As Barack Obama emerged as the frontrunner in the Democratic primary this past February, I imagined a different Election Day than years past. I wouldn’t be as nervous about the outcome because I thought the Democratic nominee would be a unifying figure. Given all the racial ugliness in our nation’s history, the thought of a black president warmed my heart. A symbol of how far we have come.
But, as the campaign progressed, my doubts began to grow. I continued to respect his intelligence and the respect he showed for conservative ideas (see e.g., this post), but became aware of his left-wing record voting record and concerned by his habit of dodging tough questions.
He was cagey rather than candid in addressing his 20-year relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Then, he began to show incredible arrogance right after he locked up the Democratic presidential nomination. First, it was his faux presidential campaign seal, then his presumptuous speech in Berlin.
At the same time, he began changing his positions on key issues so fast, one wondered if he held to any of the positions which had so inspired his followers early in the campaign. And the biggest flip-flop was his decision to refuse public financing when he had been so explicit about his intention to take such financing.
And now all these stories emerge about his campaign disabling the security safeguards for on-line credit card donations. We can’t trace many of his contributions, don’t know whether or not he violated federal law.
As a result of all this, I trust Barack Obama a lot less than I did when I first started following this election and I’m now wary of an Obama victory.
Related: Stephen Green (Vodkapundit) thinks Obama has run the dirtiest campaign since Nixon.
Putting armed thugs at polling places does not bode well for the incoming regime.
I am 22 and I’d like to capture my thoughts before America either elects a president who its first 26 presidents could have legally owned, or brazenly subverts the very ideals it was founded upon by manipulating numbers in a final embarrassingly overt goosestep towards corporate totalitarianism.
I am nervous. And not night-before-the-swim-test nervous or even night-you-lose-your-virginity nervous, it’s a low rumbling primal panic which I can only liken to Star Wars panic. Disney panic. The edge-of-your-seat-terror that makes you wonder if Skywalker’s doomed after he refuses to join Darth Vader and drops down into the abyss, if the wicked octopus or grand vizier or steroid-pumping-village-misogynist is going to wed/kill/skin the dashing prince and then evil people in dark funny costumes are going to take over the world… if it wasn’t a movie of course.
And tonight it’s not. It’s not a movie and yet I feel like Obama might as well be wearing an American flag cape while a decaying McCain, in a high-tech robotic spider wheelchair wearing an eyepatch and stroking an evil cat, gives orders to a sexy scheming Palin who marches back and forth through their sub-terranian campaign lair in four inch thigh-highs and full-body black leather catsuit bossing around the evangelical ants with a loooooong whip… umm… is this just me?
Anyway, the point is that things feel weird folks. I have friends who have peed in waterbottles to keep from interrupting a Halo-playing marathon who got off their asses/couches to volunteer for the Obama campaign not once, but many times. Friends so cheap their body content is at least 1/3 Ramen Noodle who donated a good deal of their hard-earned cash to the campaign. People have registered to vote in record numbers, and yet, something just doesn’t feel right. I think we should stop congratulating ourselves for just voting. To vote is a privilege which people have died for, and I think there’s a whole lot more to be done for the country than to simply help win an election every 4 years.
Hundreds of millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of man-hours spent on both sides by good-intentioned people who want to make a difference in an historic election, so many resources and voices and energies devoted to a single day. After tomorrow, half of that is going to have been a waste. And I can’t help but wonder what could have happened if all that muscle had been put towards something else, and what will happen to its momentum after the election has come and gone. Shouldn’t we be donating our money to good causes whenever we can? Helping people who don’t have? Dedicating some of our time to contribute to making the country which provides for us a better place? Of course a power shift is a hugely significant step on the path to great reform, but worrying about this election has been a wakeup call for me:
Even if Obama wins, we have not “won.” This isn’t a movie and we can’t toss every greedy lobbyist oil fatcat bigot down a reactor shaft. I think if we dedicate ourselves to the ongoing welfare of the country as much as we have to the outcome of this election, we’ll have a much better shot at coming closer to the overwhelming good the liberals hope Obama will usher in, but which no mere mortal could fully realize alone.
Which brings me to the other side. I’ve heard a lot of people claim that if McCain wins, they’re leaving. I heard the same thing about Bush’s reelection, and his unelection before that, and nobody seems to be leaving. And that’s fine. Because as much as I complain about certain political happenings, atrocities, etc., I really do like it here and I suspect most other people do too. We have New York and Hollywood, purple mountain’s majesty and sea to shining sea, we created jazz and country music and baseball and cars and lightbulbs and computers and that movie with hundreds of animated singing Chihuahuas! I mean who among the shivering Plymouth pilgrims ever imagined ordering hundreds of animated singing chihuahuas onto a magical box from an invisible information superweb?
The point being, if things don’t turn out the way I want tomorrow, I feel compelled, as a college-graduated adultish-type-person, to take a stand. And if I’m going to leave I’m going to leave. But if I’m going to stay I’m not going to sit around whining like I have for the past 8 years. It’s like when I don’t clean my room because it’s dirty and then I blame the dirt. So in my very indecisive way, before you and your screen, I’m declaring my intention to make some kind of stand in the event of -(Ican’tevensayit)-, and encouraging you to consider making one too…
Jump the ship or grab a bucket?
-Sigh-
Wasn’t everything so much easier back when the worst possible affront to your values was a PB&J sandwich cut diagonally with crust?
Anyways, I guess what I’m saying is that if we’re going to stay on board, we should probably be generous with our time and resources when times are tough even more than when the hero saves the day. Because what if he doesn’t? And what if he can’t? “Yes we can” should mean more than just winning an election if we’re really committed to change.
Best,
Hannah Friedman
http://www.writinghannah.blogspot.com
Hannah, don’t panic! Read some history of the politics in this country and you will be reassured. This is all really nothing new except that you are living it for a change. I recently have been reading a political history of the the lead up to the Civil War, and some of what went on makes the last two years look tame.
And don’t worry about what “we” can accomplish. Worry about what you are going to do to help keep this country the great experiment that it is. It may sound trite, but charity really does start at home (not in the halls of gubbement.)
Hannah,
“we can’t toss every greedy lobbyist oil fatcat bigot down a reactor shaft.”
Especially not the ones Obama is bringing with him. You must have heard about those. Since you are so much into politics.