League of Democracies, "Knowledgeable Ignorance", and Obama's 'racist' speech

For those of you interested in American Politics and International Affairs, I would like to bring your attention to the new liberal Republican or a ‘Wolf in Sheep’s clothing: Senator John McCain. We all know he hasn’t been readily received by the Christian right but what do we make of him now that he has outlined his approach to US foreign policy under his administration? With the bickering between the Democrats and Senator Obama’s racist?(I’ll explain that later) speech, Senator McCain is slowly positioning himself to be viewed as the conservative brand of ‘change’ most Republicans might be able to stomach.

In a recent article published by the Financial Times Senator McCain outlined some key points of his foreign policy agenda. I will analyze a few of his statements, showing the positive and negative effects these policies, if enacted, will have on the US and other nation-states.

As Merryl Wyn Davies and Ziauddin Sardar pointed out in Why Do People Hate America?, the majority of US citizens have adopted “knowledgeable ignorance” as an ideological barrier, that is to say, these citizens may sense that something they know is false or at least half-baked but insist on using their belief in half-truths to support their ignorance of the whole truth. Put another way, many Americans find it difficult to accept responsibility for their government’s malfeasance. But woeful pride demands a price, one that Senator McCain has hinted he is not willing to buy outright, but he might consider leasing it according to his article.

Many American Muslims and Jews, and others, especially citizens with substantial ties abroad have know that anti-Americanism goes far beyond Islamist political terrorism and the Middle East and is not only found in countries such as Cuba, Venezuela, Russia and China, but rears its ‘evilness’ in France, Australia, Britain and Germany as well. In all of these places anti-Americanism existed for quite some time and has increased in the post 9/11 world. This is happening in the West despite many of these countries collaborating with the US to combat Islamist political terror. To drive home the point, it is not just ordinary citizens of Europe and Canada that are growing despondent with the United States, but governments as well and Senator McCain just stepped into the limelight by acknowledging the rift. Take a look at some key statements from the senator:

On the need to cooperate with other democracies he states,

“Together we can tackle the diverse challenges we face…”

He goes on to add, “But the key word is ‘together’. We need to renew and revitalize our democratic solidarity. We need to strengthen our transatlantic alliance as the core of a new global compact-a League of Democracies…to defend our shared interests”. This League of Democracies surely cannot have the same pitfalls of the League of Nations, or can it? Here McCain revealed that the US has pursued an autonomous strategy in world affairs by devaluing the transatlantic alliance. Europeans have been yelling this loudly for the last few years.

He also said, “We need to listen to the views and respect the collective will of our democratic allies” quietly acknowledging that the US has not been listening. Again, this is no secret to anyone outside of the US so Europeans and the EU in particular are two for two so far. But wait, Senator McCain also said, “We will try to persuade our friends that we are right….” So much for the new policy. The US has always held the line that it was right and has never admitted being wrong even when the whole world knew it. However he does follow up with, “But we, in return, must also be willing to be persuaded by them”.

I would not hold my breath for this. If, and by the time Senator McCain assumes the presidency, relations may have soured to a point where even democratic governments may simply relegate the US to the sidelines for a breather. Faced with pressure to remove troops from Iraq only to redeploy them to Afghanistan or engage Iran and clawing to repair a faltering economy, many of America’s allies stand the chance to gain valuable playing time on a team lead by one franchise player. The allies may just decide to save their MVP for the playoffs.

I will continue on Senator McCain’s position later.

Now on to the claim of Senator Obama’s speech being racist.

As quickly as I can I would like to explain that Obama’s speech, while not racist, has begun to be perceived as racist. After all, the new racist (according to some) is anyone who brings up race. In my experience it has become the new charge of white males leveled at Blackamerican men anytime the latter attempt to address issues of race even without discussing racism. One of the messages apparently missed or ignored by mainstream media was Obama’s call to White America to stop denying America’s past and present racist underpinnings. Jamerican Muslimah recently wrote about misuse of the phrase ‘race card’. What is odd is that in order for many events, statements, ideologies, etc., to be rightly considered racist, they must be accepted as racist in the minds of Whites. More often than not, if Whites cannot agree that a group of people suffer from racism they must be suffering from something else, but never is it racism. Even White feminists whom argue (and I concur) that it is inhumane for a woman to receive her husband’s approval to seek medical attention resort to polemical debates when discussing the claims of Blacks against white superiority totally negating the beautiful argument of experientialism they adhere to for a woman’s anatomical, physiological pain. Calling Blacks racist because they discuss race is the flip side of the same coin with the words, “get over it” imprinted there. A lot of people do not want to recognize that it is going to take more than a Black guy ‘kicking it’ to a fat-booty White girl to fix our tattered society. Don’t blame Obama or his former pastor.

In an email not too long ago I wrote that Whites suffer from the psychological ramifications of slavery as well; they haven’t proved me wrong yet and if by denying it they say they are non-complicit, denial only makes them prone to it.

I will wrap up with an idea I started with, that of ‘knowledgeable ignorance’.

We Americans will be complicit in our own demise if we cannot look at our own disgusting, mangled reflections in the mirror. The Bush administration, along with the media, has allowed us to cozy-up in warm-blankets of stupidity. Instead of answering the question “Why do people hate us?” with real in-depth, thought-provoking answers, we have been told that terrorists hate us for our freedoms and way of life, that they despise democracy and promote tyranny in the world. But Evangelical Christians know these ideological terrorists’ buckets hold a lot of water in fact. I will not delve into foreign matters, but if you speak with Evangelicals, many of them long for the days of the 50s and 60s, less of course, the Jack Kerouac’s of the world. Many of us know the demographic landscape of the US has changed, and while we are fine with that, almost every level-headed American over thirty or thirty-five wishes to see America return to civility. Some of the terrorists make fun of us because we pay a hefty price to send our kids off to college to major in Alcoholism, drugs and sex. We hand over megabucks to what used to be artists to reveal Britney’s secret. We clumsily argue against the polygamist terrorist when a little over half of our marriages end in divorce due to infidelity. Bin Laden was wrong to try to recruit Blackamericans to do his bidding but he used America’s historic treatment of Blacks as bait. Luckily many of us love our country or at least our hoods, too much to do something so horrible. But when are we going to address our real issues collectively? That warm blanket of stupidity is electric and the bill has not been paid.