02/10/08 :: [Other] How?  [permalink]

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As a foreigner living in the United States, I have no say in American elections. So I just have questions -as usual :-)

Stefan posted an interesting point of view favoring Obama over Clinton.

First, I'd like to say that as a European I believe in a strong America. I believe so much in this position that I came here to contribute to it. I am not sure as a young nation the United States have always matched their power with wisdom, but this is for another debate.

Over the last 8 years, the United States have weakened considerably, tremendously, tragically, financially, militarily, economically and to a certain degree scientifically. 

America is indeed the land of opportunities and not connections. I was brought to this country by Hughes Aircraft to work on my dream project -without any connection. Never France had given me this kind of opportunity. Never. And I did things for Hughes that some professor from CU had proven theoretically impossible. Before that I was a graduate student at Penn State in the late 80s and there again, I had the freedom to think and do what I wanted. There was no barriers, there was no irony, only results and papers. It's ok to be different here. In France during my Ph.D. I was an alien. I was the first student in my lab to actually "type" his thesis (on a Mac). I also wrote all kinds of software during my Ph.D. one of them became a commercial software (that went on to be bought by the Fusion Reactor research lab in Provence and other research labs around the world). That drew some irony, here people would have seen it simply as successful research.

Obama may well be one of the most brilliant proof that as long as you can do the job, you are in, regardless of your (modest) origins, wealth, religion, gender and other attributes that some people like to consider.

This country has proven beyond reasonable doubt that freedom is what makes the world better. The freedom to think, the freedom to live your life following your own beliefs and the freedom to pursue your dreams. I was once very proud that my children were American.

Yet, this country has changed so much in the last 8 years, that I have trouble to think I believe what I have heard and seen. For someone who boarded Flight AA11 less than a month before it crashed in the World Trade Center, I have trouble to think that this event alone changed America in this direction.

I mean who would have thought that a candidate to an American presidential election would answer the question about why he would not withdraw from the race since he had no chance to win by: "I did not major in Math, I majored in Miracles".

Who would have thought that after the superbowl a receiver would explain, on the evening news, his miraculous catch with the intervention of God. You mean God watches the superbowl? he actually intervened to pick the winner?  In the past people talked about angels. Nowadays, this is so passé, you want the boss.

Who would have thought that ET Magazine at 7:30 in the evening would explain how water boarding torture works, just like it was a new form of entertainment?

I don't listen to NPR any more because way back in 2003 as I was driving to work, I was sickened by their call to a "just war" that would "fix the middle east" once and for all and "ensure America's security". In 2006, with inquisition style techniques the same journalists, with the same voices, were grilling senators who had voted for the war. But where was the press in 2003? Where was America then? Debating over how we should rename French Fries of course.

I feel today that America, in little under 8 years, has not just lost its mind, it lost its soul, it lost its sense of direction and purpose. And I am worried, extremely worried for the future -of not just America.

Most worrisome of all is that the presidential  debate is replaced by a "party", almost a "craze" fueled by Web 2.0 (SOA seems to be out of the plot). I am extremely disturbed by Lawrence Lessig's presentation.  I am deeply and totally disturbed that few of the candidates are laying out their vision for returning America its leadership. I am deeply and totally disturbed that no-one (I really mean not enough people) in the United States seem to care to listen about what their candidates will do. Sarkozy in France was elected on very specific policies. Of course, no one could predict that his personal life could interfere so much, but this is another story.

Larry Lessig actually evacuates the policy question as fallaciously as insidiously as possible in a couple of sentences:

I know [Obama's] technology policies and they are quite good.

Policy Differences are quite small, the NY Times says there is no real gulf separating the two. [i.e. If you like Clinton's policy you will like Obama's].

On policy alone there is no reason to choose one of the other. There are things that are more important than a laundry list of policies...

Larry Lessig's Web 2.0 stunt uses the "Roveanism" argument to kill any debate. I know questions are often a problem in a world where science has made so much progress, has created so much understanding. Often people don't like questions because it tarnishes their little, otherwise perfect, scenario. But Larry is worse than Carl Rove, because Rove was not about shutting down debates, he was about weaknesses and strengths. Larry, in a post-Rovean style, is about killing the debate altogether. There is no need to understand what a president will do, it is just as good as any other. Did he really mean that just by re-naming a  President, like someone renamed French Fries, things will all the sudden be better?

I am sorry to say that an average American is far, extremely far from understanding the policies that each candidate will apply, either by reading the press or by watching TV.

So, I just have a few questions to the candidates.

  • What will be your energy policy? and more generally what will be your policies towards natural resources?
  • What will you change in the way the markets operate?
  • What are your priorities to respond to the needs of your citizen?
  • What will be your plan to lower inequalities in America and in the world?
  • How do you plan to end the occupation of Irak in a way that will keep or increase the region's stability?

If the candidate can't answer these questions satisfatorily, he or she will be asked to say "I am not smarter than George Bush" (which probably will remain in history as the worst possible president).

We deeply and totally need somebody real, like real.

America has lost its freedom.