Opinion Editorials, April 2008
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America's Political Trinity: Capitalism, Individualism, and Israelism
By Ben Tanosborn
ccun.org, April 26, 2008
In the United States, if you aspire to occupy an elective office, from
the lowest position at the municipal level to the imperial quarters of
the White House, you must have been cleared beforehand as a defender of
the American faith, and that entails acceptance and devotion to the
dogma of a political trinity: Capitalism, Individualism, and Israelism.
And that political trinity belief applies to hopefuls of the two parties
something which by default makes it universal under a non-proportional
democracy where winner takes all, and our republic becomes not one of
the people, but rather one belonging to the elite.
Capitalism must never come into question regardless of how predatory,
exploitative or even distant from true free enterprise. If you
dare challenge either doctrine or deed in any form, you are immediately
tagged as a socialist of sorts and are subjected to all the morbid and
ignorant abuse that is associated with an advocacy turned into epithet.
Individualism is a trait that most Americans will swear was DNA-ized in
America or at the very least used as baptismal waters on immigrants
debarked at Ellis Island long ago. Anyway, it is this rugged
individualism, many Americans will say, that keeps this nation strong
and free; a doctrine that holds the interests of the individual to be
above those of either nation or society. And as a result of this
individualism, America has become a nation of armed citizens, and an
uncanny proclivity for greed. Just free individuals from
government controls and regulations, and society will take care of
itself!
Now as for the “third part” of the political trinity, America’s total
devotion to Israel, well…
Politics at the community, state and federal levels are under constant
scrutiny by an all-knowing, all powerful, very passionate and active
advocacy pro-Israel with fast standing orders not to allow any
politician to be exposed, much less influenced, to anything which might
appear to be colored Palestine regardless whether it is controversial or
legitimate. This has become our political daily bread, and in my
neck of the woods, not to be any different we just witnessed to two such
acts in Oregon this past week, one courtesy of our influential
newspaper, The Oregonian, the other also coming via this periodical.
On April 22, The Oregonian’s editorial, “Gee, thanks, Mr. Ex-president,”
castigated our former president, Jimmy Carter, for having talks with
Hamas which according to this paper “muddy an enduring dispute in the
Middle East.” That declaration is, of course, the paper’s right to
render as an opinion. What the newspaper seemed to have lacked was
the grace and diligence in denying the courtesies usually extended in
this medium to former American presidents, addressing them either as
president or former president, not as ex-president… construed here as if
having been impeached or forced to resign. This was an uncalled
for insult tendered on perhaps the most decent, moral and fair-minded
president in recent times, if not in the history of this nation.
It should come out loud and clear as to what this newspaper’s advocacy
is.
The following day a story appeared in this same newspaper which brings
to light the constant occurrences which take place with our politicians
as they knowingly or unwittingly put to a test their respect for any one
of three subjects in America’s political trinity. In this case,
Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley, one of several Democrats contending
for that party’s nomination to run against incumbent Senator Gordon
Smith next November, was said to be caught in the Mideast debate as he
returned a $2,300 donation to his campaign given last month by Hala
Gores, a Palestinian-American attorney, and pro-Palestinian activist,
who presumably was told by Merkley:” I don’t know if I am doing the
right thing or the wrong thing. I want to win.”
Although Merkley denies having said that, indications are that he did.
Soon afterwards, he presented a position paper on the “US-Israel
Partnership” at the request of, yes, the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee, unmistakably advocating a pro-Israel stance, a position much
different from that transmitted months before to a gathering of Oregon
Palestinians where he had expressed sympathy, according to The
Oregonian, for the suffering of the Palestinians caused by the Israeli
military forces. Needless to say, AIPAC appears to be mute on the
subject. And so it goes throughout the US…
We wonder where the US may have gone astray in both its politics and
foreign policy… yet it is right in front of our noses. Where much
of the world sees the need to place controls on a menacing corporate
world, America frees it to operate in its predatory ways, often even
subsidizing it to do so. Where there is a tendency in the world to
reach to each other and slowly start to become our brother’s keeper,
America renders cult to the worst vices of individualism: impiety and
greed. And where the world wants to put to an end to a six-decade
hostility pitting Israelis and Palestinians, and do it in a fair and
long-lasting way, America just follows the dictates of Israel to have
the upper hand in any prospective negotiations.
When will America come to its senses and scrap this inhumane dogma of
its political trinity, and treat it for what it is… heresy to
brotherhood and peace? Not soon enough!
Ben Tanosborn
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