Leaderless and Clueless America Heads for the Trash Can of History
By Paul Craig Roberts, November 26, 2007
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In new books writers as disparate as Naomi Wolf and Pat Buchanan
conclude that America as we know her is disappearing. Both writers
hope, but are not confident, that enough Americans will catch on in
time to find the leadership to pull America back from the brink.

If polls are reliable, a majority of Americans are dissatisfied with
President Bush and Congress. However, Americans are far short of
Wolf and Buchanan's grasp of our peril.

Americans are unable to connect their dissatisfaction with the
current political leadership with their choice of new leaders. All
polls show that Hillary Clinton is far in the lead for the
Democratic presidential nomination and Rudy Giuliani is far in the
lead for the Republican nomination [See Polling report.com: Election
2008 ]. These are the only two candidates guaranteed to be worse
than Bush/Cheney.

Both Hillary and Rudy are committed to the war. Both refuse to rule
out expanding the war to Iran and beyond. Both are totally in the
pocket of the Israel Lobby. Indeed, practically every Giuliani
advisor is a member of the Lobby. Both defend the police state
measures that "protect us from terrorism." And neither gives a hoot
for the US Constitution and the civil liberties it guarantees. The
Republican Giuliani is likely to overturn the Second Amendment even
quicker than the Democrat Hillary.

Both Hillary and Rudy are creatures of ambition, not of principle.
Both are one up on Karl Marx. Marx said truth serves class
interests. For Hillary and Rudy, truth is what serves their
individual interests. They both wear black hats, and the horse they
ride is called power.

Yet in November polls, Republicans prefer Giuliani by a margin of
five or six to one over Ron Paul, the only principled Republican
candidate and a person who without any doubt believes in the
Constitution and would protect it.

Democrats prefer Hillary by a margin of twenty to one over Dennis
Kucinich, the only member of Congress sufficiently concerned and
courageous to introduce impeachment against the notorious war
criminal Dick Cheney. By margins as much as forty-four to one,
Democrats prefer Hillary to Senator Christopher Dodd, who promises
to give America back its Constitution in the first hour of his
administration. Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel does not even
register in the polls.

Obviously, the American people haven't a clue. In November 2007 they
show a distinct preference for leaders who are even worse than the
ones with whom they are currently dissatisfied. What does this tell
us about the American people and their commitment to be sufficiently
informed for democracy to function?

It tells us that they are not up to the challenge. It is only a
matter of time before America succumbs to the plutocracy, against
which Warren Buffet recently warned Congress, or the fascist tyranny
that Naomi Wolf sees in our future.

COPYRIGHT CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.

Paul Craig Roberts [email him] was Assistant Secretary of the
Treasury in the Reagan Administration. He is the author of Supply-
Side Revolution : An Insider's Account of Policymaking in
Washington; Alienation and the Soviet Economy and Meltdown: Inside
the Soviet Economy, and is the co-author with Lawrence M. Stratton
of The Tyranny of Good Intentions : How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats
Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice. Click here
for Peter Brimelow's Forbes Magazine interview with Roberts about
the recent epidemic of prosecutorial misconduct.

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