shimmeringjemmy posted earlier today. I’m going to follow up with a bit more rhetoric.
I seriously ask friends and readers to take the time to read this and follow the link at the end.
Like many people I have been very angry at the last 3 elections. My anger has not stemmed from what the Republicans are doing to the Democrats. My anger has stemmed from what the Democrats do about the Republicans.
Personally, I had pretty much come to the conclusion that both parties want nothing more than to polarize the country to take the inevitable decision out of the populaces hand so that they could turn it into a contest to see which side could wield the better legalese interpretation.
And then in my eyes… it got worse. The Democrats would counter with minority candidates. Now personally, I’m not pleased with what government (read the current administration) has done in the past 8 years. But… I really saw no draw from the candidates on the other side of the alley either.
When I entered the Washington caucus I did so uncommitted to a candidate. I was hoping that there’d be more representation at the caucus.. but apparently that is not the time to actually discuss candidate issues. I walked away from the caucus at least feeling like I could vote Democrat but not necessarily feel bound to one candidate or the other.
Over time I moved into the Obama camp. In researching the candidate he actually covered issues that meant something to me. His videos are often subtitled. He talks about problems with outsourcing, education, poverty. But he doesn’t simply throw around the issues. He talks about where the problems are coming from, what mechanisms have prevented them from being repaired and how to deal with them.
In the last few weeks, the whole minority issue has been thrown around. X says Y and thats about race. Y says X and that’s not about race. And of course the political thing is to look away or doom say those who spoke improperly.
This week, Obama went in an entirely different direction. He stood up and talked about race. He commented about how we have race issues in this country. He commented about how ignoring the issues and side stepping them doesn’t resolve them. By politicising them we don’t deal with them. He pointed out that by making them non-issues or political-issues… they will never be non-issues, we will never find resolution and things will not change.
He said that once again we can turn this into political partisan bickering. We can worry about if it’s a “race” race. We can judge politics on trends. We can do the same thing we’ve been doing for 8-12-20 years. And at the election we can be in the exact same place.
Or we can face the actual issues. We can look at why there aren’t jobs for Americans. We can look at why our education system is failing. We can look at why an average middle class American can’t afford a house and work on those issue for the future.
For years. I’ve begged people to look at what’s actually important and stop turning this into a “What the other guy does to make him Evil” race.
Obama has given a speech that make me proud of the country again. Proud of its accomplishments and potential. There is a perspective of reality. And a faith that it can improve.
I strongly suggest you listen and read this speech it is YouTube embedded along with a 99% accurate transcript. It is moving, sincere, and speaks volumes.
Maybe if we can get more people to realize what the issues really are… Maybe if we can remember that picking sides is for sport not for governance… Maybe we as a people can say, “Not this time”
I’ve got my candidate and I am actually enthused about him