Liberal icon Mike Gravel is from a different age, representing a form of leftism that once led the fight against government secrecy. A former Senator from the state of Alaska, he filibustered to get the Pentagon Papers into the public record in 1971.
He has emerged to run for the Democratic nomination in 2020 at the age of 88 to bring sanity to a field that mostly has fallen into xenophobia, conspiracy theories, and absolute submission to totalitarian government bureaucracy.
Gravel recently posted a Tweet exposing the absolute truth about US foreign policy:
American foreign policy is not a failure. To comfort themselves, observers often say that our leaders—presidents, advisors, generals—don’t know what they’re doing. They do know. Their agenda just isn’t what we like to imagine it is.
— Mike Gravel (@MikeGravel) April 26, 2019
Gravel then shared a quote from dissident political scientist Michael Parenti, who said, “US policy is not filled with contradictions and inconsistencies. It has performed brilliantly and steadily in the service of those who own most of the world and who want to own all of it.”
The octogenarian was just getting warmed up and continued to challenge the foreign policy orthodoxy of his party.
The vision of our leaders as bunglers, while more accurate than the image of them as valiant public servants, is less accurate and more rose-tinted than the closest approximation of the truth, which is that they are servants of their class interest. That is why we go to war.
— Mike Gravel (@MikeGravel) April 26, 2019
Those who buy the elite class’s foreign policy BS, about the Emmanuel Goldsteins they conjure up every three years, are fools. Obviously Hussein and Milošević were bad; but “government bad” does not mean we must invade. Wars occur for economic, not humanitarian, reasons.
— Mike Gravel (@MikeGravel) April 26, 2019
Gravel even hammered Obama and his former administration, something that is considered heretical in liberal circles these days. He pummeled Obama for posing in photo ops next to the African despots he modeled himself after.
Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the president of Equatorial Guinea, is a kleptocrat, murderer, and alleged cannibal. This is him and his wife with Barack and Michelle Obama. pic.twitter.com/8uVQE2Itxt
— Mike Gravel (@MikeGravel) April 26, 2019
Islam Karimov, the president of Uzbekistan, was said to have boiled political prisoners to death, massacred hundreds of prisoners, and made torture an institution. This is him with John Kerry. pic.twitter.com/yu0rxkB8RY
— Mike Gravel (@MikeGravel) April 26, 2019
Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, has been involved in the assassination of political opponents, perpetrated obvious election fraud, and had his term extended until 2034. This is him with Barack and Michelle Obama. pic.twitter.com/TiCZ0yxf9M
— Mike Gravel (@MikeGravel) April 26, 2019
Why have we supported Nguema, Karimov, and Kagame but not the ones who are thorns in our sides? The reasons are obvious. It’s not the lives of their citizens – it’s power for the elite class. We intervene abroad because we want to further the interest of the wealthy.
— Mike Gravel (@MikeGravel) April 26, 2019
Those who buy the elite class’s foreign policy BS, about the Emmanuel Goldsteins they conjure up every three years, are fools. Obviously Hussein and Milošević were bad; but “government bad” does not mean we must invade. Wars occur for economic, not humanitarian, reasons.
— Mike Gravel (@MikeGravel) April 26, 2019
Although Gravel has no chance to secure the Democratic nomination, he along with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) gives two protest options for liberal-minded people who want to stop the madness to support as their candidate for 2020.
