AMERICA DESERVES BETTER, BUT EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY, THE
WORLD DESERVES BETTER
John Chuckman
The one verity going into the first presidential debate, not
widely recognized, was that it did not matter how Clinton managed and what she
said, although a collapse on the stage clearly would have been a decisive-enough
matter.
Her comportment or responses did not matter precisely
because she has a record, a long and detailed political record which absolutely
tells us the kind of leader she has been and will continue to be, although,
given that the position at the very top of the political pile allows more
latitude for a person’s attitudes, biases, and quirks, one might reasonably expect
an even more extreme version of the unpleasant past.
Clinton could no more change what she has been than she
could change the size of her shoe. As a politician, she is fixed in amber much
as a prehistoric dragonfly.
Extreme precautions were taken against her fainting or
having a spastic event or coughing seizure or having her eye wobble – all of which
have previously been observed in her deliberately limited number of public
appearances and all of which are solid evidence of a sickness she dishonestly hides
from us. She was even ushered in and out of the building through a kind of
temporary, custom-built tunnel with Secret Service agents using special lights
so that no might photograph another sudden episode. I’m certain for the debate
proper she was pumped with enough drugs to raise a corpse temporarily to
life.
Clinton will be Clinton no matter the debating points, and
Clinton represents the very darkest heart of a governing establishment many
Americans and most of the world are simply sick of, an unresponsive group of
privileged people who lie consistently and squander resources doing horrible things.
They bomb and destroy and support tyrants in a dozen places, always lying about
what they are doing, and they take no interest in the sheer lack of justice and
decency at home, unless you count their token words at election time. There is
no more perfect representative of this pattern of behavior than Hillary Clinton.
And it was Trump’s task to make that clear to listeners, but
he did not do so, and he left the unattractive impression of someone offering
nothing new beyond some corporate tax cuts and rental fees for NATO members.
From the viewpoint of those desperate for change, Trump’s
debate performance was disheartening. From cybersecurity to ISIS and America’s
financial meltdown to Russia, Clinton said things which opened her to the most
devastating responses and revealed her inability to anticipate the consequences
of pat generalizations, but the responses never came.
She should have been pinned to the backdrop, much like an
insect being pinned to a display board in an entomology collection, with
reminders of her actual record as well as that of her husband, a dark and questionable
figure whom she insisted on dragging in, much like a proud cat entering the
house with a nasty-looking dead bird in its mouth. Trump seemed flat on his
feet.
And, it must be mentioned, we have a photo of Hillary
showing quite clearly she was wearing a communications device similar to what
George Bush wore some years ago. I don’t know why the debates are not free of
such gimmickry, but clearly they are not. (See footnote)
On the economy, Trump statements were truly disheartening.
He has said a couple of pretty interesting things on the campaign trail, especially
in his Michigan speech directed to black Americans, but in the debate what we
heard was tired old stuff, re-tread notions dating back to Reagan or before,
about corporate tax cuts and little else.
On the topic of foreign affairs, a desperate subject and the
one area of his greatest hope for many, he said surprisingly little. And how
could you help but be disappointed when, out of this vast topic, he chose to
mention his meeting with the leader of one of the world’s smallest countries, one
designated by the United Nations as having the world’s worst human rights
record, and called the bloody man by his affectionate nickname?
Even on the causes of the financial collapse of 2008,
Clinton spoke vague nonsense and reflected on Bill’s illusory economic achievements
when in office. Well, Trump should have said that some of Bill’s own work
contributed, with a time lag, to the 2008 mess. He should also have said that
Bush’s lackadaisical attitude towards good regulation, much resembling his
attitude and response to Hurricane Katrina, had a direct effect on the
financial disaster. And he certainly should have said that Obama, Clinton’s
direct boss and political supporter, has in eight years done nothing to correct
the regulatory disorder. He told the ugly truth that Obama had done nothing but
print money to keep the economy afloat, but he did not articulate it or its
implications forcefully, and that should have been his territory.
But what he should have said most of all was that government
does not make the economy, a lot of people, including Hillary, talking as
though the Oval Office had almost a set of start and go levers for the economy
which, if used by an appropriate leader, made things hum. That is a genuinely
silly but persistent idea, and it is really time for the American people to
have this quasi-religious myth laid to rest. She certainly believes this
nonsense as demonstrated by references to her husband’s past success and by her
unwelcome and repulsive promise, a while back, to put “Bill in charge of the
economy” when she is elected.
Government’s real role is to maintain a national environment
favorable to economic activity with fair regulation and taxation and avoidance
of frivolous or vexatious legislation, and it must avoid totally
counterproductive burdens like wars. It must also avoid favoritism and special
interests. It must do what is necessary maintain the nation’s essential
infrastructure from roads and bridges to broadband and airports. And it must
assure that education and justice flourish. But the American government for
years has done none of these things, and that is what exhausts the American
people and much of the world.
Endless, unbelievably costly wars, crumbling infrastructure,
injustices to be seen in every corner of the land, poor schools in ten thousand
places, poor drinking water, the dominance of special interests and favoritism
in government, and more. These are built-in weaknesses, not only impairing the
lives of millions of citizens but leading to decline. Changing that is what
good government is about, and it what people hope for from any candidate who
beats the Clinton we all know so tiresomely well.
A good friend, in discussing my disappointment with the
debate, did offer an interesting perspective, saying that Trump might have said
just enough in generalities to buoy his supporters and would-be supporters, who
of course do not all think in the same terms or expect the same details. I hope
so. What this world needs more anything is an American leader who is not Clinton,
a woman who was recorded saying about the destruction of Libya she helped
engineer and direct as Secretary of State and about the assassination of a
decent leader who kept his country out of war and supplied his people with
everything from free health care to education, “We came, we saw, he died. Ha,
ha, ha!”
We indeed have little to lose in giving someone a chance to
start at least a few things over again. I am not even certain that is possible,
given the heavy shadow of America’s massive, unelected security and military establishments,
but it is worth a try. In terms of the hundreds of thousands killed and
countries torn apart under Obama and Clinton, the world has a great deal to
gain by some change.
And if that is not possible under the American political
system, I think the genuinely dark thing America has become, an immensely
well-armed bully and thief who lies about every act, is what we are all fated
to suffer under until its eventual and inevitable decline. It is the Obamas and
Clintons - pretending to liberalism while expending their total energy on
killing and destabilizing and pushing others around in hopes of custom-molding
the lives of the planet’s many peoples, an activity much resembling the way a
psychopath toys with victims before killing them – that quite possibly will
bring us to a nuclear holocaust with Russia and/or China.
FOOTNOTE: See: http://investmentwatchblog.com/nteb-exclusive-hidden-wires-and-mechanism-of-some-kind-clearly-seen-under-hillarys-jacket/
