Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
This is just too important
Wow. What a campaign season. I've never seen anything like this. Sure, that's because I've never been so informed as I am this year. And sure, it's because I've only been alive for 6 elections, only 2 or 3 of which I cared at all about. However, I get the feeling that there are many much older and wiser than me that have never seen a campaign like this before.
First of all, there was a tight race in the Democratic primary between a white woman and a black man. It would have been history if either had won, and of course, they were facing each other. So that was crazy. It turned out the the democrat's "dream ticket" of Obama and Clinton did not happen, and so it appeared there would be no female candidates in Election '08. Wait, enter Sarah Palin.
And we're off...A very old and experienced Senator from Arizona running with an attractive, young Governor (for 20 months) from a state with 670,000 people that is not, well, your typical state. In the other corner we have a young and eloquent Afrincan-American Senator (for 4 years) from Illinois, and on his ticket is long-time Senator Joe Biden, whose expertise lies in foreign policy and education. That will make for a very interesting campaign.
Change, first championed by Obama in the primaries and quickly adopted by McCain, is the goal. We want to change Washington, and we should. We want to change our reputation in the world, and we should. But, it has become evident that much more than Washington needs changing.
Not unpredictably, the candidates have encountered racism, sexism, and stereotyping from all angles. Both sides of the divide are guilty. While the "official" campaigns are busy mis-representing or just plain lying about each others' policies, the "unofficial" campaigns are busy doing things much more disturbing.
From the Republican persuasion, there are those who are creating lies (i.e. distractions) about Obama: He's a Muslim; he's a terrorist; he's not a natural born citizen; he's a socialist--all lies to create fear in the minds of Americans. But that's just the start, like the first fallen dominoe in a chain of millions. The rest of the dominoes are ignorant Americans propelled by said fear, who don't care to check the facts, and who turn to the next dominoe and regurgitate the loathsome paranoia all over them. Am I saying that all Republicans are like this? Absolutely not! Nothing could be further from the truth. But the number of them that are is very alarming.
And for every ignorant Republican, there's an ignorate Democrat. The liberal strategy has been to paint McCain as Bush Jr's junior. For many democrats, that's all they need to hear. Their mind is made up. They don't need to check out McCain's policies, because in their mind McCain is Bush, and Bush is responsible for every problem in America (please sense my sarcasm.) The Democrats want to scapegoat Bush and sink him in America's misfortune, and they want to chain McCain to him.
This election is just too important to rest on the votes of the enthusiastic ignorant. Both sides have intellectuals that make a great case for their candidate. In order to choose between two compelling arguments, you must be able to listen to both sides. If you can't, you're allowing yourself to be a puppet. If more Americans are puppets than those who are not, then Democracy in the United States is a farce, because it's really just two puppetmasters letting their puppets fight.
I'm reminded of the robot wars that I've seen on TV. If you haven't seen them, these guys build these robots for combat, and put them in a ring and let them go at it. But when the battle is over, who gets the worst of it? Yep, the robots. When McCain or Obama loses, they'll go back to the Senate and continue to live above the rest of us, and will probably try again in 4 years (well, maybe not McCain, but...). What if the robots called a cease-fire and turned to those holding the remotes and asked, "why should I?"
First of all, there was a tight race in the Democratic primary between a white woman and a black man. It would have been history if either had won, and of course, they were facing each other. So that was crazy. It turned out the the democrat's "dream ticket" of Obama and Clinton did not happen, and so it appeared there would be no female candidates in Election '08. Wait, enter Sarah Palin.
And we're off...A very old and experienced Senator from Arizona running with an attractive, young Governor (for 20 months) from a state with 670,000 people that is not, well, your typical state. In the other corner we have a young and eloquent Afrincan-American Senator (for 4 years) from Illinois, and on his ticket is long-time Senator Joe Biden, whose expertise lies in foreign policy and education. That will make for a very interesting campaign.
Change, first championed by Obama in the primaries and quickly adopted by McCain, is the goal. We want to change Washington, and we should. We want to change our reputation in the world, and we should. But, it has become evident that much more than Washington needs changing.
Not unpredictably, the candidates have encountered racism, sexism, and stereotyping from all angles. Both sides of the divide are guilty. While the "official" campaigns are busy mis-representing or just plain lying about each others' policies, the "unofficial" campaigns are busy doing things much more disturbing.
From the Republican persuasion, there are those who are creating lies (i.e. distractions) about Obama: He's a Muslim; he's a terrorist; he's not a natural born citizen; he's a socialist--all lies to create fear in the minds of Americans. But that's just the start, like the first fallen dominoe in a chain of millions. The rest of the dominoes are ignorant Americans propelled by said fear, who don't care to check the facts, and who turn to the next dominoe and regurgitate the loathsome paranoia all over them. Am I saying that all Republicans are like this? Absolutely not! Nothing could be further from the truth. But the number of them that are is very alarming.
And for every ignorant Republican, there's an ignorate Democrat. The liberal strategy has been to paint McCain as Bush Jr's junior. For many democrats, that's all they need to hear. Their mind is made up. They don't need to check out McCain's policies, because in their mind McCain is Bush, and Bush is responsible for every problem in America (please sense my sarcasm.) The Democrats want to scapegoat Bush and sink him in America's misfortune, and they want to chain McCain to him.
This election is just too important to rest on the votes of the enthusiastic ignorant. Both sides have intellectuals that make a great case for their candidate. In order to choose between two compelling arguments, you must be able to listen to both sides. If you can't, you're allowing yourself to be a puppet. If more Americans are puppets than those who are not, then Democracy in the United States is a farce, because it's really just two puppetmasters letting their puppets fight.
I'm reminded of the robot wars that I've seen on TV. If you haven't seen them, these guys build these robots for combat, and put them in a ring and let them go at it. But when the battle is over, who gets the worst of it? Yep, the robots. When McCain or Obama loses, they'll go back to the Senate and continue to live above the rest of us, and will probably try again in 4 years (well, maybe not McCain, but...). What if the robots called a cease-fire and turned to those holding the remotes and asked, "why should I?"
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