Welcome to LWG's very first post on the 2008 Presidential election. Let's get right to the point. I have been stand-offish on elections for the past, oh, say dozen years or so, because I believed that no real change comes out of them.
It was merely a question of appearances, I thought. Do you like the iron fist of U.S. imperialism with or without the velvet glove? When Clinton was in office we protested the regular, low-scale bombing of Iraq, the crippling economic sanctions that caused Sadaam little difficulty but was devastating to the most vulnerable members of the Iraqi population (the children, the elderly and the infirm). Clinton brought us NAFTA, maquilladoras on the border, and a David v. Goliath war on Serbia to "liberate" Kosovo (read "liberate access to an important oil pipeline in the area and secure US regional interests).
The one glimmer of hope I felt was in promoting third party politics and so I campaigned for Ralph Nader in 2000, not because I thought he stood a snowball's chance in D.C. but because we wanted him to get 5% (I think it was) of the vote. (I'm fuzzy on it now but I think that him getting that percentage of the vote nationally would've somehow enabled greater recognition for third party candidates in the future.) I'm sure I don't have to tell you that we didn't cost Gore the election in 2000 because GORE WON THE ELECTION IN 2000! We were naive to think that in the United States of America elections cannot be stolen.
We would've voted Shrub out of office in 2004 if it had not been for the events of that day in September 2001. I knew that very day that we were entering a very heavy period of U.S. history and the only thing to do was to survive until the clouds lifted. I cast my vote for Kerry merely as a formality.
This time, however, things are different. I believe that way off in the distance, the clouds really are lifting again. There's no doubt in my mind that the next President will be a Democrat and there's no hiding the fact that it fills me with excitement to be able to say that he or she will finally break the long-outdated tradition that dictates that U.S. Presidents must be male and must be white. The only question is which one will it be?
I like Hilliary. I've always liked her. As a high school kid, I bought her book, "It takes a village" (much, I'm sure, to the dismay of my southern Republican family). I believed her smart, sincere and powerful. Do I hold Bill's record against her? No. No woman like Hillary is ever merely a shadow of her husband. To imply so, is insulting, not to mention grossly inaccurate.
That's not to say, however, that the political dynasty the Clintons have built together --mostly for the benefit of him, now for the benefit of her-- is not a deeply entrenched power structure within Washington. And that right there makes me less inclined towards her. All those debts she must've accumulated by now, all those interests, all that power! A dynasty is a dynasty even if it looks pretty on the outside. And this country was never meant to be run by dueling dynasties*.
No, Hillary is not her husband. But Barack, on the other hand, is not a Clinton. Now that that massive political machine that the Clintons have built is revealing just how massive and powerful it is, I have decided that if there is a shred of idealism left in this cynical old heart of mine, it is inclined towards the Senator from Illinois. The multi-ethnic man that is the face of the real "America", the people's America, not the ruling elite.
Here is a video of Alice Walker, who, like me, is endorsing Barack Obama:
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*well, okay that's debatable, but the point is it shouldn't be!
Great post. Love the logic and the story. I'm Obama-curious...can't commit. In the past California primaries were really, so that basically the nominees were decided before we ever got to chime in. This year we've moved 'em up, so maybe our votes will be a little more relevant.
Posted by: ~summer~ | Friday, October 19, 2007 at 08:11 PM