The U.S. Elections and the culture of death

[mary_j_59]

Like millions of my fellow citizens, I am going to vote in a couple of days. A priest in a church I visited said a couple of very wise things about the election. He said:
1. There is no candidate who truly represents Catholic social teaching and/or the morality of the peoples of the book.
2. Our fellow citizens, whomever they support, are not the enemy. They are our countrymen and women, and our brothers and sisters.

I think it's very important to remember both these things, but I'm going to focus here on the first. As much as they may seem to differ on the surface, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have some core similarities. Both are servants of Empire and its wars. In this way, both are strongly opposed to the way I see the world.

I don't think it's possible for me to say anything about the Donald that hasn't already been said. He's simply appalling. The way he's whipping up racist, anti-immigrant, anti-democratic feelings is truly frightening, and I'm simply incredulous that the man has gotten as far as he has.

Hillary Clinton is a neoliberal, closely allied with the neocons. I can well understand voters who will hold their noses and vote for her. I can even understand my fellow women cheering her on. But-

Like Trump, she is a millionaire, and is beholden to wealthy corporations. Like him, she advocates violence. She is friendly with Netanyahu, who is, I believe, a war criminal. She is arguably a war criminal herself for what she has done to Libya, Syria, and Honduras. She supports the TPP, or did until Bernie Sanders urged her not to and she realized how unpopular it was with the electorate. She supports fracking. For what she did as Secretary of State, I highly recommend Diana Johnstone's Queen of Chaos. This book doesn't pretend to be objective, which some readers have rightly pointed out is a weakness. But it is thorough and clear, and it presents a point of view you won't often get from our mainstream media.

But Hillary's still the lesser of two evils, right? Well-possibly. I think she may actually be more likely than Trump to get us into a prolonged quagmire in the Middle East (not that we aren't already in one) or, God forbid, even a proxy war with Russia. Domestically, I believe she has supported austerity programs, and, as I said before, she does support fracking. She has had nothing at all to say on the brave battle of the Lakota people to preserve their water and their sacred lands at Standing Rock.

Many women support her because she supports abortion. That's a difficult issue, and I don't want to go into it here at any length. Whether or not the child in the womb is fully a person, and when the child achieves personhood, is a matter of spiritual belief. It's wrong to trample on others' beliefs, but it's also wrong, in a pluralistic democracy, to impose one's beliefs on others. It's probably best not to say more than this for now.

Getting back to my main point, to a greater or lesser degree, both the major candidates are tools of the military industrial complex. Both are servants of empire. I object to both of them on these grounds. I will, of course, vote. I'd be remiss not to. But it's absolutely true that neither one of these people represents my values. If you have to choose between these two candidates, it won't be an easy choice.

I would like to add that there are other choices.

Comments

[vermouth1991.livejournal.com]

I will join in on the conversation in Ms Terri's posts when I can have the time, but right now I must say that it's very, very refreshing for me to see this kind of female perspective. Or maybe not even that, just a very independent perspective that happens to be from a woman. The past few months I've been looking at a too narrow corner of the Internet and social media (radical liberal feminists who'd ostensibly embrace freer, more open sexual lifestyles but at the same breath proudly wear the word "misandrist" around their necks) and almost despaired because they'd have you believe that H.C. is the second coming.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Thanks! As I said, I CAN understand young women, in particular, who are cheering Hillary Clinton on just because she's a woman. But I think it's shortsighted of them. We should look at her platform in its entirety, not just at the fact that she supports reproductive rights for women. As others have said, to brown-skinned women all over the world, Hillary Clinton has brought death and loss. And I think she will continue to do so.

Well, I just voted. Turnout is high, which rather surprises me; these are the most unpopular candidates ever, IMHO. I know my candidate will not win, but I voted my conscience. I also, as far as possible, split my vote, and even wrote in a candidate! We'll see what happens.

[elanor-x.livejournal.com]

\\ I think she may actually be more likely than Trump to get us into a prolonged quagmire in the Middle East (not that we aren't already in one) or, God forbid, even a proxy war with Russia.

Another perspective:

\\ President Trump will have to begin destroying the institutions of American democracy—not because they get in the way of anything specific he wants to do, like build the wall (though he will probably have moved on to something else by that point), but because they are an obstacle to the way he wants to do them. A fascist leader needs mobilization. The slow and deliberative passage of even the most heinous legislation is unlikely to supply that. Wars do, and there will be wars. These wars will occur both abroad and at home. They will make us wish that Trump really were Putin’s agent: at least then there would be no threat of nuclear war.

http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/07/26/trump-putin-fallacy-failure-of-imagination/

AND

"Returning home to Trump Tower from the White House may not be Mr. Trump’s only embrace of the familiar. His aides say he has also expressed interest in continuing to hold the large rallies that were a staple of his candidacy. He likes the instant gratification and adulation that the cheering crowds provide, and his aides are discussing how they might accommodate his demand."

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Oh, now that's scary. I honestly never thought Trump would be elected, and I, too, can see the resemblances to Hitler, especially in the way he's appealed deliberately to anger and racism. Ugh!

I would not have been thrilled with Hillary Clinton, but I was resigned to keeping a close eye on her and supporting my peace groups, etc. Now? Of course, I'lll be doing the same , but the Lord alone knows if it will make any difference. I'm scared. And I truly never thought it would come to this pass.