With 1776, the choices were clear – make this our land or continue living as a British province. On both sides, there were as many justifications given to be for or against Independence as there are bloggers’ views. The period ,even with dearth of media then, was just as confusing – with apologists for the status quo pooh-poohing a brewing revolution against colonialism. Although the enemy was external, the battle for a changing mindset was very much an internal revolution.
With that issue laid to rest with the War of Independence without so much of a Brit jolly-good pat in the back and good luck to you, Americans next faced another internal revolution with its own civil war - the Northern vs. the Southern brothers hiding the face of an Industrial Revolution that needed freed slaves as workers. The spirit of equality that was suppose to have fueled the changing mindset for this revolution needed a series of reminders in the civil rights movement that later followed.
The changed anti-colonial stance of the US made it a advantaged player in beckoning the independence movements of emerging states in the wars of liberation against the colonial powers. Was this another hidden agenda – freed states as future markets for the 2nd Industrial revolution ? Other emerging world forces then, the old U.S.S.R and Soviet blocs thought so, and offered the world a radical alternative. So radical that with time, the “ideal state” itself, withered away – deserted by its inhabitants who, one by one , voted with their feet to reshape a new map of emerging states within the European continent – states that look up from their new European home and wondered if indeed, the rest of the world is shaped by America, the victor of the last two World Wars.
Then came ,initially unnoticed, another revolution from without – a movement that utilized as its fuel, the Wahabi ideology of a world religion, Islam. Unnoticed until it delivered the first terrorist assault of military significance on American soil in 9/11, the terrorists sought to give a defiant answer to the lingering question – is the world shaped by America? Should America shape the world? Was this again the first in a series of reminders from aggrieved or disenfranchised states (or states-to-be) of the supposed spirit of the wars of independence that preceded them? Or is this another radical alternative that would , by the nature of its radicalism, wither away?
How do the ghosts of these past revolutions haunt us right now ? Isn’t this election simply a Republican-Democrat duel ? You know, Liberal vs Neocons? There really has been a lot of labels thrown from both sides of the electoral camp. Texan twang vs. Boston accent? Rednecks for Bush or Perverts for Kerry? At the end of the day, the American voter would see through all these petty superficialities. Thanks to the net and media accessibility, there will emerge, more than any election in the past, a revolution in the mindset for the American voter. There will be crossing of the lines where voters will start thinking not as Republicans or Democrats but as Americans. NRAs and military won’t confine themselves to strait-jacketed thinking about their choice. Religious as Americans may be (according to European journalists, there are more church-goers in the US than in Europe) they will mature in the thinking that loyalty to this country doesn’t really mean disobedience to their God. Every voter will think about what has happened – about what’s happening, think about their families and this country, its role in the world and the future and decide if he wants to change its course in history.
Dictators and would-be dictators all over the world have scratched their heads as they watched the presidential debates where they saw the contenders for the most powerful seat in the world shake hands and exchange pleasantries and go after each other orally on issue after issue. They even saw Sen. Kerry addressing his opponent as “Mr. President, sir..”, probably in fits of frustration, saying to themselves, ”Why don’t you just get hold of the army and get it over with ?” Imams in Iran would be watching skeptically and be thinking how they would come across in a democratic election. (How do you debate matters of faith?) They would also be in the lookout for pitfalls in the electoral process (disenfranchisement of voters, questionable computer supervision on vote counts and the necessity for legal bodies to intervene on the poll counts), and point these out to the world as proof that one can never unseat an incumbent democratically since he has the resources in his hand. Will the process turn foul? Will American voters prove them wrong?
If there was one effective weapon against terrorism to showcase, it wouldn’t be the latest stealth bomber, it would be that of our democratic elections – successfully held. So far, the process has turned out well. But we can never exorcise the demons of Terrorism by producing the bestiality of Abu Graith or the horrors of military misadventures like Iraq. History has shown that answering radicalism with more radicalism becomes, in the long run, a fruitless undertaking. We never were a radical country – revolutionary maybe, but not radical. No country can challenge our resolve and capability at defending our own security but, when we do recognize a crucial fault in our defense strategy , we do what we have to do to fix it. Right now, the survival of our nation depends on having a change of Commander-in-Chief. We are given this single chance of voting him out of office. Can we do this despite the resources of media being largely influenced by a well-funded sitting president? As is the expected ammunition of threatened establishments, ,there will always be the "trending "statistics being innocently filtered out to the public to break the will of the faint-hearted (undecided) to remind them that any attempt at at a change of the status quo is futile.
Will this electoral tactic still work this time ?
First things first. We have to attend to serious housecleaning first before we can see the changes we want in our country. We only have this chance to do it and we’ve got to do it right, unless we want the spirits of those past revolutions haunting us. See you at the polls!
