the civilized civil war of americas and americans

it is too early to comment on the outcome of the u.s. primaries but the message of the process is obvious: a civil war is going on in the u.s. of america.


nothing like the sad fratricide of the 19th century; this is a far subtler, insidious but deep lying and possibly attritional struggle between the two politico-economic forces defining american power: to put forth a rough basis for the argument, let me point out that three fourths of the huge u.s. economy is introverted, takes place within the country. only one quarter of american output is global. naturally, economy, being the most easily measurable quality in social sciences, is less determining (in the orthodox marzist sense) than indicative. an introverted economy also points out to a "way of mind", a culture and assorted subcultures looking inward. since that introverted community is, on the whole, extremely privileged, too, it tends to become conservative, protective, xenophobic, apprehensive and vulnerable both in its moral and political preferences.


we are talking about two thirds of the populace of the most powerful nation in the worldç feeling threatened by a remote world that is competing with them in the areas of their traditional livelihood; chinese goods flooding them out of jobs, indian imports threatening moreç while alien immigrant cultures establish their bivouacs in hitherto all american communities...


on the "other" side, there is the "global" america that describes the shapes life can flow into around the whole world. an america of top notch science and technology and innovation and social liberties aesthesia and finesse etc.


no wonder the night obama and huckleberry finn - with chuck norris hopping with joy like a squirrel behind him- won the first race jay leno defined caucus as "a greek word which means every four years people will remember there is a place called iowa".


the let's-return-to-grass-roots double victory of obama and huck finn is a banner that there is some sort of a social war going on between america, "that vast, forgotten extent of land between new york and the west coast" as described by the comic character homer simpson.

then again, the mundane east coast that sandwiches homer's america moved to put them out of business in new hampshire. in grass roots america, obama and huck finn both represented the same outlook, ditto the global american party hillary and mccain represent.


my vote is for hillary (you do not expect me to back the republicans after dubya, do you?), not because i do not like barack obama but because he is too green to tackle this world where simple solutions are likelier to complicate the problems, rather than solve them. the two clintons are provenly abler to ride the buffalo.


the sad party is, if huckleberry finn -plus chuck norris who probably will then become secretary for the department of utter paranoia, a.k.a. homeland security- and/or obama win, everybody in the civilized world will bear the brunt of an unsuccessfully introverted america - reminiscent of when pres. wilson lost after world war I.


if (preferably) the clintons or senator mccain win, the global competitivity of grass roots america is likely to experience a boost as well as the global quarter, which, in practice, commands most of the world's economic activity.