Reflections on the Presidential Race
After watching John McCain and Barack Obama make their respective cases on Democratic nomination night, my thinking is somewhat changed.
First, I realize for the first time that Republicans - the hard core, conservative Republicans who have trouble imagining anything worse than a Democratic Presidency - must be feeling now much the same way I was four years ago. Then, I couldn’t have been less happy with our nominee: one whose credentials on the thing I cared about most were tarnished, one who was as exciting as six o’clock on Monday morning, and one who left one feeling stuck knee-deep in the mud of the sorry status quo. Surely the Republicans feel the same way now.
And, I realize for the first time that Republicans - the hard core, conservative Republicans, do have a hard time imagining anything worse than the Democratic nominee as President. They must be thinking, as I was four years ago, that no matter how flawed their own candidate, the alternative is worse and it’s as plain as the nose on our collective face. Surely 51% of the electorate, at least, can recognize it. The saving grace is that the American people could not be so foolish as to elect the opposing candidate. For me, it was the war, the mendacity, the lack of respect for the Constitution, the Congress, or anyone but the party faithful. For today’s Republcans, it’s the “socialism”, the racial animus, the weak policy of talking to the enemy without preconditions of surrender. Wrong thinking then. But what about now?
And I realized that there is a different dynamic in this race than we saw four years ago. Fortunately for John McCain and those counting on him, this is not 2004. Then, Americans showed that they would sooner embrace a bungling, mendacious, disrespectful, wasteful, war-mongering “Patriot” who wears the lapel pin and talks up American exceptionalism than the flawed Democratic candidate. Now, the flawed GOP candidate is the lapel-pin wearing patriot, and we on the other side are running a guy with ties to the likes of Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers. Had John Kerry been running against someone with that kind of flaws, he surely would have eked out a narrow victory.
And I realized that there was still another dynamic in this race. That is the connection that Barack Obama makes with people. It is his simplicity. It is his calm against the furor of those who decry his liabilities - a calm that reveals in that opposing furor a hint of the crazed and irrational. It is his ability to infuse language with meaning, and whose meaning reflects values and concerns that most of us share.
Finally I realized that the dynamic that will decide this race will likely be the strength of Barack Obama, especially his strength in relating to other people powerfully and meaningfully, contrasted with the flaws and weaknesses of John McCain, especially his marriage of necessity with the neo-cons and his marriage of convenience with the econo-cons on the right. In short, I realized that my earlier prediction was a poor one, and that I had better change it now.
I predict Barack Obama will be the next President. Past that, I still can’t say. I don’t know if he will rise to the challenge of the office and become the next FDR or if he will be overwhelmed and become the next Jimmy Carter. I fear the latter. I see too much of Carter in him, too much of Nixon in GWB and too much of Gerald Ford in John McCain. Still, I hope for the best.
At the risk of being overly sentimental, I close with a stanza of poetry:
I HEAR America singing, the varied carols I hear;
Those of mechanics—each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong;
The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work;
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat—the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck;The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench—the hatter singing as he stands;
The wood-cutter’s song—the ploughboy’s, on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown;
The delicious singing of the mother—or of the young wife at work—or of the girl sewing or washing—Each singing what belongs to her, and to none else;
The day what belongs to the day—At night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs.
As I have said before, I too once saw Obama as unelectable but upon reflection realized that I was drawing this conclusion not based on his perceived “weaknesses” but instead upon my lack of faith in the American people.
I have watched for eight years as a party that I once identified myself with plumbed the depths of incompetence and outright stupidity.
But the time is coming and in fact has already come to put the past behind us.
I believe Obama can and will win. I will vote for him. But like you I have no idea where we will go from there.
I am not afraid of big government anymore. So I cannot be frightened by that rhetoric. If everybody in the country ends up with health insurance and a some gay guys and gals get married so what? I am not afraid of that either.
McCain offers a continuance of what we have seen for the last 8 years.
What on earth can possibly be more frightening than that?