I have to admit that from time to time during the Bush years, I have watched my fellow Americans support all kinds of cruelty and insanity, from the bombing of Baghdad and Fallujah to the ignoring of Hurricane Katrina to the torturing of taxi drivers in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo to the gutting of all meaningful action on global warming, and I have thrown up my hands and said, "So, take what you deserve and like it! Sow the wind if you want, reap the whirlwind, and welcome." From time to time I have lost not only hope but care for my fellow citizens, who have seemed intent on destroying themselves and others for the sake of things I do not and cannot understand. Dictatorships do horrible things, and their citizens are employed to do them, but for a self-advertised democracy to do horrible things seems to me a lot worse -- we are all implicated. We can never walk away from crimes that we failed to prevent, because as citizens of a democracy, it was our job to prevent them.
Here we are at another election day, and when I read about Republican voters in Ohio threatening Obama supporters and screaming that Obama is a Muslim (Rev. Wright, where are you when we need you?) or a terrorist or the Anti-Christ or a Communist or a Socialist, that old knee-jerk impulse takes over again -- I think, go ahead, wreck your country, see what I care! You want Sarah Palin as president? See where that gets you! Why should you be saved from yourselves?
Back in February, 2006, I wondered here on the Huff: "Isn't there always a moment in the life of every dictatorship when the tyrants take the gloves off in public?" And then, "The Republicans might have to then enforce their power with vigilante groups and lynch mobs. Are we there yet?" Since then, we have gotten closer to that point. The Republicans grow more and more shameless -- so shameless in their fearmongering and lying that if we didn't know them so well by now, we would think they were kidding. McCain and Palin and their spokesmodels have shown that they will say anything to retain power, and, if they have to, they will make every attempt to assure that after the election their base will be violent and ungovernable.
And yet, this election day is different, and even though Obama cannot solve all our problems, he is, in fact, a reason not to throw in the towel and move to France. It is pretty clear right now that Obama supporters far outnumber McCain supporters. The country is full of people who have given up on the Republicans -- who recognize that Bush and Cheney took them for a ride, that Palin was a sucker-choice for VP, that McCain is erratic and dangerous, that Obama's race, in their minds, is an entirely secondary consideration to his intelligence and vision. In fact, the country is full of people who are more hopeful and less cynical than I am. And I find it inspiring. As much as I detested Karl Rove, he had me with that "permanent Republican Majority". Maybe I kind of fell for that (screaming all the way down). Even as I speak, the voters are lined up out there, and most of them are voting for Obama. They can see with their own eyes what is going on, so if the Republicans steal the election again this time, they won't believe it for a minute.
Right now, on Monday afternoon, I am not going to say that Obama's win won't be a fight. It could be. I hope it isn't. And as the moderates leave, the Republican base gets more and more unpredictable. But whatever happens and however long it takes, I do believe that the majority of Americans are awake and aware. And that's inspiring. It makes me think my country has a future. And it makes me care about that future. Thanks, Barack!
Faith
Love
If you had to choose one of these, which one would it be ("Charlotte Gray")?
Now, back into your box and have another cup of kool-aid.
The thing that has made me saddest: It's taken some people WAY too long to open their eyes to the destruction.
My two paranoid fantasies are:
[a] That is exactly where we'll be, in a matter of hours. Greg Palast makes it clear that the Obama campaign has been loathe to raise the spectre, through this interminible election season, of a stolen election. He says it's because they don't want to "discourage" citizens from voting. I say it's because one of the great American fairy tales a candidate must flog, in order not to be destroyed ny the MSM, is that It Can't Happen Here;
[b] If Greg Palast and I are wrong, are you REALLY confident that President Obama will govern as a progressive? E.G., the environmental disasters that Bush is this week giving away to corporate interests... the news item even says, a new president will have "other priorities" than to turn them around somehow.
Will all the average people who knocked on doors, did videos, wrote to Bubbe and Zayde, held bake sales, etc., just SIT there, as Obama then "governs from the center"? Is THAT why you broke your asses for That One?
And will you be returning him to office in 2012 because, yet again, he's "all you got"??
If President Obama is to restore our honor and rescue us from the "tyrants", let him begin by prosecuting those responsible for THIS outrage:
http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/confess/
I say, welcome to the OBAMA EFFECT.
It will consist of those millions who will no dare confess to their conservative friends and family that they will vote for Obama in the privacy of the booth.
on the night Madelyn Dunham died
to touch the hem of a champion
to shout out our love for him
and the hopes we have for our nation--
O where are our mighty Whitmans now
for history is in the offing,
and there is no Red America,
nor one single true blue America;
no fake America--
we fight together, we bleed
and die together
so that one voice
can change one town
and one town change one state
and one state can change a nation
and a nation given to its better angels
to its one by one by one
can change the world.
Fired up!
Ready to go!
holding "firmly without wavering
to the hope
that we confess."
I'm not American but this election is so important for all of us in the world. There's a mix of hope and fear here in Europe, but the general feeling is that we want to believe in you again, we want to believe that America is capable of being the great country that it once was.
YOU have the rare opportunity of changing not only your country but the whole world, of having a REAL and palpable impact on all of us. Can you imagine the power of your voice ? No citizen of any other country has that power. Use it. Please vote. For all of our sake.
I hope you did not mean this in a literal way, AlixV. Voting is only the very beginning of what we need to do if we want real change.
No president can make changes unless the Congress (the lawMAKERS) are also on board and under immense, constant public pressure to change. They must all know they will be voted out if they do not deliver.
If we want change, then after we vote, we need to participate much more and keep a very close eye on each member of Congress as well as the new president.
We must stay with it and demand that all our leaders make the changes required to restore order, peace and economic security in the United States. If they don't deliver real results we all can see in our own lives, we promptly remove them and replace them with competent leaders who have better intentions.
President Obama will be the president Americans require him to be and nothing more is possible. So lets raise the expectations!
Believe me when i say alot of people outside the States thought those very same things the past 8 years of America, EVEN before 9/11!
As a foreigner living in the States can i just say that Obama may be Americas "saving grace" and man do you guys need one. Hope was beginning to disappear from sight. Having said that, "never count your chickens" as they say.
I hope.