Barack Obama asks Americans to think!
April 28th 2008 23:45
Every election I wait - will this be the one where real issues are what decides the election? When fear and hate mongering aren't the main motivating factors for so many voters? An election that brings out real debate instead of sound bites? When average Americans finally wake up and stop voting for their own economic demise? Will the youth vote actually show up? Will a decent majority of voters even bother? Up to this point I have always ended up disappointed. More than a few Americans have cast their vote based on nothing more than fear of homosexuals or concern about public displays of the Ten Commandments. While the country has been pushed inexorably to an autocratic for profit enterprise benefiting a very select few. Will the election of 2008 finally be different?
There is a candidate who has tried to shift the paradigm into the realm of real issues and away from idiocy. His name is Barack Obama, and he is the best hope America has had in decades for real change and movement meant to reverse the destructive politics and policies that have so endangered the country. Barack Obama has refused to take corporate money and has refused to engage in the politics of personal destruction. He wants this election to address the concerns of Americans more than the results of cheap manipulations. But will it happen?
Right now Obama is embroiled in the Reverend Wright controversy that doesn't seem to want to die. What Reverend Wright says now and has said in the past is having a direct effect on Barack Obama. Funny, the equally offensive comments made by supporters of McCain like John Hagee and company don't get nearly as much scrutiny. Obama is being hit by the right and the Clinton campaign. What politicians (and Americans) could learn from the "pastor problems" is that they make a mistake when they hitch their wagon to the religious. Sure, it works if you are trying to appeal to the fundamentalist base - and the damage done to America by politicians pandering to that base is very apparent.
What the Obama candidacy does is to ask us to move beyond that. To stop choosing who we would want to lead us by criteria like religious litmus tests or vague references to their patriotism. America is facing some big challenges in the coming months, from a looming depression to a military increasingly mired down in an occupation to skyrocketing and broken health care to an abandonment of civil liberties and ethical behavior. We cannot afford to let those who would fool us again to do so.
Barack Obama is a candidate unlike any in recent memory. He has refused to go down the same old muddy road and instead moves ahead with dignity and grace. While the right - and unfortunately, the Clinton campaign slog through the same bad politics. We need to become smarter than that, America. We need to vote for a president who will be a steady and strong leader in the deepening storm that swirls around us. We need to think, and not be manipulated by fear and fright.
C,mon, America - the world is watching. Are we smart enough to see through the fog?
There is a candidate who has tried to shift the paradigm into the realm of real issues and away from idiocy. His name is Barack Obama, and he is the best hope America has had in decades for real change and movement meant to reverse the destructive politics and policies that have so endangered the country. Barack Obama has refused to take corporate money and has refused to engage in the politics of personal destruction. He wants this election to address the concerns of Americans more than the results of cheap manipulations. But will it happen?
Right now Obama is embroiled in the Reverend Wright controversy that doesn't seem to want to die. What Reverend Wright says now and has said in the past is having a direct effect on Barack Obama. Funny, the equally offensive comments made by supporters of McCain like John Hagee and company don't get nearly as much scrutiny. Obama is being hit by the right and the Clinton campaign. What politicians (and Americans) could learn from the "pastor problems" is that they make a mistake when they hitch their wagon to the religious. Sure, it works if you are trying to appeal to the fundamentalist base - and the damage done to America by politicians pandering to that base is very apparent.
What the Obama candidacy does is to ask us to move beyond that. To stop choosing who we would want to lead us by criteria like religious litmus tests or vague references to their patriotism. America is facing some big challenges in the coming months, from a looming depression to a military increasingly mired down in an occupation to skyrocketing and broken health care to an abandonment of civil liberties and ethical behavior. We cannot afford to let those who would fool us again to do so.
Barack Obama is a candidate unlike any in recent memory. He has refused to go down the same old muddy road and instead moves ahead with dignity and grace. While the right - and unfortunately, the Clinton campaign slog through the same bad politics. We need to become smarter than that, America. We need to vote for a president who will be a steady and strong leader in the deepening storm that swirls around us. We need to think, and not be manipulated by fear and fright.
C,mon, America - the world is watching. Are we smart enough to see through the fog?
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