Holding onto a Dream OR Holding Forth on a Nightmare?
I'm going to stick my neck out and make a prediction. You heard it first on This Ain't My First Rodeo [and on the Wayne Madsen Report]
The Clintons have stuck it out this long
and common sense itself now demands that Hillary drops from the race on
behalf of party unity. But, if I read them correctly, the Clintons have
always been closer to the neocon "middle" than any other candidate.
Declaring themselves "New Democrats"
and racing everyone else to the middle was the strategy they used to
beat an incumbent Bush-41 in the wake of the conservative "Reagan
Revolution."
McCain has been nailed down on the far right, probably with the help of the Clintons in the back rooms. They are currently furiously working to associate him with the Reverend John Hagee, a right wing-nut. The country has had it with these hate-filled apocalyptic Dominionists who have sold their populist souls to the elite corporatists of "the Military-industrial Complex."
We've all figured out by now they are not really even "Christian," at least in the ancient foundations they themselves would have a revivalist America focus upon -- they
are Zealots, the chief rivals of early Christians who struggled to come
to terms with Roman occupation in the midsts of The Jewish Wars of
Zealot insurgency that led to the destruction of the Second Temple in
68 AD, followed by the Great Diaspora and the final stand of Zealot forces at Masada in the second century.
Early Christianity thus took hold among the Hellenized general diaspora
of Jews already scattered throughout the Roman Empire. Once the
decision was made to admit into full communion the Gentiles who had
already taken an interest in Judaism, the course for peace and
reconciliation with the reality of Rome's supremacy "in the world" was
set. The next stage of development, in the face of the persecutions,
occurred when the Christianized diaspora began to distance themselves
from the the Jews of the homeland whose Zealot insurrections they saw
as the cause of their persecutions as Jews. This began with the efforts
of Paul to convince Nero that the Christians were of a different
character and that they intended to remain "subject to the higher
authorities." St. Paul never saw the affects of his writing;
nevertheless, the final and complete severance from Judaism occurred in
the fourth century when Constantine declared of political
necessity,Christianity the religion of the realm without ever having
been baptized himself.
Stay with me; I'm not just bullshitting for the sake of bullshitting.
Any educated "Christian" knows full well that the Messiah was not a messiah of insurrection; he was "The Prince of Peace." So in reaction to the arch-conservative nationalism and triumphalism of right-wing Zealots such as Richard Land, Rev. John Hagee, Pat Robertson and the politicians who
have exploited them, there has emerged within the various populist
movements a pervasive ethical and religious ambiguity. This cultural
ambiguity can be summarized as a confusing mix of metaphors, for
example the leftest Christian view of "Washington-as-Rome" versus its
polar opposite in the left-wing Zealot black community, "Washington-as-Babylon" versus the extreme right-wing view that the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon
in Rome. To wit, any less strident, tolerant and ethically directed
notion of the historical and political role of Christianity in a
secular society has to come to terms with the democratic concept of
pluralism with its inclusive respect for both the inalienable
rights of the individual and minorities, as well as the safeguards
against the tyranny of the majority institutionalized in the
Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Opposing the ever
resurgent Theocracy sought by the Extreme Right from age to age, this
more Enlightened pluralistic view
of our forefathers moves the multifarious and contravening institutions
of religion which from time to time run afoul of Civil Liberties with
the best of intentions, to a more peripheral political role of
influence, while respecting their universal spiritual value, by
avoiding absolutist and authoritarian abuse in the nation's own state of affairs.
Theologically, if only for the sake of respite, we leave the Book of Revelations to the realm of the angles without forsaking the Gospels, we can acknowledge that mainstream Christianity represents The Kingdom of Heaven which is "IN the world but not OF the world."
The recognition of this universal spiritual principle calls us to an
altogether higher level of freedom. Subsequently, as the underlying
scriptural ambiguities brought to light by our contemporary "Culture
Wars" are worked through in the mainstream, the ongoing reconciliation
process is driving folks of all extremes back to a less
confrontational, less muscular Middle Way, to a place more in partnership with "the poor" and in identification with their suffering. Moreover, the traditional Christian
notions of community, compassion, reconciliation, surrender, conversion
at depth, spiritual growth and the longing for Peace -- The Way of Wisdom -- seem ever resilient in the face of such Zealotry as we have tolerated from the authoritarian
Right to the point of impatience. A coalition of human secularists with
mainstream Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Native American and various
"churched" and "unchurched" is beginning to emerge into a new
Progressivism and is drawing populists of every tradition back to that middle place.
And Here Waits the Clintons. Hillary is holding on, working the split within the Democratic Party
so that in September or early October she will have brought the nation
to the great political nexus that has been coming anyway.
The Independent Party candidate for 2008
who will win the presidency will be
Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The "October Surprise" of 2008
Independent Joe Lieberman will move quickly to endorse her followed by hundreds from both parties, perhaps even Rush Limbaugh who knows full well where his bread is buttered.
John McCain will go away into retirement exasperated and confused.
John Edwards will have recognized that holding off any endorsement of Obama was wise for him personally but traitorous to the cause of Progressivism. *The
only viable candidate with any chance of facing Clinton in 2012 will
come from a new Progressive Party, formed under resentment by minority
members and ideologically dedicated liberals who felt betrayed by a
Democratic Party turned "independent" who abdicated their economic and
social responsibilities to the people while appropriating the "Southern
Strategy" to maintain its hold on power.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.












