Nice try
I heard a dentist from Chicago, an otherwise rational man by the sound of it, explaining on a BBC radio documentary this week why he was voting for John McCain.
Twice he used the phrase "Those who would choose to harm us", showing that he was parroting thoughts from somewhere other than his brain.
Barack Obama is a brilliant man, he said. The "but" hung in the air. And "brilliant" wasn't a word he would use about McCain, he added.
So far so good.
Then he said: "But his tenaciousness ... his integrity ... his honourability ... it just chokes me up when I think of it." He sounded like a Catholic who has just seen the Virgin Mary.
I don't know what he said after that. I slammed the car radio off in a fury and nearly hit a bus.
Because what he was saying is that Barack is a smartass. He's black. He's not a warrior. He doesn't understand about defending the homeland. He's not really American in the way McCain is American.
Multiply that insight by ... a hundred million? ... and what you get is President John McCain and Vice-President Sarah Palin.
It looks to me as if Obama peaked too early, and that America is reassessing him, and rather fancying McCain. Of course a lot can happen in six weeks. And maybe Obama has a plan. Maybe even a good plan.
But events are running against him. Pundits say the present financial crisis won't make much difference. But I think it makes people nervous and afraid, and that's when they want to play safe, not take risks.
I wouldn't let that dentist anywhere near my teeth, let alone into a voting booth. People ought to be licensed to vote — show that they have reached at least a basic level of objective knowledge. But the voting booth is where Mr Dentist is going, in his scores of millions, to send a clear message: "Nice try, Obama, but we ain't ready for you yet."
posted by JT @ 9:13 PM
4 comments
links to this post
4 Comments:
Jeremy, America is too big, too diverse - when it comes to voting. Wasn't it you who recently pointed out that there is a large middle America which is very different from the rest?
Since I am of a practical bent: Is an election about the politics a party offers or is it about personalities, skin colour, gender? Why not make it a beauty contest? After all, who wants McCain's face on a screen near us for years to come?
And, Jeremy, never engage in political debate with ANY dentist. The pleasure will be all his.
U
Hello, from the belly of the beast! It's a good thing I don't drive a motor vehicle, I cuss and scream at the radio and t. v. at all the politics...so no worries about brake-slamming for me. As a 51 year-old Yanqui who lived in Greece and Australia for a brief period during the reagan/early bush I regimes, I have been enraged by the policies and actions of this military/prison/pharmaceutical/medical/technological/educational/industrial complex and have worked, as much as possible, in my own small way, against it. The elections in this country have always been a sick joke; now the tactics of disenfranchisement of a wider swath of the u. s. voting populace are just uglier and more in our face. Two national elections stolen with no revolution and the good ol' richest white boys and their billions didn't care enough of a fuck to duke it out legally. Why? because it doesn't matter; none of the elected officials care; they are in the political game for power and privileged gain. If they appear to be for the people and for the environment, they are duping folks. The twin towers were brought down by the u. s. government, our bridge here in mpls. collapsed and another one reconstructed in "record time" with not enough regard to actual safety, the thug cops of each of the twin cities and other military forces were super-funded/armed by the feds at the expense of real human needs prior to the republican convention in st. paul. And "our" respective so-called democrat mayors of each twin city had their white privileged male pissing contests enhanced by whatever ugly limelight they could derive from the before, during, after of the police brutality frenzy. There is now difference between any of these candidates running for the white house. All the isms used by the privileged in their ceaseless efforts to divide us will be in place until we do real work in revolution and rise up and take over. This "nation" was "created" on a basis of rape., torture poisoning, genocide and many other forms of violence against First Peoples; hence the chickens are constantly coming home to roost...and, under the banner of capitalism/imperialism/patriotism u.s. policy perpetuates the violence here at home and everywhere else it can reach. The only solution is a revolution. Sorry for the rhyme and the long, long time I took. This is the first time I've seen your blog. Many dentists' brains are toxified by mercury and by the vicious, elitist form of medical training they receive here in the u. s.
Love & Solidarity from minneapolis!
Stefalala
I don't know the origin of the following, but it does articulate very well the double standard among US voters that so infuriated you, and many others, rightfully:
If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents,you're "exotic, different."
* Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, a quintessential American story.
* If your name is Barack you're a radical,unpatriotic
Muslim.
* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a
maverick.
* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.
* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend
12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign
Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.
* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the young heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
* If you teach children about sexual predators, you are irresponsible and eroding the fiber of society.
* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very
responsible.
* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America 's.
* If your husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with
at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that hates
America and advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.
Pity the poor dentist Sir,for although he makes you angry, that is only him being him, and as I first learned from you (and others later), everyone is entitled to their opinion.
Would you advocate a return to plural voting? If not, then let the man have his vote.
"One man one vote" - as we have here in T&T, and given the administrations we have ended up with over the past 20 years I know just how you must have felt when you nearly rammed that bus.
In the final outcome, whoever wins in November, do you think that the world is going to change for the better? If so, how? And how will it affect me? And you?
"Let it be, let it be, there will be an answer, let it be". The words of Sir Paul remain wise in spite of his folly.
"I'd love to change the world, but I don't know what to do" comes from Alvin Lee.
We all need change, but the problem is that to effect it we must be constantly aware of it in the short term, as you very much seem to be. Short term because what's 85 years max in the history of civilization?
Sometimes I feel like Manning is driving me mad with rage and outrage. Like you and McCain.
This last comes from Neil Young:
"Don't let it bring you down, it's only castles burning".
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home