People often ask me why I don’t participate in politics even in a very limited level. Even when I point out that I don’t believe any meaningful chance can come from politics they always claim that it doesn’t take much time to at least try. But American politics have devolved to the point where the only ideology that exists is one of “I’m for whatever they’re against.” Nowhere is this more evident that the supposed threat of a nuclear Iran.
Israel’s prime minster was invited by Republicans to give a speech in front of Congress without seeking approval from the president. The only apparent reason the Republicans invited him was because the president didn’t. Benjamin Netanyahu gave a fear filled speech as part of his reelection campaign and it created the desired effect of getting Americans to talk about a nuclear Iran again. Obama has been in talks with Iran for a while now so the Republican Party, which claims it also wants to stop a nuclear Iran, is obviously glad to see progress being made, right? Wrong. The Republican Party just sent a letter to Iran basically threatening the country if the American presidency switches over to their party:
WASHINGTON, March 9 (Reuters) – Republican senators warned Iran on Monday that any nuclear deal made with U.S. President Barack Obama could last only as long as he remains in office, in an unusual intervention into U.S. foreign policy-making.
The letter, signed by 47 U.S. senators, says Congress plays a role in ratifying international agreements and points out that Obama will leave office in January 2017, while many in Congress will remain in Washington long after that.
“We will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by the Congress as nothing more than an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei,” the letter read.
“The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of an agreement at any time,” it read.
Herein lies the problem. Obama has been heading discussions with Iran. His status as a Democrat means that anything he does is automatically opposed by the Republicans (and vice versa). So they’re knee-jerk reaction to Obama’s discussions is to make vague threats at Iran instead of involving themselves in the process.
This is the biggest problem in American politics today. In this case Obama and the Republican Party want the same thing, an Iran without nuclear weapons. Considering this you would think the two parties would publicly work together even if they were stabbing each other in the back behind the scenes. But even the illusion of civility and logic is gone. The only thing that matters is being against anything the other party does. Watching American politics is like watching two religious zealous trying to prove who is more zealous than the other while also insinuating their opponent is Satan and can therefore only express ideas that are evil.
The American empire was an interesting experiment in genocidal “liberty” but it’s over now. Any fantasies of logic, decency, and good governance is entirely dead. All that remains are a bunch of pathetic politicians trying to steal whatever they can before the empire burns to the ground entirely.