Clearing something up
Published by Panda on Friday, May 09, 2008 at 8:10 PMI was standing in the elevator today, with a copy of Time announcing that the "winner" of the Democratic primary is... probably going to be Barack Obama. My downstairs neighbor Jonathon saw this cover and noted that he likes Obama a lot, but he's been around the block a couple and he's seen this "Hope" thing fizzle out time after time.
I would just like to comment on that. I am not supporting Obama because of his message of hope. All of this "Change we can believe in" and "Yes we can" business is just advertising to me. What's more important is that he actually treats voters (for the most part) as if they are intelligent people that capable of making decisions for themselves. I am incredibly tired and disgusted with politicians that essentially treat elections as popularity contests - smearing their opponents because of their race, gender, passing association with certain people, or phrases taken out of context, and essentially putting bullshit at the center of the political stage, rather than a substantive discussion about what is actually wrong with our country and how it can possibly be fixed.
So for me, this primary and the upcoming election is not about hope. It's about rejecting a set of actors (and I am looking squarely at the media and the politicians that play by their rules) who consistently make molehills into mountains and mountains into molehills.
I would just like to comment on that. I am not supporting Obama because of his message of hope. All of this "Change we can believe in" and "Yes we can" business is just advertising to me. What's more important is that he actually treats voters (for the most part) as if they are intelligent people that capable of making decisions for themselves. I am incredibly tired and disgusted with politicians that essentially treat elections as popularity contests - smearing their opponents because of their race, gender, passing association with certain people, or phrases taken out of context, and essentially putting bullshit at the center of the political stage, rather than a substantive discussion about what is actually wrong with our country and how it can possibly be fixed.
So for me, this primary and the upcoming election is not about hope. It's about rejecting a set of actors (and I am looking squarely at the media and the politicians that play by their rules) who consistently make molehills into mountains and mountains into molehills.
