The combination of today’s date, the sun shining in my kitchen in Roderick Road and yesterday’s events in Des Moines, Iowa has given me a severe attack of optimism. It is a disease I first caught when living in America. The bug got through my immune system of European pessimism when the young Jack Kennedy delivered his message of hope to young people in America and young people everywhere. Since then, the darker side of America, has been only too evident. The American cowboy gun culture wiped out Kennedy after only two years in office, and then killed his equally admirable brother. It brought down Martin Luther King while he was in the middle of making his dream a reality. Since then America and the world has had to deal with Richard Nixon who dishonoured the presidency by his lying. In my book he ranked as the worst American President in my life-time.
Until George W. Bush came along.
Yesterday the campaign by the candidates who want to succeed him really started in earnest and it will dominate American politics until election day in November. By tradition the first battlefield is the primaries in the state capital of Iowa, a conservative state in the heart of the mid-west, where farming is still the main source of wealth. And where most people worry more about whether the weather will be right for their crops and whether Washington will provide adequate subsidies so they can make a decent living. They don’t spend much time thinking about Middle East crises. They don’t lie awake at night in fear of Islamic car bombers. The airport is not big enough for transatlantic jets and to get to Iowa you to stop over in Chicago and take a small plane to Des Moines.
Both leading Democratic contenders are in Iowa this week. Barack Obama, who has a real chance of becoming the first black president and working to realise Luther King’s dream. Hillary Clinton has a real chance of becoming the first femail president and becoming a role model for would-be female leaders everywhere. Yesterday Clinton grabbed the headlines. But she had to share them with husband Bill, who was out there shaking hands, rather than staying at home cooking the dinner.
And there are few better politicians than Bill Clinton at working the crowds. He is even better at the feely touchy stuff than Tony Blair and when he speaks, he does so with the authority of his halfway decent record as President and his not insubstantial efforts since as an international statesman.
Both Clintons to me exemplify the spirit of the founding fathers, seeking to establish a state where individual citizens can live their own lives in harmony with their neighbours, rather than follow the orders of Kings and Popes. Prepared to fight for their own freedom. Prepared to help others whose freedoms are in danger. But not wanting to impose their way of life by force of arms on other countries.
The Iraq war was much more to do with making the world safe for American consumer capitalism than it was about fighting for democracy. The left wing opponents of the war said it was really about America protecting its oil interests. But the threat to capitalism is much wider and deeper than that. Just think about how many industries would have their profits decimated if more countries established Islamic fundamentalist regimes. Mass entertainment, clothing, booze and cosmetics are just the first few that come to mind.
And remember that the next American president will also have to have a policy on global warming, which will mean imposing restraints on consumer capitalism. And the kind of Christian fundamentalism, espoused by George W. Bush, is a much greater threat to the planet than Islamic fundamentalism. The essential message is that if only you have faith riches will come to you. Instead of throwing the money lenders out of the temple it invites them in. The selling point is not eternal bliss in the next world it is a Cadillac in the garage, two houses and regular holidays in the Caribbean in this one.
So roll on next November. And let us all pray that Congress will be strong enough to stop Bush embarking on any more military adventures in the remaining months of his rule. (Which reminds me. Praise for Gordon Brown whose plan for constitutional reform announced yesterday includes vesting in parliament the decision to take the country into a war.
July 5th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
If you are a journalist, you don’t appear to be a very good one. Perhaps it is because you have ONLY LEARNED (correct spelling) from novels (which are fiction you know… much like most of your diatribe) and the University of Life (maybe next time you should try one of the universities of higher learning where beyond those ivory towers is pursuit of genuine educational value).
A journalist, before he writes, gets his facts straight. You didn’t. You know very little about Iowa, let alone the Des Moines International Airport. Our airport is not so small we cannot land ANY size of jets is NOT TRUE! We have two 9,000 ft. plus runways that are long enough to land any airliner built today with a full payload of fuel, whether it is a transcontinental mainliner or a domestic commercial cargo carrier. We are the only Port of Entry airport in the state of Iowa which means we have those capabilities to land inter-continental air traffic, hence the name designation of Des Moines INTERNATIONAL Airport. What you refer to in your rant is that Des Moines is a “feeder” airport in the system of air traffic that the airlines do business worldwide. There are hub airports where most of the airliners are based for dispatch, and there are feeder airports that due to population base (which entails boarding numbers) cannot support major passenger traffic. It has nothing to do with how small we are, it is just how airlines do business efficiently.
