this is just to say....
Oct. 29th, 2008 09:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vulgarweedIt's not a done deal yet, but the polls are looking good. I know there are Republicans reading this, so I just want to give you a warning.
It's been 12 years since I've had the experience of backing a winner. And even then, Bill Clinton going into his second term had disappointed me with numerous sellouts. Overall, I thought his Presidency was good for the country--remember, he left us with a huge budget SURPLUS--and I couldn't care less who sucked his dick and where. But "don't ask don't tell" and NAFTA and welfare "reform" were punches in the gut I won't forgive. Still, he beat the alternatives like a rug.
So if what I think is going to happen happens? I will be dancing in the street, gloating, celebrating, toasting, and yes, saying I'm proud of my country for the first time in, if not my adult life, at least the last 15 years. It's my journal, and that's the kind of thing it's FOR.
If you're feeling just a teeny fraction of the sick existential nausea, paranoia, and distrust/contempt of my fellow man that I felt in November 04 and November and December 00, well - I'm sorry. Believe me, I KNOW what a vile feeling it is. I promise I won't come into your journal and rub it in your face. But I won't bend over backwards to pet you on the head either. Your people HAD power for 8 years and, well, you see where it got us. I know people who have *died* because of lack of ability to afford health care. I know of people who *died* in the war that President Gore would never have started. I know of people who *died* in the ruins of New Orleans when President Kerry would have moved the full force of the Fed immediately to rescue, shelter, and feed them. It's not about a cultural "identity" like your favorite fandom or your favorite band - actual real people's lives hang in the balance of every vote cast, and every small tick upwards in the minimum wage, or advances in health care, or preventing dropouts, or diplomacy instead of saber-rattling, can mean the difference between real individuals, with inner lives as rich as mine or yours, living or dying. I firmly believe that my vote is for hope over fear and life over death. So don't expect me to be all "evenhanded." I will enjoy my celebration fully - for once.
It's been 12 years since I've had the experience of backing a winner. And even then, Bill Clinton going into his second term had disappointed me with numerous sellouts. Overall, I thought his Presidency was good for the country--remember, he left us with a huge budget SURPLUS--and I couldn't care less who sucked his dick and where. But "don't ask don't tell" and NAFTA and welfare "reform" were punches in the gut I won't forgive. Still, he beat the alternatives like a rug.
So if what I think is going to happen happens? I will be dancing in the street, gloating, celebrating, toasting, and yes, saying I'm proud of my country for the first time in, if not my adult life, at least the last 15 years. It's my journal, and that's the kind of thing it's FOR.
If you're feeling just a teeny fraction of the sick existential nausea, paranoia, and distrust/contempt of my fellow man that I felt in November 04 and November and December 00, well - I'm sorry. Believe me, I KNOW what a vile feeling it is. I promise I won't come into your journal and rub it in your face. But I won't bend over backwards to pet you on the head either. Your people HAD power for 8 years and, well, you see where it got us. I know people who have *died* because of lack of ability to afford health care. I know of people who *died* in the war that President Gore would never have started. I know of people who *died* in the ruins of New Orleans when President Kerry would have moved the full force of the Fed immediately to rescue, shelter, and feed them. It's not about a cultural "identity" like your favorite fandom or your favorite band - actual real people's lives hang in the balance of every vote cast, and every small tick upwards in the minimum wage, or advances in health care, or preventing dropouts, or diplomacy instead of saber-rattling, can mean the difference between real individuals, with inner lives as rich as mine or yours, living or dying. I firmly believe that my vote is for hope over fear and life over death. So don't expect me to be all "evenhanded." I will enjoy my celebration fully - for once.
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-30 07:01 pm (UTC)My own insane family, no matter the deeply entrenched Southern attitude, no matter the edges of racism that peeked out in the household sometimes while I was growing up, all of them were behind Obama before Hillary even stepped down. Now that fucking says something.
Nah, Obama won't be perfect. Who the hell ever has been? But he's made me feel something I haven't felt in ages when it comes to being an American -- the possibility that I might be proud of that fact someday, instead of feeling the need to apologise for it.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-31 04:52 am (UTC)Why? For all his flaws, Bill Clinton was/is a diplomat. Negotiating peace settlements between camps that have hated each other for 500 years is something he enjoys as much as he enjoys blowjobs, and it shows. He's curious, interested, compassionate, and knowledgeable. He finds other cultures interesting and wants to help in a sincere way. I see a lot of that in Obama - I got that from reading his first book, where he talks about his experiences as a child in Indonesia, and a half-black half-white teenager in Hawaii, and a young man visiting his relatives in Kenya for the first time.
Compare that to the Shrub, who on his first visit to Brazil rode from the airport in a limo with blacked-out windows, and later came out with such gems as "Wow, it's a big country!" and "Oh, do you have blacks here?"