For full disclosure I have read all the opinion papers and policy positions I can find on most of the candidates in the race, Republican and Democrat alike. That is why I don't see Ron Paul or John Edwards as off to the wings crazies but people who have studied the problems and have some workable positions and solutions.
As I write this I am coming off the fresh information that Barack Obama has won in a 2 to 1 margin in South Carolina, Caroline and Ted Kennedy have both come out and not only endorsed Obama, but compared him to JFK and effectively passed the torch to him.
I have been torn in this election already. I started out for Edwards because he was unashamed in his bearing the standard of Liberal Progressives. After the holidays and visiting the Clinton Library in Little Rock, I was swayed back to undecided but leaning heavily toward Clinton. I saw what was accomplished and I thought that a second eight years of that would not be bad at all. I decided to put down my fears about D.C. insiders regaining power and corporations having the inside track to the White House again. I thought that maybe she could do it well and Bill would be nothing but an asset. I ALMOST put down my fears about having a dynasty set up in the United States.
Then I saw how the Clinton campaign reacted to failure and I realized that it could be the worst possible thing to keep going down the road with them and the divisive tactics that they employ. I am not saying it is their fault, because as soon as they hit the general election the Rethug assassins will be out gunning for her character. I think she has excellent ideals and possibly excellent morals as well. But the character question is coming into doubt with me as she chooses to allow these same type of attacks, attacks she has claimed to be the victim of for years, to be carried out in her name. Especially when it is about someone with whom she disagrees so little with. And when she is up against that the only difference you can paint between the two is that one wants to embody hope and one wants experience to be her guide. The only way that she can win this battle is to attack hope and that brings me to the real core of the issue that started this thread.
But Barack has something different. He really does seem to have hope. And that is an important point to emphasize.
It is one thing to hope for something and an entirely different thing to have hope itself. Hope itself can spread to others. Hope itself can inspire others. Hope itself CAN change things for the better
. And that is what Obama wants to do. His speeches and ideals seem to go beyond the talking points. He believes with conviction his message.
I was not alive when JFK was in office. I was not even a distant consideration at that point. So I cannot feign to understand how people felt about him running or how they felt about RFK after him. I can't pretend to know how people really felt when they were killed. I do know how I felt when JFK jr. died. It was a loss that I felt deeply. A loss of potential for the future.
I am in the unique position of being on the tail end of the generation X group and the head of generation Y. I have friends in both and I have watched both groups closely to see which, if any I embody more.
The one thing I noticed is that we want to hope. We want our shining tower moment. Not of greatness and honor, but of selflessness to a noble cause.
A cause that promises to right the wrongs that have been perpetrated against us in our name. We want to see justice done and equality granted. It is this cause that will get us involved and keep us there.
Over the past eight years we have had wars, some public and some not, tax cuts and debt piled up in our name. We have had a surplus spent and our economy looted by corporate greed. Our reputation as Americans has been destroyed internationally. (I studied abroad in 2004 and 2005 in Latin America and in the E.U. It was amazing to see how people despise us entirely because of our President.) We have been played by fear and war mongering imbeciles who think we are a foolish mob.
And then we were discounted on the whole as a generation of non-starters by both parties as a political tactic. I say that we just had not found the person that could ignite us in the way we desired to be. I say now that that person is Barack Obama.
The torch has been passed to you Senator Obama of Illinois. Please use it wisely. You may see it as strong and robust. But it only takes a stumble to extinguish that flame for us. Only a stumble to douse that hope for the future that we so desperately want to brightly burn. Bring us together sir. Make us an America where everyone truly is a part of her. Where we all are respected and needed. An America that we sincerely can call the land of the absolutely free and home of the truly brave. We hope you can do it.