The “Real America” Is Not at the Party Conventions

As we prepare this edition of our newsletter, the typical dog-and-pony show is ongoing at the Democratic Party Convention in Chicago, lots of wild clapping and pep talks, but nothing of substance being discussed, although outside, protests from anti-war movements are taking place. It was already decided beforehand that Kamala Harris would be anointed presidential candidate, and nothing indicates that she would change in any meaningful way the U.S. policy course of the past few decades. But then again, until now, she has not said anything meaningful about anything.

But lest non-Americans should think that either of the candidates, or of the parties, are representative of the population as a whole, there is a whole “other America”, one which rejects the permanent wars, the fixation on shareholder value, and the hot button issues played up by the media. And representatives of that current are increasingly joining with the Schiller Institute and the International Peace Coalition to try and turn the tide. An example was given at the Aug. 9 IPC meeting, called at the special commemoration of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945.

Two such high-level representatives of that “other America” spoke at the event, Col. (ret.) Lawrence Wilkerson and former Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who issued passionate calls for action.

Wilkerson is the former chief of staff of Secretary of State Colin Powell, who experienced first-hand how the Iraq War was launched on the basis of lies. Today, he said, “in these times of insane overseas wars sponsored and supported to the hilt by America”, it is important to reflect on the past 5,000 years, that have seen hundreds of empires, large and small, come and go. But the American empire, which he dated back to 1945, is the first to have “developed the technology to destroy both themselves and the rest of humanity”, i.e., in a nuclear war.

Nonetheless, Wilkerson sees reason to hope in democracy, that “weary, heavily fatigued, much embattled concept of government our founders so relished and cherished”. The people “must object to their imminent suicide. The people must object and object and object, and protest and protest, and vote lousy leaders into the streets, breed and elect new leaders to take their place, and then protest some more.”

Dennis Kucinich was Democratic congressman from Ohio from 1997 to 2013. He pointed out in his remarks that the U.S. now spends over a trillion dollars a year for war and preparation for war, that is, “more than half of our budget” goes to defending “the idea that somehow America is still the unipolar ruler of the world”.

“I today join with you in this call for ceasefires everywhere; for people to lay down their arms; for reawakening of the spirit of turning swords into plowshares; for an understanding that we have a common destiny. And if our destiny is to become part of nuclear rubble, then those of us who object to that, as we do today, need to be heard from.” He urged people to “organize in town squares”, and to use whatever tools they have on the internet to awaken others. He concluded that we need to come together and create “a new consciousness that hopefully will be able to overtake this very sordid dance with death”.