Hope.

[per_solo]

So, I've managed to watch precious little of the Obama speech, or really any of the DNC this week.

I've gone back and forth over it, for quite a while, that Obama is what the country needs, that McCain is just going to perpetuate the same bullshit that Bush has for the last 8 years. That my vote, which I've voted in the last 4 presidential elections, ultimately means something.

I waiver back and forth on that last point. Years ago, there was a teacher who said if you don't vote, you have no right to complain (Carlin, if I recall correctly, later flipped that point beautifully). Many of the people I know who do vote have a very similar rationale for why they vote.

Ultimately, does your vote count? I don't know. Just as I don't know whether any of this ultimately matters to any of us. Yes, there is much beating of the chest that Obama is better than McCain, and gee, to me that seems like a no brainer. But, what the fuck happens if, in a little over two months, we end up right exactly where we've been for the last 2 presidential elections? Gore Versus Bush, and really, no matter what, it doesn't matter if the election was rigged, or if the chads were dangling, or what...there were still enough people that it was even that CLOSE. And I'm sorry, I know a lot of people who didn't vote for bush, but you know, I've gotten into polite discussions with a few friends, or family even (though, some of the family discussions have gone further than I'd have liked) about the voting going towards Bush. Even 4 years ago...after 4 years of Bush fuckups, where I was SURE that even if it was close, it wouldn't go to him, and yet he still got it again.

So, why, exactly, do I have faith that the same 51% margin that elected George W. Bush a SECOND time, won't look and say "well, experience means more to me", or "But, He beat Hillary, and I wanted her", "Isn't that Obama Feller a Muslim??" or even MORE insultingly, "A black man in the white house?" (and yet I can hear that from certain members of my own DISTANT family, if they even bothered to vote in the first place...so, please, friends, don't hold that one against me).

That last one? Is a BIG fear for me right now. That the faith I have in humanity in general is going to fuck up and let me down, AGAIN. Over something that, in my mind, shouldn't be an issue. The issue should be accountability, and holding people to their ideals and promises.

And yet...after 4 years of Bush fuckups, more people still saw Kerry as a pretty boy..as someone who, horror of horrors, threw away war medals he had received, whereas W was someone they could "relate" to.

And people still talk of Al Gore claiming he "invented" the internet...or that his Global Warming warnings are a feeble attempt to be noticed..much like the David Spade representation in the Clerks Animated series.

Yeah, I'm still voting, I always do, I always will...but, when I come on here in November, and bitch that once again, my state was so backwards that my vote STILL didn't matter, don't be surprised.

But, if that full fledged belief, and blind optimistic hope isn't there? That little part of me that feels like it's cozying up to the man in the wife-beater shirt (or watching a Joss Whedon show)?

Don't hold that against me...I have some sliver of hope, but it's not that big right now.

But, I also have a LOT of other things I'm more worried about...School Grades, School Loans, being able to make it to school, and keeping the rest of my REAL life going...

Comments

[mooncat75.livejournal.com]

I, too, will be voting as well. I will also be upset if the state goes red again, yet I also think Democrats in this state are part of the problem for the state going red. Too many people say, "Indiana always goes red anyway, so I'm not going to bother."

One of my big fears about McCain, other then Bushist ways continuing...if you really pay attention to quite a few of his interviews it is becoming frightenly obvious he has early stages of Alzhiemer's, which is NOT something that can be tolorated. Problem is it comes on so slowly most of the people close to him will not see it and if they do won't even admit it to themselves, let alone say something to him. I do not fault the people close to him for this, but it is a reality that needs to be faced.

[crysthewolf.livejournal.com]

I still maintain that people see Obama differently than they did Kerry and Gore... at least I do. I always thought of Gore (and, honestly, still kinda do) as a bit of an alarmist fruitcake and Kerry as someone who nobody knew, or knows, anything about, who's only real platform was that he was "not Bush", and he was the embodiment of everything your momma warned you about the democratic party.

Obama offers more than just "not mccain", even, esclly, to people who don't know much about politics... but he's smart and savvy enough to win over the political types too... AND he's moderate enough not to scare off the repubs that are sitting on the fence, not wanting "another four years of the same". He's got something that Kerry and Gore didn't... some relatability, some sense of... well, making sense. He's someone willing to reach out to every side with respect, and preach freedom and equality.

And who knows if he'll follow through, but if he comes through on even half of the things he said last night, it'll be worth it I think.

Hope. If nothing else, we could all use a little of it. And, try not to forget, this stuff affects things like your student loans and schooling. ;) That was part of the list yIn sent you last night. ;)

We'll see if we can't chang te state's shade just a bit.

[ardent-firesong.livejournal.com]

I will agree on that stuff about Gore and Kerry. I wasn't even really paying much attention back then (middle school and then high school--can't vote yet, why should I bother?) but I did get the sense that Gore was a jackass and Kerry....had a large chin. He seemed and seems pretty milquetoast to me. And don't even get me started on Al Gore.

Obama, on the other hand, actually seems to have some substance. And it's interesting that I'm picking that up, considering that I haven't really heard him talk....like, at all >_> (Yeah, I know, I'm probably one of the worst kinds of voters--the one who goes out and votes for a candidate without knowing much about them. I just can't seem to find the time to fit political mindedness in with everything else I have going on.)

But I have asked my mother about the candidates--way back when Mitt Romney was still in things--and she's very politically minded. And she told me about them without going, "Well, Obama's an icky democrat, and these things are wrong with him. And McCain's a republican, so you should vote for him even though I'm not going to tell you why." And, sorry, but McCain just frickin' scares me. Hillary scared me--I'm glad she's no longer in the running in any fashion whatsoever.

So yes. It seems to me that Obama actually knows a bit about what he's talking about, actually has a head on his shoulders, and isn't in things just so he can tell people he ran for president or got elected president.

(And for the record....Bush's wife scares the shit outta me. Anyone see her at the Olympics? She had one of those Joker-esque smiles from the first Batman movie the whole time. *shudders* Burr.)

ON this point I am rediscent

[royalcrow.livejournal.com]

Okay - Indiana has its problems, but my friend I feel there indeed is a change. I walked the streets downtown during Obama's visit prior to the primary. There were folks down there who I never thought in a million billion years would even consider a dem for president - let alone wait in a line which stretched for 6 city blocks even after getting word they would probably not get in to see him.

I am not giving odds - but unless something really really screws up, Obama is the man of the hour and McBush will soon returning to his home in Arizona to tend to his Swamp coolers.

Anyway - that is what I think, your milage might vary.

pierce,
T

Re: ON this point I am rediscent

[per_solo]

Thanks for the thoughts..I'm slowly getting more optimistic, I just...gah. Hate politics. :-)

[per_solo]

Thanks for the different perspective...I just...am pretty "blah" after the last two elections..in particular, 2004. I get that Kerry was BLAH to everyone, but I still am baffled at how Kerry's Blah versus Bush's known record of 4 years of messing up...

Ah, I'm going into incoherency. :-)

[per_solo]

*nods* I think a few people have questioned that, but I have no idea what to do about it.

Well, other than voting my conscience, and hoping that Indiana has a bit less of the "Indiana never changes" mentality. In classes, one of my teachers keeps asking the students why Obama isn't reaching out to them. She's one of his supporters, and thinks that both candidates are missing out, big time, by not campaigning at all to the newest voting generation.

I just don't want to get into a funk in November, ya know? :-)