Launch of PASTREICH28.ASIA
I will not recount the discussions that I have had over the last six months with a handful of friends in the United States concerning what the most effective political actions we can take in this moment of chaos and deception should be.
Let me say that whereas I came to the conclusion in November, 2024, that there was little value in trying to run for president of the United States of America when the institutions that define that political entity, the government of the United States of America, had collapsed, I have reconsidered that conclusion.
I reasoned at that time, consulting with friends, that the only road forward in the United States was a revolutionary road, and that such a road could not carry the heavy luggage demanded by the corrupt and opaque elections that pit billionaire against billionaire via puppets in progressive or conservative dress.
Nevertheless, over the last few months, close friends whose counsel I value have suggested that there is good cause for running a presidential campaign at this moment, at precisely the moment the Trump administration (representing billionaires from around the world in the “Billionaires are Us” club that gathers at Mar A Rape-o) extends its filthy paws everywhere in the world and prepares new AI systems to dumb us down, and robots and drones to kill us all. Democracy is no longer practiced in the oligarchy of America and none of the blow-up Christmas parade figures like Mamdani are capable of demanding the return of constitutional government, or true accountability for state crimes.
One person suggested to me that the very act of preparing a series of statements as a candidate for president, statements that contain the moral and spiritual authority of the best of American political philosophy, could at the very least inspire others who are capable of action in this dire moment, even if I do not achieve anything myself. I agreed.
Might it even be true that precisely because the institutions of governance and the channels of public discourse have decayed completely that therefore I should prepare to run for president so as to put pressure on the system, to indicate that the government actually follow the original plan from the Declaration of Independence, no matter how far off course we have strayed in the years since?
I concluded that I could do so as a moral mission, not as an advertising campaign to cloak tyranny.
The United States is best represented by the White House which has been half demolished to build an underground data center for Oracle. Its woodwork has been covered with goldleaf because it has been bored through and through by greedy termites over the decades. Although the surface of the government seemed substantial, even impressive, Trump needed only press lightly anywhere and the entire structure crumbled into sawdust (just like the World Trade Center) because the termites had done their work as lobbyists, consultants, investment bankers, and operatives for private intelligence.
And crumble to sawdust it has. The Trump Kennedy Center is but one example.
Last week, with help from my friend and supporter Alex, I took the first small towards a campaign, casting open the door for anyone who wants to join us in this campaign, or to join Green Liberty, to join International Revolutionists Party, or otherwise to coordinate our efforts. We created a simple website that announces the possibility that I might run in 2028.
I put the words “Draft Pastreich” at the top of pastreich28.asia because the website formally represents an effort of others to recruit me to run, at this point (as was the case in 2023). However, that statement is not entirely accurate at this point. It was me, and no one else, who did the hard work of putting together the suggestions made by others as a complete thought, a consistent text, on this website.
I would rather others, not myself, talk about me. But such is the situation in the United States that so few can talk about things as they are, or even as they should be. We must all engage in an odd dance with truth, never coming too close for fear of isolation or worse, but also not drifting too far away.
That is our age, an age in which most are unable to state what we think in public.
I take personal responsibility for everything that I write here, and that I have put on this website.
I strive to represent the best interests of the people of the United States at this dark hour. I hope you will join me here.
Politics, not pageant or ritual, is no longer possible in the United States, or in most of the world. But the seeds of moral government remain, just waiting to find fertile soil. We can join hands to rebuild moral governance, ethical discourse on policy, and the commitment of citizens, above all intellectuals, to the common good. If we must rebuild the foundations of human civilization to achieve that goal, then so be it.
I welcome you to visit my tentative website:
Respectfully,
Emanuel Pastreich
Footnote:
Why do I use the TLD (top level domain) “asia” instead of “com,” or “org” for this campaign?
I am a product of the United States, an American citizen, and I would be running for president of the United States in a formal sense.
At the same time, it is a fact that I am not permitted to conduct my political activities in the United States as of yet and that I will have to launch this campaign from Japan. I am in Asia. It goes deeper than that. I was trained in Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist thought and culture and I studied Japanese, Chinese, and Korean culture, and political philosophy, for decades. Moreover, it was Koreans and Japanese, as well as Chinese, Thais, and Vietnamese, who stepped up to help me out at the most difficult times, giving me a place to live, starting in the Korean Embassy in Washington DC in February, 2005.
My campaign is about an America that takes Asia seriously and an America that does not arrogantly declare that America represents Western civilization. That cultural aspect of my campaign is also a critical part of this revolution. Whether it was the Confucian influence on the United States Constitution, the influence of the Chinese examination system of the Qing Dynasty on the US Federal civil service system, or the role of Chinese in building railroads, the United States has Asian roots.
That is why the campaign logo includes the Chinese character 眞 (zhen) which signifies “truth” in a scientific and a moral sense. The search for truth “zhen” (“chin” 진 in Korean; “makoto” まこと in Japanese) must be at the heart of politics.
