McCain offers nothing but fear itself

Fliers found on windows in Southern Indiana

It appears that in the end - in the final stretch before election day - all John McCain and Sarah Palin have left to offer is fear.

This weekend they have launched a massive campaign to get out the 'fear' vote. Fear that Obama is a terrorist. Fear that he is a 'scary Muslim.' Fear that he isn't an American. Fear that he will raise taxes, turn the entire country into a communist gulag, fear that he 'isn't like us' and therefore will betray the interests of white, fearful Midwesterners and Southerners.

It is a last ditch campaign of horror designed to divide and conquer along racial/urban lines that stretch back to the Civil War.

McCain has nothing to offer that any sane voting American would want -- that is, if he was open and out front with the real ramifications of his Bush-like, Neocon platform. McCain's health care plan would leave most of us uninsured by our employers and begging on the street when our houses are foreclosed on due to unpaid health care bills.

McCain is running only on his 'experience' as an absentee senator... and racist fear.

So this year, this election, we Americans have an amazing choice before us. We can choose the campaign of unity and hope... or the campaign of fear. It borders on the biblical. For most of us, the choice is obvious. We hope that it is obvious even to those who are - at this moment - being barraged with 'be afraid!' robocalls, virulent hate-radio announcers and nasty windshield leaflets.

FDR (that 'socialist' president who saved America during the Great Depression) once said "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." The same is true today. Let us hope that this is one lesson our grandparents did pass down to future generations of voting Americans.

May hope prevail.

FDR Fireside Chat: Economic Recovery Plan

This is what a president looks like.

"We are on our way, and we are headed in the right direction." - FDR



Note that FDR is halting family farm foreclosures. Bush hasn't lifted a finger to help the people being tossed out of their homes (and neither has congress.) It took an angry sheriff in Chicago to do that.

My God we need real leadership - compassionate leadership - in this country. In spite of everything that they went through... our grandparents were so lucky to have had a president like Roosevelt. I'm envious.

FDR Fireside Chat: Backing up the Banking System

Sarah Vowell (during her appearance on the Daily Show a few nights ago,) mentioned that she listens to FDR's fireside speeches on YouTube when she wants reassurance amidst this banking crisis. That seems like a pretty good idea.

"Together, we cannot fail." - FDR

Unlike our grandparents' generation, we are going through this financial crisis in a leadership vacuum; we're bailing out the Titanic after Wall Street CEOs have run off with the lifeboats, food, water and life jackets.

Where is our captain?



"We do not want, and will not have, another epidemic of bank failure." - FDR

What would FDR do?

How often I think of FDR in these dark times, and wonder what he'd be doing - and especially what he would be saying - if he was here today. FDR: of the 'we have nothing to fear but fear itself,' rather than George Bush's endless 'BE AFRAID' speeches, designed to facilitate the fleecing of the people.

FDR cared... about more than merely getting re-elected or running off with the nation's wealth. People respond to humanity and compassion in high office.

We've had some terrific presidents in our history. Somehow I doubt, with our current media and (broken) election process, that we'll see any true leaders in our near or maybe even distant future.

Maybe Obama. Maybe. If can un-glue his mind from delusions of empire, and recall what it once meant to be a Republic.

"And to the REPUBLIC for which it stands..." even our own flag doesn't recognize us anymore.

Here is an excerpt from "Franklin Roosevelt, a Nation Turns Its Lonely Eyes to You," by Michael Winship:

The President has seemed underinformed, disconnected and not, you should excuse the word, invested. In his address to the nation Wednesday evening, he said that the government was blameless for the financial crisis; it had done what it was supposed to do but had been victimized by overseas lenders, greedy banks and Americans taking on more credit than they could carry. And as he has done too often before, he tried to make us afraid.

"The government's top economic experts warn that without immediate action by Congress, America could slip into a financial panic, and a distressing scenario would unfold." President Bush said. "More banks could fail, including some in your community. The stock market would drop even more, which would reduce the value of your retirement account. The value of your home could plummet. Foreclosures would rise dramatically. And if you own a business or a farm, you would find it harder and more expensive to get credit. More businesses would close their doors, and millions of Americans could lose their jobs."

Contrast what he had to say with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he was sworn into office for the first time, in 1933, during the Great Depression. Rather than foster anxiety and panic, FDR proclaimed, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," despite the fact that 13 million were unemployed, nine million had lost their savings and a quarter of the banks had closed. Wages had plummeted 60 percent. "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" is the phrase that everyone remembers, but here's a little more of what FDR had to say:

"This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure, as it has endured, will revive and will prosper ...

"In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunk to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income ... More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment ...

"The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of that restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit ... If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize, as we have never realized before, our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take, but we must give as well."

Read the rest

And what about the rest of us?

Obama demonstrates leadership... but can he grow into an FDR?
(We're going to need one soon.)



Obama:

"For too long this administration has been willing to hit the fast-forward button in helping distressed Wall Street firms while pressing pause when it comes to saving jobs and keeping people in their homes," he said.

He also said he did not want to see assistance for irresponsible CEOs, lenders, and shareholders who "were enjoying the upside when the times were good."

"We don't want bailouts of folks who have been making bad decisions," he said. "But what we also want to make sure of is the economic system as a whole continues and ordinary people are able to wake up on Monday and keep doing what they've been doing."