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About Nonexhuberance
17 years ago
So, I've been saying less-than-effusive things about Obama's win lately. I don't want to be misunderstood.
In the first place, I realize being a downer is never popular. I don't like that it makes me less than likable, that I carry on being skeptical of things I think deserve skepticism. Let me lay it out:
I got up an hour earlier even than I usually do (which is about 5 hours earlier than my ideal, but then I AM a bear), and went to the polls, and lost and hour's pay to boot, in order to vote for Obama/Biden. Not that I couldn't have voted early. But you know, it makes a good story of miniscule hardship, right?
I also stayed up to watch returns come in well past the point at which my state, Ohio, clinched the election by showing it had decisively gone for Obama.
Obama himself spoke out against unecessary cynicism, and, at least indirectly, the damage that hopelessness can do to the will of the electorate.
But most people stop running when they think they're not in IMMEDIATE danger. We need to keep running. Criticism and skepticism are GOOD. We do not have a liberal mandate or a very liberal president, unfortunately, we have a liberal leaning centrist.
And among other things, CA passed prop 8. As I've said elswhere, what a sad little piece of fuckery. However little it affects me directly as a straight atheist Ohioan, what a referendum on the intelligence and decency of U.S. citizens THAT is.
This is just the start. Think this was awesome? Then rededicate yourself to thinking, to researching, to staying abrest of the news, communicating with everyone, looking critically at everything everyone proposes, challenging anything and everything and demand change. Hell, just find people you trust with diverse views and set an example of willingness to think, criticize, and speak. Obama isn't the change we need-- he's just a facilitator.
And I suspect, a good one. When I dare to hope, a GREAT one.
In the first place, I realize being a downer is never popular. I don't like that it makes me less than likable, that I carry on being skeptical of things I think deserve skepticism. Let me lay it out:
I got up an hour earlier even than I usually do (which is about 5 hours earlier than my ideal, but then I AM a bear), and went to the polls, and lost and hour's pay to boot, in order to vote for Obama/Biden. Not that I couldn't have voted early. But you know, it makes a good story of miniscule hardship, right?
I also stayed up to watch returns come in well past the point at which my state, Ohio, clinched the election by showing it had decisively gone for Obama.
Obama himself spoke out against unecessary cynicism, and, at least indirectly, the damage that hopelessness can do to the will of the electorate.
But most people stop running when they think they're not in IMMEDIATE danger. We need to keep running. Criticism and skepticism are GOOD. We do not have a liberal mandate or a very liberal president, unfortunately, we have a liberal leaning centrist.
And among other things, CA passed prop 8. As I've said elswhere, what a sad little piece of fuckery. However little it affects me directly as a straight atheist Ohioan, what a referendum on the intelligence and decency of U.S. citizens THAT is.
This is just the start. Think this was awesome? Then rededicate yourself to thinking, to researching, to staying abrest of the news, communicating with everyone, looking critically at everything everyone proposes, challenging anything and everything and demand change. Hell, just find people you trust with diverse views and set an example of willingness to think, criticize, and speak. Obama isn't the change we need-- he's just a facilitator.
And I suspect, a good one. When I dare to hope, a GREAT one.
There's no excuse for laxity, in that you are correct. I 100% agree. I'm not going to look at Obama with dewy eyes (or at least, not too dewy, he's a great orator). I'm looking at him with hard criticism. Time for change he says? Okay, let's see it. Now's the time to cash that check his mouth wrote. He came into the race a runt, and I'm glad he won. but I'm not letting down my guard.
I still don't trust politicians. They are habitual liars and professional bureaucrats. They make promises so as to get themselves elected, then they go and get themselves tied up in so much red tape that they can comfortably break those promises and have a good excuse to do so.
He's lost his chance to back down now. It's no longer a matter of "put up or shut up." He's in the White House. He won on the promise of change. He has only one choice now. Be a president and not a politician. That's the only way he's coming out ahead, in my opinion.
I support Obama, but I'm watching him, too.
Heh, seriously, I know exactly what you're saying. I'm usually a pessimist, and I'm trying to remain cautiously optimistic. I think if nothing else this may have gotten people more into politics - I'm certainly more edicated than I was 16 years ago when I first voted.
There was no early voting in AL, though.
But I'm disheartened by the amount of nasty hate-speech springing up. I've seen & heard things that could have been transcripts from the 50s, or even the 1800s. For crying out loud I thought we as a country & a society had made some progress!
And I'm very, very disappointed that so many in this country are still indoctrinated to oppose people whose only real crime is to have a different sexual orientation.
I am straight; if I ever marry, my hubby & I would each automatically receive certain legal rights. If I get in an accident, my family would not be able to refuse his right to see me in the hospital because they disapproved of our bedroom activities. If he dies, his family would not be able to refute me as a notarized beneficiary in his will because they didn't think it was right for us to love each other.
It distresses & angers me that many of the people who I care deeply about cannot (currently) get the same automatic legal rights, purely based on their sexual orientation. I am shamed that I have these rights & they don't. I'm no better than they are just because I'm straight. :/
And yeah, I've seen some stupid things lately-- like the first case of overt racism in the workplace I've ever seen.
You realize though, actually, one century ago, this country was not much worse off than it is today in terms of racial issues? This country actually got a lot worse along those lines from the 20s to the 50s.
Here's another thing to think about. Suppose my nieces, or the boys who (at least on occasion have flattered me by saying they) consider me their acting dad, or my goddaughter, want to marry. Marry in order to have a more stable household. Maybe marry in order to raise kids of their own. With a same-sex partner. Denied! That MATTERS to me.
To paraphrase one of the lawyers fighting against Prop 8 out there: There's something deeply wrong when the civil rights of a minority are put up to majority vote.
It's called "tyranny of the majority," damnit. It's the reason there's a Bill of Rights and a Constitution that grant rights and expectations to all citizens, in the broadest terms.
V.