Because We Let Them
I have to remind myself that Margo Kingston isn’t talking about me or even about the majority of my compatriots when “the Americans” are condemned for the war crimes taking place in Iraq, but rather about my country’s present government and the military and its subcontractors who are actually perpetrating such acts, most probably with at least the tacit approval of the Secretary of Defense. I have to remind myself that the point of her 9 May article is in its headline: ”Howard’s Weakness, Our Danger”. The final paragraph is worth reading alone:

“You know how they get away with it? Because we, the people, let them. In the end, Bush, Blair and Howard invaded Iraq because our democracies were not strong enough to stop them. Blame politicians, blame the media and blame ourselves. The question for all of us, after we purge Australia of this weak, amoral excuse for a leader, is to work out how we can ensure we never let any "leader" do this to us again.”

Yes, that’s right, we only have ourselves to blame. Because in America only a tiny fraction bothers to vote, let alone run for office, because we’ve let running for office become such a burden that only the smallest number of good, thoughtful people can afford the time and expense to rise high enough in the system to get a shot, while a larger number of greedy climbers intent on achieving power either to fulfill a bloated egotism or line their pockets do the same but through patronage and pork-barrelling, and we let that continue. In America we continue the myth that every child can be President, that everything is possible for everybody if they just work hard enough, and that just isn’t so. We continue this myth and turn a blind eye to the social ills that fill our military with the desperate and the deranged and fill our jails with the same, unless they end up in homeless shelters. Because we let all that happen, we can only blame ourselves that George W. Bush is President and has filled his Cabinet with demagogues and pursued his megalomaniacal path to war.

What happened to Great Britain, to Tony Blair? Last I saw he was their Clinton, but with the ascension of Bush II he has grown to resemble nothing so much as a lapdog, one with the sagging physiognomy of a particularly beleaguered bloodhound, too. Are the pictures lies, and can Blair survive following America into this war? He, too, has an electorate that cares little for its responsibility and pursues an isolationist relativism toward its neighbors, exemplified by the inane opposition it mounted to the Chunnel before it opened and its continued reluctance to participate in even Europe’s monetary unification.

And what of Australia? Here the vote is compulsory, yet even after the Patricks scandal and the Tampa John Howard’s government has now run the country for nine years. He’s the Teflon PM it seems, unless this year proves his annus horribilis, as it has for the Iraqis. (Perhaps by claiming for his government the status of “underdog” as he did this week, he’s gone too early into trying for the sympathy of the Aussie battlers, but only time will tell – with the latest poll numbers coming out in opposition to the budget, maybe he’ll deserve the identification.) How does a nation re-elect the Liberals who gutted their social welfare system, who lied and still lie, who dragged their country into an unpopular war despite mass rallies and protests? How can this happen with compulsory voting? Easy: just because you have to vote doesn’t mean you have to think about what you’re doing. It’s easy to pick up a ballot and “vote 1.” Easier than using the preferences system to your advantage instead of letting the politicians manipulate it to their own. And they’re the same, the Australian politicians, as they are in America, the same hoards of climbers and graspers (and, yes, the same principled individuals few in number).

Here, there, the vote is coming, and we have the advantage a lot of other countries don’t. We can have a revolution without resorting to violence; we can vote out the unprincipled, the lazy, the ineffective, the ones without the long-term vision and the stamina to pursue a course of action more befitting the advance of civilization we want. Other countries claim “democratic” status for themselves but suspend their constitutions while a military dictatorship or propped-up feudal tyranny turns its constituency upside down and shakes out its pockets. Get rid of Bush, get rid of Howard. If America is going to be the sole superpower, it needs to use its power for good, not greed. If Australia is going to be a leading democratic power, its got to do so with a good hard look at where it sits in the world. Tony Blair should be lining up a replacement, too; one who can put that nation back on track after the damage Blair’s done by following Bush instead of influencing him, as he’d said he could.