WELCOME TO THE NEW AMERICA

The 2012 election, was a demarcation point in our political history, sandwiched between two politically cataclysmic events. One "bookend" was a disastrous super storm, the other a sex scandal in the military and CIA. The election established a new political coalition which swept away core Republican principles, changed our national perceptions regarding the need for responsive government, altered the nation's discussion regarding the validity of climatic change and its consequences, while the scandals in the military served to alter our nation's unrealistic perceptions about our military. The USA will never be the same. Welcome to the new America!

In 2012, America, a nation still reeling from the Great Recession of 2007-2008 went to the polls. Seemingly against the economic tide and all odds, the nation reelected a black man for President. The vote-count and analysis after the election reaffirmed that the electorate emphatically rejected the far-right political philosophy offered by the Republicans and the core principles of its ideology, one based on greed, stark individualism, 1980s Reaganism, Ryanism, Ayn Randism, and the denial of science and global warming. Then on the very next day after the election, embarrassing and unpalatable revelations concerning our military burst another sacred cow of the right who in knee-jerk fashion have for too long given our generals a blank check and put them in an unrealistic, unhealthy position above reproach or question.

Since the days of WW II, America has had a love affair with the military. We dote on the boys in blue, gray, kaki and now, camo uniform. Correctly and deservedly we honor their sacrifice and heroism. But too often now we give their leaders a free pass, and supply the officer corps with near-unlimited funds. (We all have heard that we spend more on our military than the total combined amount spent by all the industrialized nations in the world. Furthermore we duplicate our efforts in the various military branches at great waste. Is it necessary that the Marine Corps, have its own air force the size of Great Britain's? But not only are these outlays more than the combined world expenditures, but they are also the largest component of our national budget too. When the costs of Social Security is rightly removed from the national budget--since it is an insurance program, not an entitlement--and the complete panoply of so-called "defense" expenditures--war costs, military health and other benefits, etc etc---are tallied, it is Department of Defense which takes the largest bite out of the budget pie by far. Our leaders are hesitant to make that known to the citizenry. Everything you heard from the Republicans about the need to address our habit of over-spending has validity, but only if you substitute the words "defense department" and "military spending" for their words :"social security, Medicare and Medicaid" in their refrains for austerity.) Defense spending bills usually pass unopposed and with more funds than the generals themselves request. We put these men and women on a high pedestal. But that love-affair with all things military may be coming to a hard and sad end, with the recent revelations regarding mis-deeds in our military, ranging from simple incompetence, poor judgement, and sleazy sexual affairs at the very top echelons, as well as mindless alcohol abuse and a vicious massacre of civilians in the lower ranks.

In the last few days our most popular and most applauded military personage, one lauded as a "hero" and "genius" of the Iraq "surge"and Afghanistan campaigns, former 4 star General David Petraeus, (serving most recently as the top "spy" in the CIA) presented the nation with a sleazy, sexual affair. His consorting with Mrs. Broadwell while head of the CIA had the potential to compromise national security. Yet the press and many in Congress still in the sway of his military aura of invincibility let him off the hook very easily. Some even upbraiding the President for actually accepting his resignation letter. Petraeus' recent replacement in Afghanistan, General John Allen, who was slated to be Supreme Military Commander in Europe, was drawn into the imbroglio, where he was exposed as having a "platonic" though inappropriate e-mail dalliance with a young, married, Tampa, Florida "socialite", Mrs. Jill Kelly, also a close friend of Mr. Petraeus. Evidence unearthed by the FBI regarding General Allen included "20-30 thousand pages of emails" sent between Allen and Mrs. Kelly over the last two years. (One can not but help wonder how General Allen could fit in to his busy emailing schedule the Nation's work of commanding the war effort in Afghanistan when , according to the FBI record, he was writing and sending an average of more than 33 (!) email pages each day. (This calculation is based the quantity of pages and the assumption that he emailed Mrs. Kelly every day of the year, Sunday, holidays, Christmas and New Year's day). Perhaps he had too much free time on his hands. In another case, four star General, William "Kip" Ward of the Africa Command, was fired and demoted in rank (to only three stars) for "lavish spending and unnecessary travel". And sadly, the hard-working, mostly exemplary men and women of the lower rank and file have also been sullied by scandal. Today, as I write this, Staff-Sargent Robert Bales, an 11 year veteran was indicted for the methodical, diabolical murder of 16 innocent civilians (nine of them children) during a drug and alcohol soaked rampage in Afghanistan. Only those with their heads tucked under a rock in Wyoming's wide open spaces could remain unaffected by these disturbing revelations.

The events come on the very heels of the recent 2012 Presidential election, a contest which finally gave the voters a clear choice between the policies of conservative Republicanism----and a modestly progressive, center-right Democratic candidate. The electorate emphatically chose the progressives, and President Obama handily won reelection. In a previous blog, I pointed out how this 2012 election was a "watershed", since the voters clearly rejected the Republican core-philosophy, one which has been a component of the political conversation since the Reagan election in 1980. I noted in that piece, that the voters also seem to have had a change of mind in regard to the conservative position known as "global warming denial". This last alteration in perception being the realization in the public mind perhaps as a result of the impact of the super storm Sandy, that global climatic change is here to stay, will have serious impacts on our lives, and must be addressed. The huge super storm which brought widespread disaster and devastation to the nation's biggest metropolitan area just prior to election only underscored that fact and the need, nay necessity, of government help and largess supplied in times of disaster. The storm acted as a hard rebuke to those on the right who openly campaigned as global warming deniers, and on presidential aspirant, Mitt Romney who promised to "dump FEMA" as one of his first acts on being elected President.

This is not a case of schadenfreude on this author's part. Rather than being happy to see the other side squirm, I see the military revelations as a positive development which will hopefully result in a better, stronger, military, with more stable leadership, and perhaps ultimately election of a Congress with a more realistic view regarding the budget of the Defense Department. These revelations come at a time of economic stress when the military budget will have to be cut back to more reasonable and logical levels. We simply can not afford the likes of General Ward, Allen and Petraeus. (Recall that General Petraeus was the one who used his contacts with the press to unwisely orchestrate pressure on a recently elected President Obama to institute a troop surge in Afghanistan which only extended the war and cost lives on both sides.) Perhaps, if our officer cadre were not promoted simply on the basis of years in service, and the good ole' boy network, we would have fewer cases like that of Sargent Robert Bales, who in some ways, is a victim himself of a military gone astray in a sea of money and unwarranted adulation.

The Nation's voters took part in a turning-point election, sandwiched between a major super storm and an unprecedented sexual scandal. The over-all impact on the electorate was that the new Obama-coalition turned away from the Republican core-philosophy and its social, economic, and foreign policy positions, and perhaps it's unwise reflex support for the military. These aged policies were exposed to be outdated, invalid, untrue, unwise, or so unpopular that the GOP could not call on them again to support reelection on a national scale. Welcome to a new America!

Get the picture?

rjk