Iowa is much more than just an agricultural state. Did you know that we rank perennially in the top three in education in the country? We are also one of the top five high-tech emerging economies in the US. The quality of life in Des Moines, Iowa, the capitol of Iowa, is one that reflects low-crime, great schools, booming economy (of the business type), superior health care, etc. It is rated as one of the best places to raise a family in the United States year after year. Quality of life in Iowa is top-notch and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else in the country.
You tout on one hand of your disgust of George Bush and your displeasure with the war. Did you know that your right to even speak your opinion is exactly what we’re fighting for over in Iraq and other Mid-East countries? You have a right to your opinion, thanks to the valor and courage of men who defend that right daily with their very own lives. Have you asked the ones that are defending your country if they believe their stance is just in Iraq? That’s because they know they are justly defending the very freedom that you take advantage of every day. I voted for Bush and while I will not say that he’s been a great president, I would not classify him as the worst president of all time. I still would not go back and vote for an idiot waffler like John Kerry for president and we’d be a lot worse off if we’d elected him. One thing you can be thankful for is that we’ve not had one terrorist incident on our soil since 9-11. Something in the airport business we take pretty seriously. Battling Islam and its ideals is more than just a one war proposition. These people don’t want equality, they want it ALL! You talk about intolerance, did you know that Islamist believe that anyone that doesn’t ascribe to their beliefs is an infidel and must be killed? Your talking about a relegion and a people who condone killing innocent people in the name of God. There tactical warfare deals in lies and deceit, bombing in shopping centers, schools, centers of business -NOT ON THE BATTLEFIELD where men fight their wars, but involving women and children. This is the very center of terrorism and this is what we’re fighting for! We probably will have a new Democratic president in the future. Let’s see how it goes on their watch???
Lastly, don’t ever lump me into one classifaction of being a Christian Fundamentalist and even contrast me with Islamic theology. You have no information on what Christianity is all about and before you spew your words of poison mocking a Faith, get your facts straight. If our original authors of the Constitution were alive today to see how America has digressed from its purical, faith-based government (a part of that separation of church and state that you loathe) they would be aghast. We’ve taken religion out of the formula all right and that could be the major contributing factor to most of our demise.
I will debate you anytime, anywhere. You are a shame to an honorable profession that once was held to some pinnacle of stature (JOURNALISM). Now, the media plays GOD and tells us what we should believe rather than reporting the news and documenting history. It is polluted with slanted and biased reporting in a way that reflects only one side of the story. It is full of sensationalism and people such as yourself who shoot off their mouthes and print words flippantly before they’ve checked all their facts and researched the truth from all perspectives. They (so called journalist) spread a wave of miss-information rather than truth and in their wake they taint many a good causes, good people, even the overall good of society itself.
Publish this along side your’ rant from the perspective of another journalist. I have a degree, two of them to be exact and am paid well for writing. I don’t blog normally, but your pitiful rant made me angry. I relinquich your right to say what you want (that’s the thing that servicemen die for every day), but you as an ethical journalist should post both sides of what is an opinon. That’s the America that I love and hope stays that way.
Gary Hagan
Des Moines, Iowa
B.A. of Mass Communications and Journalism
M.A. of Communications and Business Adminstration
July 8th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Totally accept your correction about Des Moines Airport, Gary. Went to Iowa in 1980, landing at Chicago, then taking a small plane to Iowa City, stopping off at Des Moines, which much smaller then, but not as small as Iowa City.
Did not disparage the quality of life in Iowa, which was good when I visited. And nothing I wrote was meant to imply it was anything other than good now.
But my opinion is that Christian fundamentalism is quite as bad as Muslim fundamentalism. And my belief is that the Pilgrim Fathers would have got on very well with those devout Muslims I know. They do not approve of what is done by Iraqui leaders like Sadaam Hussain or the President of Iran.
Finally, I believe, as you do, that the media should not play God. So I am happy to have your views on this site. We will never agree about this Iraq war, but I think it probable that the kind of journalism that you teach your students is not hugely different from what I attempted to teach my students.