Arab Americans Blog مدونة عرب أمريكا

US Elections: Opportunity or Gamble

It is election season, once again. Perhaps this election means to America and Americans more than any other election in US history, for the simple reason that it may be the last election held while the US is the only superpower on the globe.

Many of us are so angry with our current and past leadership that we no longer favor a superpower status that we only exploited to wage wars and spread havoc and mayhem in many parts of the world. Some of us believe that havoc and mayhem or chaos, as Condoleezza Rice likes to call it, is just fine as long as it is far from our shores. But one thing we all share and we can all agree on, that we can no longer continue to live the way we do.

Years ago, as we were amassing armies to invade other countries, preemptively and based on false presumptions, we assumed that we had nothing to lose as we kept our sight on Iraqi oil we thought we could just seize. The most pessimistic of us thought that even if our wars turned into bungled adventures, somebody else in the future would just pay for our screw ups.

Well, the day came when we all could not help but smell the coffee and we all got our wake up call, and the day is here. Indeed, the wars we got ourselves into are here to stay and may not go before we go as a superpower. But it is the debt on our resources that turned us from a nation with trillions in surplus to a nation with many more trillions in debt, mostly to powers that are about to dethrone us from world supremacy, that is most disconcerting. This only means that our resources for generations to come are mortgaged to nations who were eager to do just that. And with our leadership in both the White House and congress who just kept passing one bill of spending after another, we have no one to blame but the leadership and those who elected them, and that is us.

However, if we look at the candidates from this perspective, we can clearly distinguish between those who are part of the problem and those who are not. Let us examine each candidate and sort them in terms of their record of responsibility.

First, we start with a candidate who runs on the credential of being a hero in a war that America turned against and the world declared as genocidal. We can support our troops all we want, but it does not change the fact that while many joined the army as the only choice to get ahead, some have in fact joined for their blood thirst. Some of the latter were convicted and some are on trial for some of the most despicable crimes we have ever heard of.

Well, we can all be sure that McCain was not in Vietnam on humanitarian mission. That does not leave him with much credential, does it? Particularly that he continues to carry his war mongering banner without accepting responsibility to what war has done to us.

Then we have Hillary. Now let me start by saying that I have known Hillary over the years and I did like much of what she stood for and represented. However, I do not like what politics and Washington has done to her. Hillary did not stay clear from what politics does to the person. What politics did to Hillary for the sake of getting elected to the Senate, and later on to keep her seat, is not what made us believe in her. If you add the war legacy of her biggest campaigner and husband, be it in Iraq, the Balkans, or needlessly bombing baby formula and pharmaceutical factories, then we all must feel the bitter taste of such a legacy. Let us all remember that sanctions on Iraq during Clinton’s presidency have left many more millions of dead babies than Bush’s atrocious war. Hillary’s record in support of the war agenda hardly makes her a candidate of change. Granted that she may not be a bad president as far as our domestic agenda is concerned, but we no longer live in our bubble and whatever adventure we take across our border is already coming back to haunt us in our living rooms all over the country.

Then comes Barak Obama. I personally do not identify with some of his positions, particularly when it comes to foreign and Mid-East policies. I certainly do not think that he is the Messiah of American politics, nor do I think that he is a man of god, whatever that may mean. However, Obama is not a bi-product of our political factory and perhaps is the only candidate who is running on his own merits. Obama is not made by corporate America, by anybody’s political legacy or dynasty, nor does he have blood on his hands to wave in his campaign stops. What other candidates are holding against him are in fact the very reasons we should all vote for him. Obama may not be known to many of us, but that is why he represents hope to so many Americans. He is being attacked for lack of Washington and foreign policy experience. After all, aren’t we all looking for someone who is not tainted with dirty Washington games, or botched foreign policy and catastrophic wars? Furthermore, his relatively short record in public service does in fact exonerate him from being part of our failed conquests, a claim his opponents do not even dare to claim.

What this election boils down to is not making America greater or enforcing our status as a superpower. It is about “Not making Things Any Worse,” and paying the least price for the legacy we are left with. I, along with most fellow Americans, do not want to see America go down in the rank of nations, and we do not want to maintain our ranking in “most evil nations” either. Barak did speak for many of us and we did not all like some of what he had to say, but burying our heads in the sand, or some worse places for that matter, is not the answer either.

America does need to change simply because we cannot afford not to. Now we hope that this change does not make things any worse, which is the only way things are going if we do not change.

I have relentlessly fought for every American’s right to vote, but never voted myself just because I have yet to find a candidate that is good enough for my vote. If I break the rule this time around, it will be for one candidate and for a good reason. That reason would be the love I have for the place where I first came to life. My vote would be for the one who I know does not love my country any less. I will vote for the only candidate who represents change.