In 2008 John McCain ran against Barack Obama for President of the United States.
During the campaign, General Colin Powell appeared on Meet the Press.
His appearance was promoted by NBC. We were told that he was going to make an important announcement.
Well, you would have had to be brain dead to not know that he was going to endorse Barack Obama.
Apparently, the only person who didn’t know was John McCain which is why he probably lost the election.
It didn’t bother me that Powell endorsed Barack Obama; that’s his privilege. What bothered me was the gratuitous gutting he delivered to Sarah Palin who was John McCain’s vice-presidential running mate.
Colin Powell stated that Sarah Palin was unequivocally unqualified to be President of the United States should John McCain die.
I was angry when he made this statement.
I did not think he had any basis for making this statement given that Sarah Palin had far more executive experience than Barack Obama.
As the years went by though, I changed my mind. I realize that General Powell was correct.
Sarah Palin was unqualified to be President of the United States – in the United States that Colin Powell envisioned.
Colin Powell’s vision of the United States is America the busybody, America the war monger, America the bully, America the world destroyer, America the polluter, America the global killing machine.
In Colin Powell’s America, clever law firms like Sullivan and Cromwell, Jones and Day, Baker and Botts, and KKR skulk around following the President of the United States and make secret one-sided deals with foreign countries that harm the people of those countries.
In Colin Powell’s America, young men like Otto Warmbier are used for political theater, or as tools to negotiate corrupt contracts, then forgotten.
Colin Powell’s America is an America of nasty entangling alliances that serve corporate interests over the rights of individual Americans.
Colin Powell’s America is no America at all.
Colin Powell’s America is a misguided empire trapped within a dysphoric, opiate nightmare.
Colin Powell’s America is Rome.
Sarah Palin was unequivocally qualified then and now to rule Rome.
But that is not the vision that I have for America. That is not the vision that many Americans have for America, and we count too.
I see America as its own nation accountable to itself, a friend to all and an enemy to none.
I see America as a good, decent, nation that does not exploit other peoples, that does not engage in senseless wars for corporate profit, that provides meaningful well-paying employment for its citizenry.
I see America as a nation that protects Americans from excessive vice. Can we say the same about Colin Powell’s America that has given us drugs on demand, gambling on demand, sex on demand?
I see America as a nation that invests in its own people and infrastructure with a healthy measure of fiscal responsibility.
I see America is the land where God is more important then getting rich.
I see America as a country that follows Christian principles in doing unto others as we would have others do unto us. That would involve not playing dirty tricks with other nations via a Central Intelligence Agency or a US dominated IMF.
I see America as a place that gives an opportunity to all people of all races. Can we say the same for Colin Powell’s America which has devastated the inner city and the black community?
In the America I see, Sarah Palin is unequivocally qualified to be President of the United States.
Perhaps General Powell would have felt more comfortable with Mitt Romney as President. Mitt Romney was the kind of guy who could lead Powell’s America. And we know that because Mitt Romney was an important part of Bain Capital that destroyed manufacturing in the United States, that enabled corporations to ship jobs overseas, that helped destroy the black community.
For me, I’ll take Sarah Palin.
Sure, she sounds like a soccer mom, so what? Maybe that’s what we need to run the United Stares – officials who are more grounded to the people than the con men and slicksters that General Powell prefers.
Sincerely,
Archer Crosley, MD
McAllen, TX
Copyright 2020 Archer Crosley All Rights Reserved
Cowboy Archer 