Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Enough! This Election Is NOT About Obama

Is America regressing? Seriously. What is going on with this election?

In our personal lives we change jobs, dump boyfriends and return products when they don’t live up to our expectations. Why don’t we do the same when it comes to our politics?

This election is not about Barack Obama. It is about whether or not we as Americans want to turn our backs on the failures of the past eight years and make positive progress towards a better future. It’s about reining in the corporate interests that have poisoned our economy and restoring trust in America both at home and abroad.

The past eight years have been fraught with lies, destruction, and greed. Like a cheating spouse that begs for forgiveness yet again, John McCain pleads with the American people that he is the agent of change. McCain holds Sarah Palin aloft as evidence that he is different now, different than “those” Republicans. He swears it won’t happen again because he’s learned his lesson. No matter that, since his crushing defeat at the hands of Karl Rove in 2000, his voting record shows that he votes with Bush Administration more than a majority of the time (when he manages to show up). And make no mistake, Sarah Palin isn’t a pitbull in lipstick, she’s Dick Cheney in drag…and probably a better shot.

John McCain may not think you’re stupid (that’s the purview of Karl Rove and Steve Schmidt), but he thinks you’re forgiving. He thinks that if he pleads long enough and hard enough, you’ll forgive his transgressions and give him and his friends (because, let’s be honest, John McCain is bought and paid for) just four more years. Of course, John McCain’s friends also think that your suffering is part of a mental recession and that because Americans can go to an emergency room, there's no such thing as an uninsured American.

Reality provides a different look at the situation for Americans. McCain knows this so he wants to shift the debate (and thanks to our spineless media, he’s been able to). He doesn’t want this election to be about the issues or the problems that Americans are facing. He doesn’t want to talk about the economy or the war in Iraq (the Surge is ok though); he doesn’t want to talk about renewable energy or the soaring deficit. Because he knows he will lose if Americans demand an explanation for the last eight years. He knows he will lose when people ask him “How will you help us?” and he has no answer. No, John McCain wants to make this election about Barack Obama. Just look at his ads. Doesn't look like the "respectful campaign" he promised, does it? A majority of McCain’s ads focus on Obama because McCain is attempting to force the debate away from the real issues of this election. The fact that these ads are largely based on falsehoods is lost on most Americans (thanks again, “journalists”).

Now, conservatives will point to the fact that Democrats have been in control of Congress since January 2007 and, by that simple fact, it means that they are somehow responsible for our current situation. But, until one of those yammering heads can point to what legislation, exactly, the Democrats have passed that would have caused this, their argument is moot. Unfortunately, the Dems in Congress have capitulated on every issue. They haven’t forced an end to the war in Iraq, they haven’t repealed the Bush tax cuts or ended oil subsidies, they caved on FISA. And they took impeachment off the table, right up front.

Now, in the rare instance where Congress manages to pass meaningful legislation that would actually help Americans, such as Children’s Health Insurance or enforcing the Eighth Amendment by banning torture or improving the Medicare system, Bush goes and vetoes it. So, next time your child has to go without medical care or you hear of Americans being tortured as retaliation for the torture at Guantanamo, don’t look at this Congress. Cast your disapproving eye to the Republicans who refuse to actually help Americans.

So, in the words of Barack Obama: Enough!

Enough with this fake-outrage BS. Enough with the circus and non-issues. I don’t care who is wearing lipstick or which side can feign outrage faster. This has crossed the line from tedious to ridiculous. This election is not about Barack Obama. It’s about the crises that have been created in the last eight years and what we are going to do to reverse the damage. If you think the Constitution can stand one more pass through the shredder, then go ahead and vote for the old guy who keeps changing his positions and his fundamentalist sidekick. I, personally, like the First Amendment and want to keep it around. After these last eight years, I’m going with the Constitutional Law professor and the Senator with the history of real progress.


(This pretty much sums it up)

1 comment:

Linda said...

I have been reading several of your blog entries. I agree with most of what you write.

How can US voters force the candidates to address the issues, especially when most TV and popular media are owned by large business?

Here are the issues important to me, in this order:

1) Restore our constitutional rights:
a) impeach and/or try as war criminals - repeat as often as necessary
b) strike down unconstitutional laws (torture, removing habeus corpus, wire-tapping, spying on use of libraries & internet, etc etc etc)
c) teach the bill of rights in *every* grade from 1-12 in the public schools
d) buy TV airtime to re-educate adults on the Constitution (people's rights & responsibilities, lawmaker's, court's and executive branch's responsibilities)
e) force public servants - people who hold public office - to be account able for their words, decisions, actions (I'm not sure how to do that)

Why is this issue 1st? If the current decimation of the Constitution remains as it is, we will be unable to fix any of our other problems. Very rich people and large companies have control over our government's activities, not the brainwashed pawns we've allowed ourselves to become. (Good book: Gore's "Assault on Reason")

2) The environment crisis. Why is this 2nd? If we don't make significant progress in this area very soon, our species' survival is in serious jeopardy. If we have no drinkable water, edible food, breathable air or non-cancerous sunshine, will it matter who won the '08, '12, '16 elections? If we fail, there won't be any "wealth" to fight over. Nothing of physical value will be left if the environment doesn't support life.

3) The economy. Why? It's very difficult to focus on fighting the good fight if we can't afford living.

4) Education. Why? See #1 above. If people aren't well-educated not only in Mathematics and English, but also in Social Studies and Science, will they learn critical thinking? How many Americans can think and speak their "way out of a paper bag"?

5) Values. What sort of values say its okay to do the heinous things we have been doing to people, domestically and internationally? Where is our dignity, our integrity, our trustworthiness, our due diligence, our truthfulness, our compassion? How about the radical notion that we American People have much more in common than we have different, when it comes to our VALUES? Let's stop "religifying" good ethical and moral behavior. Let's stop letting the politicians divide people along their polarizing sound bites; let's figure out what we jointly value, and find compromises in the gray area we'll no doubt find.

Other issues which matter to me, in no particular order: security (war, terrorism, borders), women's rights, accessible affordable good quality health care.

Thanks a lot for your blog! I'm putting it on my favorites :-)