It's not my intent to knock President elect, Obama before he takes office. Rather, I'm elated to have him as our next President. However, the news of his intent for Senator Lieberman and possibly Senator McCain is not sitting right with me.
The two Senators have shown me the stark reality of their collective character over the past several months, and I'm here to report that sadly, the tactics both of them used, endorsed, or otherwise ignored the use of during the campaign reflect what I strongly believe to be the characters of two men who have gone beyond the threshold of the ability to transform themselves into persons abhorrent to bigotry or pursuant to the unreachable, but necessary goal of personal righteousness.
At first, my motives against Senator McCain's Presidency were rooted in political and a general ideological opposition standard to both being a staunch Democrat and a Dem who has seen the arc of Republican rule over the past eight years. Further, I felt that Senator McCain was a lousy candidate: one who would fumble around and take every wrong turn imaginable in his run, which turned out to be true in a grand, magnificent, omnipotent sense. I feared at first that the "center-right" notion might bleed into the minds of the less galvanized Republican voter and teeter McCain over the edge on November 4th. This feeling, however, lasted only a few weeks, and the confidence in my original assertion was reinforced on an hourly basis.
When Lieberman stepped up to the podium. When he entered the building. When the thought sparked in his narcissistic ID to support Senator McCain; well, he lost me at his lack of concession in 2006. Still, his actions were actions of betrayal to his Caucus from day one. All clubhouses aside, for the good of the American people, Senator Lieberman should have been purged from the first moment he uttered a single mean-spirited, polarizing word about the then Senator from Illinois.
All of that aside, these are not the reasons I want to see the two marginalized to the maximum extent the President Elect can issue. Rather, point blank:
It was the bigotry.
It was the use, subdued or otherwise, of the ancient tactics of racism, ethnocentrism, gender/sexual preference based, and economic bigotry by the McCain campaign that warrants their condemnation.
Beside the hilarity of John McCain's bid for the White House lies an ugliness that I had never seen before in a Presidential Election (I'm 37.) Whether or not the Senator, himself uttered a measurable quantity of such slander is irrelevant. Whether Senator Lieberman, his staunchest supporter, is featured in a vast or sparse litany of soundbites, which expose his own bigotry makes no difference. The campaign— the umbrella they both stood under was a myriad example of the institutional use of bigotry for political gain. Both are guilty, and despite any supposed words of "grace" or "unification," as the punditry has celebrated over the past week; the reality and effects of their efforts resonate out here on the cold concrete of reality.
Senator McCain's speech grants him no forgiveness in my eyes. Senator Lieberman's support for this horridly underpinned campaign does nothing more than increase my disdain for his seat in the Senate. Unless both men have an epiphany in the vein of Ebeneser Scrooge on Christmas morning, the ghosts of their bigoted campaign should follow them to the end of time.
None of us are immune or pure of any number of prejudices. It is to us to both change ourselves toward the righteous and forgive those who are diligently struggling against their own perceived flaws. While at this point, I despise these men for their more recent activity; that is not to say that they would not be deserving of the mercy of human nature should they turn around. Rather, it is to say that today, they are clearly unchanged, and incapable of change at this point. Thus, I truly hope that President Elect, Obama (God, I love saying that!) takes this tiny notion into consideration.
Actions have consequences. Perhaps one day, we'll see this shared reality take hold in the prestigious caucuses within our elected government.
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