« A top-shelf discovery: Hope Nunnery | Main | Back To The Garden (redux) »

A modest endorsement for Senator Obama

I used to listen to an old Chinese gentleman who was as astute a judge of politics and of political character as I have ever known. To paraphrase the wisdom of John, they're all bought and paid for or they wouldn't have gotten where they are.

I would like to argue that point. I would like to be able to argue that point, but the evidence seems irrefutable and John had seen power wielded from the muzzle of a gun and the depths of the ballot box.

That they are all bought and paid for argues for campaign reform, which solves nothing for the moment.

For the moment, we head into this Super Tuesday madness. Living in Kentucky I have no vote, and I will give none of them my money. Perhaps later. Perhaps.

For the moment I seek to navigate a peculiar emotional landscape, somewhere between fear and hope. We fear what is coming, or at least I do. The war, the economy, the environment. Plenty to fear there.

But if we concede the premise that our choices for president are all bought and paid for, what then? Is our vote anything more than a text message to "American Idol"?

Maybe.

Maybe we are electing a symbol. Maybe that's what it's come to. Maybe that's enough, for the moment.

And so, though I mistrust his energy policy and fear the hope he brings, I have come to rest on the hope entrusted Senator Barack Hussein Obama.

I will choose hope over Hope, Arkansas.

My wife, a more ardent feminist than I, will stay with Senator Hillary Clinton. I can live with either; I can possibly live even with Senator John McCain, should it come to that (and should he not saddle himself with an unacceptable vice presidential nominee; his age is and should be a factor, and we cannot have another Spiro Agnew nor another Dan Quayle; not now).

But I wish, today, to choose hope. To believe that something is still possible in this country.

I will admit to being manipulated by the MoveOn.org video being sent around.

Fine. Manipulate me to hope instead of to fear. Here's the link. It's a music video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY&eurl=http://pol.moveon.org/endorse-o-thon/video.html?id=12034-1917439-wSsVaM&t=1015

Posted by grant on February 4, 2008 10:27 AM | Permalink