Many of the points that people brought up here and elsewhere were the same points that made me vote for Hilary Clinton during the primaries (and oh the sh*t I
got from Obama supporters). The lack of experience, the cult of personality, the mephistifalean rise to power from "community leader" to presidential
candidate.
But as a party loyalist, I vote for my party. This is not in any way a mindless thing. Simply an acknowledgment on my part that the positions of my party are
my own positions. The Democratic party's platform conforms to my own political beliefs.
(Caveats here and there, of course.)
And no I don't believe that an Obama presidency, a majority in the House and Senate -though not the supermajority that they hoped for-, would bring about a
transformation of how the nation works or how politics are done. Indeed, with the money that the Obama campaign has brought to the party, you can pretty much
kiss campaign reform goodbye for the next ten years or so. Now that the wind is blowing Democrats, you can bet there's a lot of Republicans kicking
themselves for not making McCain-Feingold stronger when they had the chance.
And let's not kid ourselves even more: the economy's going to be in a repression for the forseeable future. Not just the US economy, the world's
economy. Homeless people here, starving people there. It's pretty much a perfect storm of sh*ttiness. We might be reducing our presence in Iraq, whatever
the hell that means, but we're never, ever leaving Saudi Arabia. And the regimes in Syria and Egypt will never change their ways. Camp X-Ray isn't
coming down. Energy will be scarce, no matter what source we get it from. The environment is turning poisonous.
And, oh yeah, Palestine just bomb Israel again. Right now.
So why be happy? What's going on? If the change we're getting isn't that much of a change, why the celebration?
Because it is big, it is important. Americans have decided on a president that looks more like "them" than he does "us." Race is important
because we make it important. Symbolic, maybe. But people die for symbols every day. And it really, honestly does put paid to the Bush Doctrine. Granted, it
was unlikely that Sen. McCain would have followed on the unilateralism and myopic tendencies of the Bush administration, ignoring so very much in favor of
Iraq. Perhaps even of "preventive war", though that one's a bit unlikely. Internationism, cooperation, diplomacy--these things will be more
likely under an Obama administration than they would have been for a McCain administration, if only because gosh-darnit the durn ferreners like Obama better.
They do.
(And of course the Democratic party platform will be the salvation of us all, praise goodness, etc. etc.)
So here's to Obama: the repository of all our hopes, dreams and fears. Not a Muslim. Not a terrorist. Probably not a communist. More centrist than I would
like him to be. Much more cynical than his supporters think he is in all likelyhood. Most certainly not a panacea for all our ills, social and otherwise. But a
change, nonetheless. For the better? For the worse? Only time will tell.
Oh, yes. And as for the liberal media: as a loyal liberal, I say: thanks for the hard work. You made us all proud to be under your absolute control.
PS: How to bring it back into geekiness? I was just re-reading Eagle: the Making of an Asian-American President by Kaiji Kawaguchi. Really weird parallels.
got from Obama supporters). The lack of experience, the cult of personality, the mephistifalean rise to power from "community leader" to presidential
candidate.
But as a party loyalist, I vote for my party. This is not in any way a mindless thing. Simply an acknowledgment on my part that the positions of my party are
my own positions. The Democratic party's platform conforms to my own political beliefs.
(Caveats here and there, of course.)
And no I don't believe that an Obama presidency, a majority in the House and Senate -though not the supermajority that they hoped for-, would bring about a
transformation of how the nation works or how politics are done. Indeed, with the money that the Obama campaign has brought to the party, you can pretty much
kiss campaign reform goodbye for the next ten years or so. Now that the wind is blowing Democrats, you can bet there's a lot of Republicans kicking
themselves for not making McCain-Feingold stronger when they had the chance.
And let's not kid ourselves even more: the economy's going to be in a repression for the forseeable future. Not just the US economy, the world's
economy. Homeless people here, starving people there. It's pretty much a perfect storm of sh*ttiness. We might be reducing our presence in Iraq, whatever
the hell that means, but we're never, ever leaving Saudi Arabia. And the regimes in Syria and Egypt will never change their ways. Camp X-Ray isn't
coming down. Energy will be scarce, no matter what source we get it from. The environment is turning poisonous.
And, oh yeah, Palestine just bomb Israel again. Right now.
So why be happy? What's going on? If the change we're getting isn't that much of a change, why the celebration?
Because it is big, it is important. Americans have decided on a president that looks more like "them" than he does "us." Race is important
because we make it important. Symbolic, maybe. But people die for symbols every day. And it really, honestly does put paid to the Bush Doctrine. Granted, it
was unlikely that Sen. McCain would have followed on the unilateralism and myopic tendencies of the Bush administration, ignoring so very much in favor of
Iraq. Perhaps even of "preventive war", though that one's a bit unlikely. Internationism, cooperation, diplomacy--these things will be more
likely under an Obama administration than they would have been for a McCain administration, if only because gosh-darnit the durn ferreners like Obama better.
They do.
(And of course the Democratic party platform will be the salvation of us all, praise goodness, etc. etc.)
So here's to Obama: the repository of all our hopes, dreams and fears. Not a Muslim. Not a terrorist. Probably not a communist. More centrist than I would
like him to be. Much more cynical than his supporters think he is in all likelyhood. Most certainly not a panacea for all our ills, social and otherwise. But a
change, nonetheless. For the better? For the worse? Only time will tell.
Oh, yes. And as for the liberal media: as a loyal liberal, I say: thanks for the hard work. You made us all proud to be under your absolute control.
PS: How to bring it back into geekiness? I was just re-reading Eagle: the Making of an Asian-American President by Kaiji Kawaguchi. Really weird parallels.