Obama-mania and the Dream of the New
October 30th, 2008

Zaira and I were watching the Obama TV special tonight and that got me thinking about American politics. I’ve gone and read up on previous campaigns, and just finished watching a documentary about Hunter Thompson’s coverage of the 1972 Presidential race.

A very exciting thought occurred to me amidst all of this. Regardless of who wins the big election next Tuesday, there is a very special day that’s not too far away. In January of 2009, someone is going to get sworn in as president of the United States. That day is going to be the first day that George W. Bush is not the President any more.

I have a phrase that comes up frequently: “American politics is world politics”, since what they do in their yard affects the whole neighborhood. On the one hand, I feel bad for anyone under 21. These young people have only the Bush years, and all of the complete and utter fuckery that has defined them, as their entire experience of how the world works. On the other hand, I am almost jealous of them because in a few months this nightmare will be over and they will get to spend the remainder of their formative years being shaped by something else.

With all of the changes that technology is bringing into our lives, we are in the middle of re-writing the way that society organizes itself. The changes that are happening right now are every bit as drastic as the fall of Rome or the moving of authority from the church to the state. Kennedy, King, Lennon, Trudeau, and Clinton have all had to take the lumps from old people so scared of the change that they will resort to whatever nefarious schemes they have to in order to postpone it. But the change is inevitable and each generation seems more impatient about waiting for it than the last one.

It is possible that I’m caught up in Obama-mania, but with the two candidates that my neighbors have put up as their choices for President, the decision seems like it’s between much more than two approaches to the job or two visions for what’s best for America and the world. It feels like the decision is between the start of what later generations will call “now”, or four more years of what they’ll call “then”.

There is an energy out there and even the squares and the old people are picking it up. We’re still writhing in pain from the hurt of the last eight years (and what a scar that’s going to leave), but we know that the worst is behind us and we just have to sweat it out. It will all be over soon.

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  • http://revolutuck.wordpress.com Tucker Mike

    As I tell it to people…
    the “Macanniacs” are holding on to the 20th Century. But that really ended 8-9 yeas ago..
    So it’s time to shift fwd to the actual 21. The gateway was cracked as far back as the 1960s. But the politicians in power were still pretending it was 1950 all through until now.
    We needed these past “W.” years to get us woken up into the sun that is the new century if we are to survive.

  • http://www.seanward.net Sean

    Indeed. i’ve also been immersing myself in too much Hunter Thompson.

  • http://revolutuck.wordpress.com Tucker Mike

    heh, yeah that might be a little “dangerous”.
    I need to check out that doc. that Bill Murry film was based on that time. I like it a lot more then even “Fear and Loathing..”.

  • Conspiracy Guy

    What’s worse? Someone who lies and say’s he’s going to help you, then stabs you in the face or someone who tells you he’s going to stab you then stabs you in the face. Democratic Presidents in America have a history of saying one thing and then doing another. If you look at the course of history and the changes (amendments) that past presidents made to the constitution, you’ll see that Richard Milhous Nixon was technically a better president than William Jefferson Clinton. Clinton just had better P.R. The more media is controlled by the large corporations the less “real” information we recieve. If you turn on the T.V. right now all you hear on the news is Obama this Mc Cain that blah blah blah who’s gonna be the next president. Right now George W. Bush is going on a rampage signing pardons for all of his “white collar” and war criminal buddies and you don’t hear about it. William Jefferson Clinton did the same thing. He didn`t free Mumia or Peltier but he did free a whole whack of his white collar criminal buddies. Just by writing this article you are doing what they want you to do. Ignoring the truth about the alarming things that are going on behind the scenes to talk about someone (Obama) who is basically a wolf in sheep`s clothing. The truth is, it doesn`t matter who wins the U.S. election and it never has. Whomever wins it`s the guy that`s going to continue taking away your human rights and turn you into a slave to the giant pyramid scheme called capitalism. If Obama wins he`s going to have you believe that he is such a great guy when all he`s really doing is helping the wealthy get wealthier. Ever notice that you never hear anything about Obama`s Mother. That`s because she`s a wealthy white woman who if you look at her family tree is related to the Bush family. That`s not the kind of information that wins the `poor`vote. In the United States all you`re really doing is choosing who you want to be your executioner. Unless you vote for the third cadidate who`s on the ballot but not on your T.V.

  • http://www.seanward.net Sean

    Everyone everywhere has a history of saying one thing and doing another, it’s just more obvious when politicians do it.

    I’m not sure how you judge Nixon to be a better president than Clinton. I guess it depends on what your priorities are.

    I’ll bet that every outgoing president signs a bunch of pardons on their way out. Same as a guy that works at the Cadbury factory takes a few bags of mini-eggs to give to his buddies on his way out.

    It’s just people getting up in the morning and going to work like everyone else.

  • Conspiracy Guy

    You said, “I guess it depends on what your priorities are. ”

    How about more power to the people and less to corporations. How about ending an unjust war that no one wanted instaed of bombing people. Clinton bombed Yugoslavia and Nixon ended the war in Vietnam. Clinton passed legislation to help greedy corporations and Nixon tried to give them less power. Nixon was a better “Democrat” than Clinton and he was a Republican!

    How can you compare letting poeple get away with mass extortion from poor and middle class people and stealing billions of dollars to grabbing a few eggs from the cadbury factory. That’s like saying it’s O.K. to rape babies because everyone has sex.

    It’s not just getting up in the morning and going to work. It’s running an extremely powerful country. It’s a huge responsibility that everyone who takes it abuses it to the point where there is mass poverty which is completely unnecessary for a country that is so wealthy.

    The world can be a better place but only when everyone starts taking responsibility for their actions.

  • http://www.seanward.net Sean

    Running a powerful country is a job. It just has more consequences for other people than working in an office does. Getting our politicians to live up to the responsibility of their positions is up to the people. That requires the people to get interested in politics. So along comes a guy that starts to get people interested in politics, and you’re complaining about him. You don’t get a kid to clean up his room by calling him a lazy pig. If you want to get a third party candidate elected, put up a third party candidate exciting enough to get elected.

  • http://www.myspace.com/jackstallion Rand Shuler

    obama. beginning of story. mccain. end of story.

  • Conspiracy Guy

    Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party of the United States was a very exciting candidate. She was endorsed by some brilliant people like Professor Noam Chomsky. Her running mate was Cynthia Clemente and the two of them, along with many other forward thinking Americans who aren't intrinsically tied to the mainstream, pro-Zionist war mongering American superstructure like Ralph Nader, proved that the “system” isn't working and it's time for a radical change. If color was such a factor why didn't any mainstream News sources even mention Cynthia McKinney, who is a Black Woman! That would have been “three birds with one stone” so to speak. A woman of color who has absolutely no ties to the industrial war complex. Obama is not really that big of a change and I've been complaining about U.S. politics for years because it's a joke. It's a choice between the guy who says he's going to screw you and does or the guy who says he's not going to screw you and does.

  • http://www.seanward.net SeanWard

    I'm with you on all of it, I just disagree with you on tactics. It's a glass half full or half empty situation. It's baby steps. Yesterday a guy didn't vote at all. Today he voted for Obama. Tomorrow he'll understand the process a little better and vote for the person who will bring real change. I say just stay out of debt as best you can and trust that everything else will work out just the way it's supposed to.

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