A great article from the progressive writer Glenn Greenwald. Reading his work give me hope that there are some serious journalists left! (I don’t agree with all of Greenwald’s philosophy, but I greatly respect him for his viewpoints, honesty, and hard-core defense of liberty)
Progressives and the Ron Paul fallacies – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com
my snippets:
America’s election season degrades mainstream political discourse even beyond its usual lowly state. The worst attributes of our political culture — obsession with trivialities, the dominance of horserace “reporting,” and mindless partisan loyalties — become more pronounced than ever. Meanwhile, the actually consequential acts of the U.S. Government and the permanent power factions that control it — covert endless wars, consolidation of unchecked power, the rapid growth of the Surveillance State and the secrecy regime, massive inequalities in the legal system, continuous transfers of wealth from the disappearing middle class to large corporate conglomerates — drone on with even less attention paid than usual.
Because most of those policies are fully bipartisan in nature, the election season — in which only issues that bestow partisan advantage receive attention — places them even further outside the realm of mainstream debate and scrutiny. For that reason, America’s elections ironically serve to obsfuscate political reality even more than it usually is.
…
I’m about to discuss the candidacies of Barack Obama and Ron Paul, and no matter how many times I say that I am not “endorsing” or expressing support for anyone’s candidacy, the simple-minded Manicheans and the lying partisan enforcers will claim the opposite.
…
the point that she’s making is important, if not too subtle for the with-us-or-against-us ethos that dominates the protracted presidential campaign: even though I don’t support him for President, Ron Paul is the only major candidate from either party advocating crucial views on vital issues that need to be heard, and so his candidacy generates important benefits.
“Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!” — this is a battle cry for socialism, as far as I can tell. Socialism sounds great to people who don’t seem to process that fact that it can only be implemented by the use of force. (unless you are talking about forming an all-voluntary group of socialist, which is only possible in a libertarian environment)
