The Young Turks

 Barack Obama represents the possibility of a secular change-realignment-in the American political landscape back to the left. Obama alone is not sufficient to create a realignment, what is really causing a possible realignment is the incompetence and mismanagement of the United States since 1980, and especially since 2001. It is increasingly obvious to rational members of the public that the Republicans are so indoctrinated by their own propaganda  they can no longer discern what is real and what is a creation of their own machine.

The mythologies that Republicans have propagated since 2001(although the myths go back even further) have been truly amazing at their depth, and how in reality they are seen as "noble lies". Neoconservativism has been about lying about the American people to create a new "national identity" to combat what they perceive as the value-less liberalism of the 60s. In order to create this "new" American, they appeal to the illogical, traditional, and divisive. If you want to learn about this watch this documentary:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik i/The_Power_of_Nightmares

"More controversially, it argues that the threat of radical Islamism as a massive, sinister organised force of destruction, specifically in the form of al-Qaeda, is in fact a myth perpetrated by politicians in many countries—and particularly American Neo-Conservatives—in an attempt to unite and inspire their people following the failure of earlier, more utopian ideologies...At the same time in the United States, a group of disillusioned liberals, including Irving Kristol and Paul Wolfowitz, look to the political thinking of Leo Strauss after the general failure of President Johnson's "Great Society". They come to the conclusion that the emphasis on individual liberty was the undoing of the plan. They envisioned restructuring America by uniting the American people against a common evil, and set about creating a mythical enemy. These factions, the Neo-Conservatives, came to power under the Reagan administration, with their allies Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, and work to unite the United States in fear of the Soviet Union. The Neo-Conservatives allege the Soviet Union is not following the terms of disarmament between the two countries, and, with the investigation of "Team B", they accumulate a case to prove this with dubious evidence and methods. President Reagan is convinced nonetheless."

I feel that today, in 2008, the American people FINALLY rejecting the neoconservative agenda. The agenda has been to DEFINE America, and what it means to be American. The reason the democrats have been unable to defeat the GOP for all these years is because of this narrative, supported by the GOP's fear mongering of these "foreign threats". As all totalitarian movements, the external and eternal threat is essential for the movement to perpetuate itself. The neoconservatives, unfortunately for them, went too far. In 2003 they actually believed their own propaganda and invaded Iraq, by 2008 Americans begrudgingly accept that they have been fooled for at least 8 years, I argue for at least 30.

The War in Iraq, Katrina,Terri Schiavo, the Foreclosure crisis, etc. have shown the American people how SHALLOW and manipulative the GOP hegemony has been. As we see on this board, there are still members of the public who have been so successfully indoctrinated by the neocon movement, they exhibit the classic behaviours of people who have been controlled by totalitarian movements. A willful dispension of reality, uncritical acceptance of the status quo, proto-fascism, and more dangerous, they seem to be wiling to hang themselves for the cause.

I was talking to someone who lived in Seattle about 15 years ago, and he still has family in the US. He goes to me, "You know Canadians are the ones who are really living the American dream. When you go to Washington DC and see what Americans have engraved on their monuments and see the life they live, and when come to Canada and see the life we live...you see who is living the American dream." I asked him why, he goes: "Americans live in constant fear, Canadians don't. My sister who lives in Washington (state) fears about healthcare, jobs, recession, war, and the government." he goes on "when I moved to Canada, after six months most of the fears in my life were gone, and it wasn't until I moved to Canada that I realized how much fear I had when I lived in the US. Its a depressing existence."

I hope Americans are SICK and TIRED of the GOP, and time to forget 30 years of manipulation.