A tale of two candidates
Welcome to the world of democracy in 21st century
October 6, 2003
The Iranian
At the time of writing this article, Sunday October
5, the latest poll taken before recent allegations about
sex and Hitler,
showed Schwarzenegger winning over Davis in the campaign of
taking/holding the highest gubernatorial office of California.
In a brief speech I presented to the monthly public meeting
of Kamal Cultural Foundation in San Diego, I explained why
this recall was against the interests of all minorities, including
Iranians.
A number of audiences urged me to do the same for
a wider audience. So, I placed a call to a show where Ken
(Kourosh) Hamidi, one of Iranian candidates, who supported Arnold,
was
a guest. Both the host and the guest were receptive.
First off as a quasi course of politics 101, it
is interesting to note that based on the poll, this democratic
election is going
to have a rather strange result in which the loser, Davis,
will have substantially MORE votes than the winner, Schwarzenegger!
Here is how it works: Davis is not a candidate, so
his votes are the ones for NO recall. According to the poll, he
will
get
about 40% of the vote. Obviously it is not more than 50%
and he will be defeated. Then, a candidate, amongst 131 remaining
wannabe governors, who has the highest number of votes, will
be elected to the office. The same poll shows Schwarzenegger
will get about 30% of the vote and will be the winner!
Wow! Watch democracy in action. The incumbent, Davis,
who still represents 40% of the voters is thrown out of the office,
and
the alleged sex offender and Hitler lover will be the governor
with only 30% of the vote, if not 18% [(100-40) X 30%].
How
could that happen?! Well, welcome to the world of democracy in
21st
century. Deception in politics is no longer a monopoly of
less developed countries! In fact, they learn it from the master!
Remember how our beloved Bush-olsaltaneh was selected to
the
high office. Republicans badly
wanted California under their control for the presidential
election next year. So one of them
Darrell Issa
used about $2 million of his own money to recall Davis. It was
a win win situation for republicans.
First, even if the recall
was defeated, they would exhaust democrats' resources to
fight the recall leaving them far less resourceful for the
presidential election in a state so vital to them. Then, as
a natural outcome
of divided minorities, a lot of opportunists would rush to
the registrar office to file their papers as candidates. What
could be better than using them to republican advantage?
Almost all
these 179 candidates would do their best to tap on their respected
people's national/ethnic pride to ask their fellow kinfolks
to vote "yes" on recall, a clear republican aim to
oust Davis. At the same time, none of them would even make a
percentage point to be a threat to the republican candidate,
Schwarzenegger. Had it been only one democrat, Davis, and one
republican, Schwarzenegger, the latter would've had no
chance to win. It is interesting to note that these same republicans,
who turned the biggest surplus in American History of National
Budget, to
the biggest deficit any nation has ever known, want to take care
of California's deficit! Well, they deceived American people
to a vicious war to justify the national budget deficit, not
to solve it. Hey, no republican ever wants to stop his cronies
from pillaging Iraq or any nation for that matter.
History repeats
itself; con men do the war, youths get killed. It is, of course,
American pride to have ordinary citizens lose their loved ones
in the war. But, it is big companies like Halliburton and Bechtel
to enjoy the loot! They would never stop giving tax breaks
to the wealthy either. So the very same special interest that
fooled
Davis to this mess would enjoy the ride even more having their
own servant in the office. Especially when he is a mucho kind
of idiot!
Thus, ordinary Californians will have to take
the tab. But this time it would not be a military war for occupation.
It would
be a civil clean up to cut the so called excesses. As much as
it sounds reasonable, it would be first and outmost against any
and all benefits any minority receives from the budget, i.e.
MediCal that so many elders and low income families need.
The
so-called "terminator" specifically stated that he
would review the budget line item by line item to decide which
one to cut, and which one to keep.
Oh yes, who would care if
the actor cuts any blood stream going to the life support
of this hated middle easterners who took refuge to one of the
most desirable state of the nation? They only wanted our brains
and
our money, not our elder relatives to be a burden on their
public fund! The same thing is true about other minorities,
i.e.
Blacks,
Mexican, Indians, etc. So what about their help for the recall? Well, they
did it for their own candidates not republicans! They lost. Didn't
they? And in the world of politics you take one step at a time.
If republicans need minorities again, they know how to fool them
for the next election. They have done it over and over.
Now aside from empty promises, and abusive elevation
of the minority's
ethnic or national heritage, a minority candidate can make a
difference only, and I mean ONLY, if he is intelligent and devoted
enough to realize his interest is bound to the interest of his
people. And if there is a conflict between the two, he would
be willing to serve the interest of his people against his
personal self interest. It can only happen in taking part in what
I call
political transactions. A political transaction is not short
selling what you believe in, but trying to make the best out
of the REALITY of a losing situation.
I take the blame for not doing my share to help
our interests, but I wish the so called Iranian media, especially
radio and
television, would've explored the opportunity to our people.
There are two Iranian gubernatorial candidates in this recall.
Each one of the candidates should've dropped from
the race in favor of one of the most likely winners, i.e. one in
favor
of republicans, and the other in favor of democrats. Doing
so would have guaranteed us a resounding voice regardless of who
votes for whom. Well, Hamidi took the opportunity to do
it
for the terminator. Even though, I strongly oppose his choice
of the candidate, I think Hamidi is intelligently realistic
to make a difference in our favor. Whether he does it or not
remains to be seen, but he sure is on the right track.
A lot of people have asked me how I would vote.
I would definitely vote NO to recall. At the same time I would
vote for Badi Badiozamani.
Not that I believe in him. Quite to the contrary, I am totally
against him. And to make the record clear, I've known him
for about two decades. He did not hesitate to claim being the
founder of Persian Cultural Center that he knew, as well as everyone
else in the know, that I was the key architecture, chairman of
the board, and the co founder of this non-profit organization.
I even wrote the article of incorporation.
While so many caring
Iranians helped this organization one way or the other, Badiozamani
was not even a board member. He was not even a part of the
coalition when all non-profit groups joined me to pull our strength
together
to make Persian Cultural Center a viable non-profit organization
some fifteen years ago. Yet when I called the show, that was
apparently a paid infomercial, to correct him, he played with
words to imply that I was wrong not he, where I had no chance
for a rebuttal. So, the only reason I would vote for Badiozamani
is for our political interest. I wish he was half as realistic
as Hamidi,
and would've followed his strategy so that the anticipated
low Iranian turn out would've been obfuscated, but he is
already intoxicated by the trivial mundane glamour he loves so
much. He will have no chance to win, so he will not be a threat,
but the number of votes he will receive is critical not only
to the credibility of Hamidi's pact with Schwarzenegger,
but also the voice of Iranian Americans as a minority.
Whether
you like it or not, should he receive only a humiliating number
of votes, it will be our failure, even if it is not used against
us. The only drawback is if he uses our votes against our political
interest. I was unable to foresee it plausible because our
votes are valid ONLY for this election. He is not our representative
to use it for anything else.
Furthermore, it is in his best
interest
to join our collective political interest, at least to the
point where he can secure an ambitious position for himself.
I would
certainly watch him for future politics. I hope he would
change for the better. I will also do my share to help well
qualified
Iranian Americans represent us.
* Send
this page to your friends
|
