Obviously Barack Obama is the only hope for changing the course that the Reaganites and neo-Reaganites have set for this country since 1981. Barack’s primary campaign was grounded on the vast majority of US citizens’ hope for change, our need for change.
Now we are engaged in politics. The stadium crowd demagoguery of inspiring speeches and shared intentions must give way to critical thinking. The candidates must state their intentions regarding specific issues, and for many of us those intentions will fall far short of the ideal.
I was disappointed that Barack did not draw a line in the sand with the telecommunications immunity provision of the new FISA law. (Try to fit that feeling on a bumper sticker!) I was disappointed to hear that Barack doesn’t intend to step up to the issues of church and state, that he intends to continue funneling public money through private religious organizations to address social concerns. I was troubled when Barack moved away from my impression that he had a hardline withdrawal-with-a-timetable position on Iraq and temporized that he would “consult with his military commanders on the ground.”
Yet for all the disappointment I experienced from Barack’s pragmatic pursuit of a mandate, when I vote for him this fall it will be no compromise of my own idealism. I believe he is a fine Democratic candidate to take the reins at a moment in American history as critical as that in 1932 when FDR won his first term. We need a Democrat to restore needed economic regulatory policies. We need a Democrat to organize the project for a transition away from fossil fuel energy. We need a Democrat because Democrats believe there is a place in our society for the government, while modern Republicans seem intent on tearing it down.
When I hear that the two candidates aren’t all that far apart on issues that matter to me, I take it with a grain of salt. Stem cell research and nuclear non-proliferation are Democratic commitments. For McCain, the Republican intellectual heir to the Bush dynasty, they are talking points.
Americans are offering a mandate for change. In the fall we will elect a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President. These government leaders will be tasked with revitalizing the economy, addressing the energy crisis without taking food out of the mouths of the world’s children, restoring our reputation in the world, ending the Iraq War and stabilizing Afghanistan, shifting the judiciary back to an arm of government that we can respect, and perhaps bringing many of today’s white collar Washington miscreants to justice.
Barack Obama can lead these changes. John McCain would be just another buffoon, a toothless tool of the corporate elite, unable to effectuate change.
Gene and Linda Farley, Lynn Chakoian, Lessig, Dan Gillmor, Susan Crawford, Tim Wu, Tim Karr, Sascha Meinrath, John Nichols, Norm Stockwell, Eloise Rose E. Lee, and about 1500 other people whose names I don’t know yet.
Today marks the fifth year since the decider accomplished his mission. The table was tilted and all the wealth rolled into his side’s pockets. All of the benefits accrued to the rich, all the rewards. All of the costs have been borne by the poor, all the risks. As of today I have no enemies on this globe and my peace has come with a price unpaid. What is the cost of justice? How shall we value truth? What pain will we feel as we excise the shrapnel of deceit from the body politic? What stains will permanently discolor our social fabric? The cold war is long over — Churchill and Stalin and Truman and Khrushchev long dead. There never was a war on terror. We defeated Iraq and have lost ourselves in its occupation. We ousted the Afghan Taliban and wandered aimlessly in the mountains seeking bin Laden, the golem we built. The rich and the powerful are weighing the odds that thermonuclear horror in Tehran will distract us, the drums of constant war drive us mad, erode our faculties, assure continuity of the oligarchic rule that has brought us to the brink of extinction.
But I am at peace. I have no enemies on this globe. I have only my duty to the people and the truth. It’s my job to speak up and dissect the myth of Adam Smith, to remind people of the insanity that informed their economists and game theorists, the ones who provided the scaffolding of rationalization for the politics of greed.
I am not at war. I am simply a citizen looking for justice.
Seeking blue crabs, bluefish, blue point oysters in the Fort Meade/Goddard/Greenbelt area.
UPDATE:
Drove until I was lost, passing strip mall after strip mall with pizza joints and sub shops, Denny’ses and Wendy’ses and a Chick Fil-A, a Ruby Tuesday’s, and a Chevy’s. No seafood. My criteria shifted to “less known franchise” and “tablecloth” (or if crab house, newspapers would have been fine). But I am too far inland and in high geek country. Cuisine here runs more to Mountain Dew and Cheetos.
Finally found a new Italian restaurant, “Benito’s Brick Oven Italiano,” that satisfied both criteria. Ordered a Pelligrino, the fried calamari appetizer, a crab and avocado salad with interesting dressing and several dozen little cherry tomatoes, and for an entree, the baked ziti pomodori. Ended up boxing the ziti for Tuesday evening enjoyment. My splendid hotel room is equipped with both a nuke and a fridge, so if I’m dining alone after F2C, then I’m already set up.
UPDATE 2
Box lunch from Whole Foods… selected roast beef with blue cheese sandwich. No blue corn chips available though.
Move On represents the people of the United States of America, not the Democratic Party. Move On is an activist wing of the Blue Left, and if the Democrats can’t get their collective mind around that, then too bad for the Democrats. I can’t believe those spineless wimps in the Senate, Republicans and Democrats, rolled over for the little Fuhrer once again.
