I will admit, I have at times cordially hated both sides in this interminable Democratic primary contest; both have periodically used tactics and language that made me wonder if either Clinton or Obama deserved a chance. But more than that, I've been puzzled by the backers of either candidate who state publicly that they will not support the other candidate should they be the nominee. Moreover, that they will cross party lines to vote for McCain rather than sully their ballot by voting for the person who defeated their candidate. In all fairness, I've heard that far more from Clinton's supporters than from Obama's -- for good or ill, Obama's supporters have tended to be somewhat more diverse than Clinton's, and it's hard to justify voting for the Republican party line in those circumstances. What many Obama supporters have said instead is that they simply will not vote. And in either case -- voting directly for someone you hate, or indirectly by not voting against him -- it's a baffling position. I've said, in various places, that because I think that either Democrat would be more supportive for the issues that are important to me, I'll hold my nose and vote for whichever one got the nomination, that I think either of them would be a better president than McCain, a.k.a. Bush encore.
Michelangelo Signorile -- whom I'm sometimes more than a little irritated by -- manages to get to the gist of the matter. (Sorry. Couldn't resist.)
A Rough Day on the Show
...I have been hard on both of these candidates at times, and praised them both as well at other times. In truth, I was annoyed with one of them at various points, only to get annoyed at the other at other times, and it really doesn't matter who I voted for because it was the person I was less annoyed with on that particular day. Had my primary occurred a week later I would likely have voted for the other!
That said, we now have a presumptive nominee, and it is historic and it's time for everyone to come together. I have challenged listeners throughout these months about their support of both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. But one thing I have said is that no matter what happens, we've got to beat down John McCain.
That's why I got tough on Wednesday with many angry Clinton supporters -- understandably demoralized -- who called in to say that there was no way they could vote for Obama and would now be voting for McCain. This, even though they would rather a Democrat, and in some cases they are gay and understand that John McCain courts antigay bigots....
And listening to him both alternately try to understand and shred a caller to his radio show who states that he'll be voting for McCain since Clinton lost is a truly priceless moment:
On the other hand, Mark Morford demonstrates one of the things that has most annoyed me about this campaign. I mean, I get that American politics is the politics of personality. It shouldn't be -- we absolutely should not be voting for president based on whether or not we "like" someone, but on their policy proposals and their political record. But American politics is what it is. That said ... honestly, this type of attitude makes me want to smack someone.
find I'm having this discussion, this weird little debate, more and more, with colleagues, with readers, with liberals and moderates and miserable, deeply depressed Republicans and spiritually amped persons of all shapes and stripes and I'm having it in particular with those who seem confused, angry, unsure, thoroughly nonplussed, as they all ask me the same thing: What the hell's the big deal about Obama?
I, of course, have an answer. Sort of.
Warning: If you are a rigid pragmatist/literalist, itchingly evangelical, a scowler, a doubter, a burned-out former '60s radical with no hope left, or are otherwise unable or unwilling to parse alternative New Age speak, click away right now, because you ain't gonna like this one little bit.
Ready? It goes likes this:
Barack Obama isn't really one of us. Not in the normal way, anyway.
This is what I find myself offering up more and more in response to the whiners and the frowners and to those with broken or sadly dysfunctional karmic antennae - or no antennae at all - to all those who just don't understand and maybe even actively recoil against all this chatter about Obama's aura and feel and MLK/JFK-like vibe.
To them I say, all right, you want to know what it is? The appeal, the pull, the ethereal and magical thing that seems to enthrall millions of people from all over the world, that keeps opening up and firing into new channels of the culture normally completely unaffected by politics?
No, it's not merely his youthful vigor, or handsomeness, or even inspiring rhetoric. It is not fresh ideas or cool charisma or the fact that a black president will be historic and revolutionary in about a thousand different ways. It is something more. Even Bill Clinton, with all his effortless, winking charm, didn't have what Obama has, which is a sort of powerful luminosity, a unique high-vibration integrity. [...] Are you rolling your eyes and scoffing? Fine by me. But you gotta wonder, why has, say, the JFK legacy lasted so long, is so vital to our national identity? Yes, the assassination canonized his legend. The Kennedy family is our version of royalty. But there's something more. Those attuned to energies beyond the literal meanings of things, these people say JFK wasn't assassinated for any typical reason you can name. It's because he was just this kind of high-vibration being, a peacemaker, at odds with the war machine, the CIA, the dark side. And it killed him.
Now, Obama. The next step. Another try. And perhaps, as Bush laid waste to the land and embarrassed the country and pummeled our national spirit into disenchanted pulp and yet ironically, in so doing has helped set the stage for an even larger and more fascinating evolutionary burp, we are finally truly ready for another Lightworker to step up....
I'm not a rigid pragmatist, certainly not itchingly evangelical, or any of all that other stuff. And I suppose all this is interesting, in its own way. And, yes, perhaps I did sprain something with the strength of my eye roll. Yes, Obama is wonderfully charismatic. Maybe he's something special, maybe he isn't. But at the end of the day, honestly, I don't give a rat's ass if he's a "Lightworker", whatever that may be. I want to know if his policy ideas are in line with what I'd like to see happen. I want to know if there's any chance that he can get those policy ideas, however attenuated, through Congress. I want to know that his priorities for the future work with my priorities for the future.
The charisma, the "lightworking", those are all just the lagniappe. Or they should be, anyway.
Posted by iain at June 06, 2008 02:02 PM
