Interesting that the only voice for peace in the United States Senate is a single GOP member, Rand Paul.  Although Bernie Sanders voted against the “sanctions” bill against the Russian Federation, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the People’s Republic of Korea, he did so only because of concerns over the Iran nuclear deal, a good point, but it left him right in the middle of the ludicrous pro-nouveaux Cold War coalition, our only example of bipartisan politics (other than with respect to Congressional pay raises).

For progressives hoping to change the Democratic Party from within this ought to be a resounding new tone in the wakeup alarm that’s been ringing for a very long time but the slumber the mainstream media has induced seems far more powerful than even the spell to which Sleeping Beauty was exposed.  What are the chances a Prince (or Princess) Charming will come calling to wake us?  Say a Hindu princess perhaps, a war-veteran-against-war with golden oak leaves on her shoulders blended into full progressive-issue credentials?  Alas, Tulsi Gabbard too has succumbed to the power pipers’ lures so now that long-shot chance too appears almost non-existent (see https://allthehypocrisy.com/why-i-can-no-longer-support-tulsi-gabbard/).  The power of politics to corrupt seems as overwhelming as ever (picture five-hundred-and-thirty some odd smirking faces).

Of course, the “Times They Are A’ Changing” ought to be echoing in the “Blowing Winds”.  GOP voters ought to be furious at GOP Congressional ineptitude and progressives ought to be at least as angry over all things to do with the Democratic (War) Party.  One might think that would be enough to fan whatever embers of democracy haven’t been extinguished by “mainstream media piss” into flames of new political movements and parties.  What if some were serious, on the left, the right, the center and the fringes, and not only established new socio-econo-political organizations but drafted the actual legislation they would introduce on day one, pre-agreed to among their members and binding on their candidates, and proposed it for comments and amendments to the United States electorate right now, not just before an election when it would be pragmatically improbable to evaluate, but now, so that electors would have a chance to brace themselves against the inevitable mainstream media fear tsunamis against any change in the status quo ante.

Our fate has always been in our own hands, should we ever get up the courage to reject our lesser evils syndrome affliction and decide that fool me twenty-five-thousand-three hundred-and–eight-five times is enough shame “on them” and that for a long, long time, the shame has really been “on us”.  But a day will come when it is really too late for required changes and given the unidirectional nature of time as we know it, that day keeps getting closer and closer, faster and faster, and the probability smells like it will have come and gone without our noticing it: our collective point of no return with the four horseman of the Apocalypse collecting their bets and tuning their horns.

The following article by Caitlin Johnstone is, as is frequently the case, right on point (see https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/did-anyone-in-washington-ask-you-if-you-wanted-a-new-cold-war-771929e938e6) and will probably, as is now all too often the case, result in a barrage of personal insults against her by “more professional” pundits.  “How dare she opine and even worse, opine effectively”?  As if in any democracy valid and well-articulated opinions, analysis and warnings were unavailable to We the People everywhere.  The purity of the critics’ hubris seems almost Clintonian.  I wonder when “they” (the ubiquitous “they) will find Caitlin “deplorable”?  In this instance Caitlin’s perspective is reinforced by another excellent article by Michael Tracey (see https://medium.com/theyoungturks/without-debate-conformist-politicians-ramp-up-the-new-cold-war-7f6fbe846281).  It is, of course also reinforced by our own common sense, should we care to exercise it.

They (another “they” probably, I think this “they” were ancient Orientals, inscrutable perhaps) say that the “longest journey starts with but a single step”, but of course, the corollary to that is that one never gets anywhere by standing still.

Haven’t way too many of us been standing still for way too long?
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© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2017; all rights reserved.  Please feel free to share with appropriate attribution.

Guillermo Calvo Mahé is a writer, political commentator and academic currently residing in the Republic of Colombia although he has primarily lived in the United States of America (of which he is a citizen).  Until recently he chaired the political science, government and international relations programs at the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales.  He has academic degrees in political science (the Citadel), law (St. John’s University), international legal studies (New York University) and translation studies (the University of Florida’s Center for Latin American Studies).  He can be contacted at wacalvo3@autonoma.edu.co or guillermo.calvo.mahe@gmail.com and much of his writing is available through his blog at http://www.guillermocalvo.com.