Expediency Incorporated
A colleague wrote:
There is only one political party operating in Washington: the War & Money Party. While it has different wings and cliques, it still only looks out for the wealthy. The people from whom they select are beholden to the tried-and-true methods of getting things done--bombing and invasion as foreign policy; bailing out the rich first, in times of crisis (see Bank Crisis; Katrina; et al).
And you believe that one of their select is going to provide "hope," and "change?" Or, that the "Maverick" is going to "reform" the same criminal practices he abetted?
If so: I have a Bridge to Nowhere, to sell you--cheap (oh, but wait...I forgot: we own that, already)!
In the meantime (while you're fishing in your change-jar to buy that bridge): consider this...
I responded:
You wrote that I "believe that one of their select is going to provide 'hope' and 'change' [and] 'reform' the same criminal practices he abetted". Clearly you misunderstand me. I don't disagree with you about the D.C. branch of global, oligarchical monopoly with two faces. I think we only disagree on how to respond. I refrained from voting for the War and Money Party and voted Green across the board in 2000 and 2004. I will do so again.
Today, I believe Obama actually possesses altruistic principles and an active conscience, is capable of brokering the kind of change that is needed, and will do his best (inadequate as that will be) to move the system in a direction more resembling representative democracy than will McBush. The capacity and the attempt are what is required, unless you can literally predict the future. The rest of the naivete you project on me is ill considered and premature, as we've had no chance to really discuss any of this. I will vote for Obama because of the reasons listed above, which I require in a statesman regardless of affiliation, and because he can win and prevent the literal continuation of identical policies generated by the GOP, not because I believe his policies will suddenly reflect the Green Party platform. I couldn't bring myself to vote for Kerry, because he lacked (as far as I can tell from this distance) even a few of the qualities that might create a ray of "from the inside" hope. That weakness on my part was a definitive vote for the agenda we know by the shorthand "Bush" and I'll not repeat that, come Hell or high water.
Voting is largely a personal exercise symbolizing the hope that principles proper to public service remain essential and must re-enter the political sphere. Our contemporary system is such that actual "popular" votes have little to no effect on the "election" of any regime in the United States. But voting is still is a necessary symbolic action and that is another discussion. Some day, perhaps soon, there will once again be a democratic republic on these shores. Feel moved to run for office? | posted by Unknown @ 10/16/2008 04:09:00 PM
