Editor,
The news that President Bush's nationwide support has slumped to new depths shouldn't surprise anyone.
This news says more about the American media than about the man himself. The rest of the world has perceived Bush - but not his arch rivals Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez - as the most dangerous threat to world peace and the future of this globe for several years. What explains the discrepancy between American and world perception, and why has it taken the United States public so long to wake up to the nightmare of this presidency and join world opinion?
Even a media brought into line with government propaganda will eventually fail to protect the illusion of democracy. The reality of untold and unseen horrors in Iraq forces its way into the public mind by other means to dispel the wishful facade of inadvertent success, whatever and however long this must take. It may take two thousand American lives in two years or five thousand in four. It may take the world's concerted disgust with the United States or outright opposition to it. At some point, it becomes impossible to convince the public of transparent lies. In a globalized world, the illusions cannot be sustained.
The United States can't be both a democracy and an empire. A choice must be made.
The decisive turning point of public perception has come with Hurricane Katrina. Katrina lifted the veil. Suddenly it was obvious that the government doesn't care for or listen to the people. Black plight clashed with white shock and wrath. Sympathy came too late, and then with unnecessary force epitomized by the brutal beating of 64-year-old black schoolteacher Robert Davis by three white police officers.
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Since then, the media has shown more skepticism toward the government's picture of democracy's unstoppable march into Iraq. Still, those who want to see the administration's catastrophic ideology and incompetence see it. There is no way around it. Thirty-nine percent support is more than Bush deserves, as the 2 percent support he now gets from African-Americans proves.
The horror and failure of Iraq, the continued violation of the Geneva Conventions, the practice of torture in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere to which this nation is gradually waking up are forcing the public to finally give up its complacent complicity in these war crimes, to admit the undemocratic cowardice that it has been hiding underneath. An all-too willful acceptance of government lies avoids the courage of America's revolutionary past - the courage of standing up to criminal authorities.
There is no peace through war, or liberation through occupation, or justice through torture, or democracy through tyranny. These are Orwellian myths to be rejected.
A choice has to be made - either you live in an empire or in a democracy. You can't have both. This is the choice free people have to make.
As it stands now, America's choice is being made against freedom - in this country and abroad. Remember, this is also your choice - your chance and duty. The choice is always yours.
Joachim L. Oberst
UNM staff
