Two Thailands Two Americas

Two Thailands Two Americas

Posted by Tawan , Reader : 257 , 14:10:23
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Do politicians use the same rhetoric and messages to woo voters around the world? Do they talk about the same problems? I would like to use some quotes from an Associated Press story on MSN’s websites. It seems all too familiar to me. This story is about the Democratic Party Candidate Senator Edwards dropping out of the Primary race.

Quote, “Edwards burst out of the starting gate with a flurry of progressive policy ideas — he was the first to offer a plan for universal health care, the first to call on Congress to pull funding for the war, and he led the charge that lobbyists have too much power in Washington and need to be reigned in.”

Does this sound familiar? Will the universal health care cost 30 Baht? Since Senator Edwards is a lawyer which economic technocrat’s business plan can actually make universal health care affordable? Pulling funding for the war in Iraq. Is funding an answer to help Thailand’s civil unrest in the south? Lobbyist have too much power in Washington and Bangkok. Is this business and politics as usual? It sounds like the problems and the messages are all the same.

Quote, “Even as Obama and Clinton collected astonishing amounts of money that dwarfed his fundraising effort,
Edwards said that on his way to make his campaign-ending statement, he drove by a highway underpass where several homeless people live. He stopped to talk, he said, and as he was leaving, one of them asked him never to forget them and their plight.
“Well I say to her and I say to all those who are struggling in this country, we will never forget you. We will fight for you. We will stand up for you,” he said, pledging to continue his campaign-long effort to end what he frequently said was “two Americas,” one for the powerful, the other for the rest. “

Unfortunately, the AP story did not mention the details of Senator Edwards’s conversation with the homeless people under the bridge. When you say I will fight for you and never forget you. I am assuming the Senator is talking about the 25% of the people living below the U.S. poverty line. Since the details of the conversation is lacking, I can imagine my own scenario. My question would be how can I take one bottle of whiskey and leverage that into 100,000 bottles of whiskey in Senator Edwards’s secret hedge fund and still get a $400,000 consulting bonus. Or how can I take my card board box and leverage that to about 4,000,000 card board boxes. I am just trying to work with the resources I have under the bridge. These are the details I would like to hear from politicians the world over. These are the detail answers I would like to hear from politicians in both countries and then I would start believing the rhetoric.

Quote, “John Edwards ended his campaign today in the same way he started it — by standing with the people who are too often left behind and nearly always left out of our national debate,” Clinton said.
Quote, “Obama, too, praised Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth. At a rally in Denver, he said the couple has “always believed deeply that two Americans can become one, and that our country can rally around this common purpose,” Obama said. “So while his campaign may have ended, this cause lives on for all of us who still believe that we can achieve that dream of one America.”

Senator Obama and Senator Clinton both agree yes, there are two Americas and yes, there are also two Thailands. Senator Obama and Senator Clinton can continue their campaigns because they have collected astonishing amounts of money that dwarfed Senator Edwards’s fundraising. Sounds familiar to me here in Thailand also.

Quote, “As expected, Edwards said he was suspending his campaign rather than ending it, but aides said that was simply legal terminology so that he can continue to receive federal matching funds for his campaign donations.”
Last but not least is the Master of all words. Suspending his campaign instead of ending it, simply legal terminology so that he can continue receiving federal matching funds. Simple legal terminology does not include the people under the bridge but the other America only for the powerful to stay legally and morally clean.