Four years ago, as a Democrat, I wasn’t feeling particularly comfortable with Sen. John Kerry as our nominee for president. I remember coming to a passage in reading George Stephanopoulos’ "All Too Human" autobiography where he described meeting candidate Bill Clinton and characterizing him as the "real thing." But before he met Clinton, Stephanopoulos had met with the Kerry team also running for president in 1992 and was not impressed. He felt Kerry wasn’t inspiring and that his campaign would eventually drop out. That impression stuck with me during the 2004 presidential cycle. I was not surprised when Kerry didn’t fight back against the malicious, fallacious, and slanderous attacks against him. I wasn’t surprised when he didn’t dispute the undeniably stolen election in Ohio.
Today, I don’t feel the same. I’m delighted, energized, and inspired by Barack Obama. But I can’t make heads or tails of the Republican ticket. Quite simply, it confuses me.
In 2000, I’d be willing to bet many people who were Democrats (or Al Gore supporters), would not have complained (too much) if he lost to John McCain. John McCain represented many things that were good about politics. Although I never subscribed to that "Maverick" label (what does that mean, really?), I didn’t think he was of the Republican Right-Wing. He was a moderate and moderates do the best job of governing. But the John McCain circa 2000 is not the John McCain of today. Today, he is a tired looking old man who has forfeited everything he used to stand for just so he could sew up the base of the Republican party.
In watching the RNC, I can not see nor hear anything substantive in anything they’re doing. Tell me one thing new coming from this convention. Lower taxes? Check. Smaller government? Check. Anti-choice? Check. It’s just boring. But the thing that strikes me the most is that these people are mean. For four days/nights, the Democrats stood up and praised John McCain for his service to his country and called him a man of courage. Then they presented their case for why his policies will not be good for this country. Are the Republicans doing anything close to similar at their convention? No. Every speech I’ve heard or read says the exact same thing. Obama is scary. Obama is inexperienced. Obama isn’t American. Obama you can’t trust. Obama is the most liberal person to ever walk the face of the earth (to hear them describe it, the most liberal person to ever walk the face of the earth ALWAYS wins the Democratic nomination! Go figure). This is no way to win an election folks. You’ve got to give me a reason to vote for you. All they're serving up is a Petri dish of hate and fear. More of the same, I suppose.
The irony of the "theory" of conservativism is that it has proven that it doesn’t work. It’s no longer a theory at all! There is no doubt, that by every measure, the country is in worse shape today than it was 8 years go. Since Nixon and especially Reagan, the Right has pushed this theory that if you free up the richest among us, society at large will benefit. Additionally, they want everybody to believe that government is bad. The bad bad bad, terribly bad and must be eliminated kind of bad. They have been pushing for a "unitary executive" since Nixon, and finally got one in Bush. My guess is that they want a society more closely resembling a monarchy than a democracy. They want a rich upper class and a poor underclass. There is no room for a middle. I find it dispiriting that they will campaign on a concept of government not working, so elect me, and I’ll prove it to you. This confuses me because without the government working the way it has, the rich white oligarchs wouldn’t be rich. The very foundation of this country has made it possible for these people to prosper. Why do they want to change it so much as to not resemble the country that was founded over 230 years ago?
The reality is that government is not bad, it’s essential. It is here for a purpose. And the USA has a unique government that allows for it to mutate and grow and change and experiment. It’s something we should all celebrate and never take for granted. But the Republicans don’t want that. Eight years ago, when there was a Republican majority in EVERY part of our government, the conservative theories were put to work. Politicize everything, work for a permanent majority, silence the dissenters, and eliminate any sort of constitutional nuisance (like Checks and Balances) that could potentially distract us from our God given mission. It failed. It failed because government has a purpose and is essential. It failed not because of the gross incompetence of the people running it (although that didn’t help), but because the theory can’t work where the governed have a say; as we do, as in a democracy.
The Republicans have not given us any reason to hope, dream, or to be inspired. They have reverted to the fear meme once again. Sure it will motivate their base whom John McCain instills no confidence. But their numbers have shrunk. Their base is no longer big enough to matter. People truly feel upset and betrayed by the Republican crew running our country for the past eight years. They do need a change. And the winds of change are blowing. No amount of disparaging attacks can alter that course. The numbers will be large for Barack Obama. And that will be a good thing for our country and democracy.