contributing factors to both the First and Second World Wars. During the 20th Century there seems to be a general link between economic downturns, an increase in munitions manufacture, the export of weapons and escalation of territorial aggression. We are all familiar with the outcomes of World War, even with the relatively limited technologies available during WWI and WWII.

Add the motivation of religious zealotry to the picture of economic collapse and I believe that had McCain and Palin we could have all been screwed. Christopher Hitchens has pointed out McCain was just a heart attack away from Palin stepping up to the most powerful job in the world. Had they been in charge of the immense military force of the USA she could have easily been in a position of fulfilling both her constitutional and Christian ‘destiny’ by ushering in her mythical End Times because God told her to do it (it worked for Bush after all). Its a chilling prospect – religiously inspired nuclear war. After all they dont care what happens to the Earth as they are all going to Paradise or rising up to Heaven in the Rapture (where was that exactly in the Bible anyway??).

In conclusion, by winning the election, by fighting the good fight and succeeding in winning the hearts of the US voters, Barack Obama may very well have saved the world without even knowing it and pulled us back from the brink. Its a bloody good start in my book.

As The Non-Prophets pointed out in their latest podcast (8.2) the new transparency and openess coming out of the White House is a refreshing leap into 21st Century politics. Obama may not be perfect, realistically he is not a knight in shining armour and will be as open to criticism as any person holding the Office of President should be – it goes with the territory after all. But at least he has put his money where his mouth is and is delivering very quickly on election promises dealing with the environment, Guantanamo and repealing the raft of ill considered legislation rushed through by the Bush Administration.

All I can say is – thank fuck hes gone, roll on USA v2.0