What Has Gotten Me…

About the “terrorist,” “Muslim,” “communist,” “kill him” chants, the racist and bigoted anti-Obama e-mail smear campaigns, and the hate-crime-inciting Obama-and-a-noose graphics is that this level of disrespect and public hatred is being spewed at a sitting United States senator. Please name one other United States senator that people have chanted “kill him” or “kill her” about.

Some conservatives will rightly point out that some liberals — and I’ll bet some conservatives too — have called George W. Bush a terrorist. Is the “terrorist” label appropriate for George W. Bush? Probably not, given that terrorists, as understood within political theory, are recognized as individuals or groups that act to intentionally destabilize the existing government or political structure, and that use the tactic of terrorizing — i.e., instilling fear among — the general population to carry out their agendas. By these standards, Bush isn’t a terrorist. However, Bush has been responsible for the nation’s foreign policy for the last 8 years, and it is undeniable that he has neither acknowledged nor taken responsibility for any of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Public denunciation of Bush’s leadership is justified; calling for him to be killed is not. In fact, I’ve only read about calls for George Bush to be killed — or at least, insinuations of such — from protests held by radical factions in Middle Eastern (and perhaps European, but I could be wrong) countries where effigies of George W. Bush are burned.

What can be said about the sitting United States Senator from Illinois that justifies the hate speech directed at him? What justification is there for any American to call for the assissination of a sitting U.S. Senator, let alone a presidential candidate? Have these people no shame? Does John McCain have no shame?

Yes, I get that these people represent an extreme minority of McCain’s supporters, but correct me if I’m wrong that McCain has touted his leadership as a reason to cast your ballot for him. What type of leader lets these hate-filled, vitriolic attacks continue? You’ll excuse me if I don’t find McCain taking the microphone away and saying, “No ma’am, Sen. Obama is a good family man whom I disagree with,” as a resounding renunciation of this behavior. When I see that people in “your camp” are freely spewing racist hatred and religious intolerance, I have the expectation that you — who are asking to be elected to the highest office in our nation, an office that people turn to for leadership and a sense of the national spirit — will take the extraordinary steps necessary to send the message that in America, that is not acceptable.

Remember when Obama delivered his major speech on race relations in America? Why hasn’t John McCain done the same? This is equivalent, especially at this juncture, with more and more publicized invectives popping up. Where is John McCain’s major speech on the melting pot that comprises the great country that he purports to put first? How is he putting the interests of America first by letting this hatred and bigotry continue unabated? Does he really expect me to believe that it’s better for the country to be so bitterly divided? Is he practicing the old medical technique of lancing a boil, hoping all this hatred will spill out, and then the nation will miraculously heal?

To bring it back to a man in a video who said Michelle Obama made Barack say he’s a Christian so he could win the election (really?!? who comes up with this?), I empathize more and more with the Michelle Obama who wasn’t as proud of her country as she was during the Democratic primary, when a black man and a woman were the front-runners for the presidential nomination of a major political party. I’m not very proud to claim those Americans who spew this hatred, and I’m not very proud to claim those who just pass it off as politically charged extremism. There’s something fundamentally wrong with the statements these people make, the impunity with which they deliver them, and the fact that they show no qualms, no shame, and no trepidation about saying this stuff in public.

McSame Ad Debuts

Finally! The Obama campaign has finally, FINALLY hit back against McCain’s & the GOP’s negative attack ads. Took friggin’ 3 weeks for the Obama to come back hard enough to stop McCain’s climb in the polls. Here’s McSame:

i think i figured it out

I’ve supported Obama for a while, but when I attended my caucus in February, I was almost equally supportive of both Hillary & Obama. There was just something about Obama that I was drawn to, but I couldn’t really articulate why I felt compelled to support him over Hillary Clinton. I mean, Hillary pretty much personifies everything that I believe in: she’s a successful woman who has acted as a leader and hasn’t apologized for being who she is. You all know how as women, we’re often marginalized, patronized, demoralized, or deligitimized because of our gender — and when we exhibit personality traits that society tags as “masculine,” we can find ourselves described as bitchy, pushy, or overbearing; have our sexuality questioned; and other nasty things. So as a feminist, I really felt like I was not being true to all the positive aspects of the feminist movement that Hillary Clinton represents. From a policy perspective, Obama & Clinton are fairly equal, although there are differences in the details — but their big-picture approaches and visions are so similar as to be nearly indistinguishable.

 

So since February, I’ve been trying to put words to my gut decision to support Obama, and it wasn’t until last night, listening to both of them speak, that I figured it out. From Obama’s speech:

[I]f we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth. This was the moment — this was the time — when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals.

That was the part that got me — again. It’s the same message that Obama has been delivering to people. Where he has been criticized within the Democratic Party for promising change without concrete strategies to do so or for a perceived lack of experience demonstrating changes he has led to enactment, it is that last part of his speech that summarizes what his whole campaign has been about and why I support him. He isn’t promising to deliver a panacea of solutions on a silver platter; he is challenging each and every American who has felt frustrated, left behind, unrepresented, and disenfranchised to do two things: believe in a better alternative to the current situation, and do something to move our society to that better alternative.

Remnisicient of JFK’s call to action that indirectly has been tied to an increase in public service among my parents’ generation and the establishment of the Peace Corps, Barack Obama has said it’s time to stop standing on the sidelines, waiting for politicians to enact the policy changes you want to see happen. It’s time for you, America, to talk to your neighbors about ways to save money on gas and groceries and to ensure that your neighborhood doesn’t become a wasteland because of record foreclosures and jobs being outsourced. It’s time for you to believe in the power of yourself. The only role I play is to inspire you, to remind you, to encourage you, and to perhaps facilitate the infrastructure to empower you. My job will be to work to mitigate the barriers to your empowerment; my job will be to engage you and to encourage you. But my job will NOT be to do the work for you.

That’s the indefinable “it” that differentiated Barack Obama from Hillary Clinton for me: Hillary Clinton, with all her touting of experience and a desire to serve the people, almost overpromised without setting out a clear expectation that everyday people like you and I would have to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty to achieve the policy changes for which she and Obama both advocated. I don’t want a president who’s going to promise me the moon when I know, I know that one person alone cannot change a dysfunctional system. I want a president who’s going to promise me the moon — but only if I’m willing to build the infrastructure to reach it.

Barack Obama has been clear from the day he announced his campaign in Illinois that his campaign was not about him; it was about the American people. I believe him. I believe that his origins as a community organizer are what propelled him to victory as the Democratic presidential nominee: He asked people to dream. He provided a canvass and encouraged people to paint the picture of the America they believe we can be — and he has told us that for that picture to become real, we now have to put down our paintbrushes and start laying the bricks and mortar of whatever it is that we painted — but WE have to do it. And that’s what a community organizer does: instills a sense of purpose in a community by finding a common bond, then empowers each member of the community to contribute his or her expertise to achieve an end that could not otherwise have been reached individually.