War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength
With apologies to the post below, not all of us are thrilled at Barack Obama’s victory yesterday. I would go so far to say that I am the opposite of thrilled. Let’s break down the pros and cons of America’s choice:
- Pros: A person of color is elected President of the USA.
- Cons: Everything else
When I went to vote yesterday I was viewed with thinly veiled disgust when the poll workers found out my party affiliation (hint: not democrat). I ignored their scorn and did my civic duty, although I knew even then that it would probably be futile.
And of course it was. Obama won and my city exploded into a frenzy of honking horns and wild street celebrations that lasted long into the night (I could throw in a cheap jab about Democrats not having jobs to wake up for, but I am not that petty). Personally, I found it all a little ominous. Let’s face it, there is a creepy cult of personality built up around Mr. Obama. His logo looks like it was designed by Goebbels and his posters and one-word, vacuous slogans all have a certain Stalin-esque charm.
Of course I realize that the world probably won’t end with Obama’s presidency. We got through Kennedy and Carter relatively unscathed, didn’t we? I can always bury my guns in the backyard before the federales come to confiscate them for my “safety”. Let me end this with a special fuck-you to California, who not only voted for Obama but also outlawed gay marraige (yes, narrow-minded liberals, republicans don’t all hate gays), and an extra special fuck-you to the People’s Republic of Massachusetts who outlawed greyhound racing (the dogs are going straight from the track to the crematory, you stupid hippies).
I leave you with this soundtrack to my emotions/tribute to Obama:
1. Isn’t it a Pity – George Harrison
2. November Spawned a Monster – Morrissey
3. Don’t Trust the Kids – Ashra (N/A on iTunes)
4. Makes No Sense at All – Hüsker Dü (N/A on iTunes)
5. The Great Pretender – Brian Eno
9. You Get What You Deserve – Big Star
10. American Nightmare – The Misfits
11. Taxman – The Beatles (N/A on iTunes)
12. Spend, Spend, Spend – The Slits
13. Revolution Blues – Neil Young
14. Complete Control – The Clash
15. Hope Against Hope – Band of Susans (N/A on iTunes)
16. America, Fuck Yeah – Team America World Police
17. Things’ll Never Be The Same – Spacemen 3
18. I See A Darkness – Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
19. Evil Will Prevail – The Flaming Lips
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I understand your pain. I felt it 4 years ago, and 4 years before that. So I won’t patronize you in any way. I just intended my post to be more a cultural recognition of the importance of the event in terms of our national history. Not so much a political endorsement of Obama. Of course, it’s nearly impossible to divorce any event these days from politics. But shit, we’re still alive.
I guess I have just one more thing to say, and this is more politically related. I guess I just don’t understand the polarization of negative feelings about Obama being elected. Like you said, the world didn’t blow up, and I would venture even much less devastating things will also not occur.
I honestly believe that as an Obama supporter I wouldn’t have been completely devastated if McCain had won. Disappointed yes. But would I have thought, “Shit, we are fucked?” No. McCain’s campaign certainly scared me in its waning days in terms of the ugly tactics, but I have to believe that once in office, McCain would have returned to being the moderate, thoughtful, independent that he was before he required the endorsement of the Republican party. I believe the Republican party (and the Democratic Party for that matter) has strayed very far from its once grounded ideals and intellectualism. To scorn education and careful debate like it has is unfortunate. Conservatism is now a scary, creepy uncle, rather than the thoughtful, small government, free enterprise, strong constitutional patriarch it used to be. The Democratic party has become the always stoned, burnt out, good-for-nothing uncle of the once government regulation, social service-oriented, living constitution matriarch it used to be. That’s why I prefer to label myself progressive rather than liberal when forced to use labels.
Anyway, I think this election process has shown more than anything the ability of a two-party system to polarize and divide its constituents to such an extent that we no longer can recognize each other for more than ugly, bitter, shells of citizens. Which is a sad, sad fact. But what do we do? I don’t know.
Can we please watch Volga Volga on silent while listening to Blackouts sometime?
Rusted-
I think we do exactly what our founder’s wanted us to do– give up the party bullshit, or alteast give some serious scrutiny to the two party sysem. There are few things as silly to me as voting down a party line– under what circumstances is it sound to vote for every member of the same party? when you are an uninformed voter who views the political process as winning to impose a set of ideas of others for the next chunk of years. party voting, and party politics, belittle the importance of choice, and it distort the relative independence of the positions we vote for.
i sound like an illiterate fool in that comment. hope you understand my point depsite that.
Above, Fortuna_Köln gets sketched out by Obama’s cult status. Don’t all politicians have cult status? In order to receive millions of votes, you have to have millions of fans. Sure, Obama’s cult may have a good number of college students, hippies, and unemployed citizens but I’m sure McCain’s did as well. (see: this site). In addition, I’m sure like G. W. Bush, Obama had a fervent (Judeo-Christian) religious following.
It’s always hard to pick one person to represent an entire party. There will likely be people who feel excluded, took, or manipulated. If you don’t believe this is a natural tendency, look at middle school elections for class president or reality TV.
Lonnie, I agree with you about voting down the party line. Even in the elections where I did vote straight party ticket, I made sure to press each individual electronic button for fear of looking like an ignorant voter. I refuse to press the button that casts all votes for one particular party.
My question is – how easy is it for a voter, even one that tries to be informed, to really know the candidates? With all of the pandering and money that is thrown into campaigns, how come there is no easy way to find out a candidate’s exact platform. Last spring, I had to vote for judges in traffic court. What is a candidate’s platform for traffic court judge? I give more tickets? I give less tickets?
Traffic court judge may be a silly example but what about attorney general or auditor general or other state offices that may be stepping stones for a political career?
Moreover, I think this is especially a problem for preliminary elections when the voters decision is between candidates of the same party. How am I supposed to know if democratic candidate A is better than democratic candidate B when I hardly know what either of them represent?
Although I hate to vote straight party ticket, sometimes I feel like I may as well be voting in this poll.
Well-written piece, and I applaud you for taking the high road. I was conflicted throughout, and I guess I’m happy, in a sense, that Obama won. That said, I wasn’t parading in the streets. Like, all of a sudden we live in a Utopian society? The effect a President has on the lives of individuals is actually quite nominal. In two years from now, you will hardly be able to tell the difference.
As for a black dude being elected – that’s pretty sweet. Politically, though…meh.
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