Looking forward
I'll be glad when this election is over. No more phone banking. Yesterday and today I signed up for shifts in which I use a set-up called GOTV, or Activate, to call voters and remind them that the election is on Tuesday and where their polling location is. Previously we have called to tell Democrat women voters about McCain's dismal record on women's health and to round up more volunteers. We sat with a list of people and phone numbers and called on little cell phones. We'd laugh about some of the funnier calls and eat chips. The activate system makes the process go faster, because the computer does the dialing, while the screen tells you the person's name and what to say. We're calling all of Ohio now, whereas before we limited our efforts to areas of areas of Cleveland consisting of (mostly female) swing voters. Initially we'd spend a few hours every week calling, in an office with just the three of us plus two young people running the office, but now the office is buzzing with volunteers and canvassers. Instead of just chips now we have bagged lunches. At first it was difficult for me to make those calls, even though my day job as a temp involved calling to get information on salespeople from suspicious printing bosses. I got hung up on but not as often as you'd think, and no one was ever mean to me. One woman said she would pray for me, so I thanked her and that was that. Now I do it with ease, "dial and smile" and I feel like I really am helping people.
As annoying as those phone calls can be, they do help inform and energize the base and those left-leaning people who may be undecided. In the early days of the race, many liberal women were unaware that McCain opposes a woman's choice, comprehensive sex education, etc. But that illusion was lost when he teamed up with Sarah Palin. I respect her as a strong professional woman, but I disagree strongly with her ideas. Like Obama, she is relatively new to the political scene, but she does not have that strong intellectualism and deep grasp of the issues that Obama does.
I'm really excited about the prospect of Obama being president. These are tough times, brought on by Republican-sponsored deregulation (like Foreclosure Phil who runs McCain's dunderheaded campaign), and tough times call for fresh ideas. While McCain calls himself a maverick, his voting record toes the Republican party line, and his campaign has shown him to be anything but. Palin was a poor choice for VP, because, although she excites the right wingers--the Republican base that McCain used to set himself against--she frightens the rest of us. Her TV interviews were major disappointments. Even I could BS my way through an interview with Katie Couric. The mortgage crisis reminded people that Republicans, if you look at their voting records, always favor corporate impunity and deregulation. Granted, a lot of people took on debt that they must have known, in their heart, was infeasible, but they were helped along by slick guys in suits who preyed on their lack of financial knowledge and assured them that it would be okay. The greed and lack of regulatory oversight has done more to harm our economy than any terrorist could do.
McCain's downfall started when, at the RNC, the fire up Republicans chanted "Drill, baby, drill" as their solution to the energy crisis. While drilling might provide a little extra oil--and a lot of profit for the oil industry and its powerful lobby--it is a drop in the bucket of our energy needs. And I can't condone drilling in a national wildlife refuge--one of the last untouched sanctuaries for animals on earth--unless we are really really really desperate. Putting a solar panel on every roof should be our goal. That is a forward-thinking strategy.
The real end for McCain came at the last presidential debate, in which Obama came off as intelligent and self-assured, whereas McCain just looked like an ass. His repeated mention of Palin's compassion toward autistic children seemed wooden and out of place. In the discussion about abortion, he snarked that women use their health as a flimsy excuse for abortion. This was authentic McCain. (Of course, his running mate, the compassionate conservative, thinks that a raped woman must automatically become a parent, no matter how young the victim or vile the attack).
McCain is just not the kitchen sink fighter that Hillary Clinton is. The type of campaigning that started with that debate and followed just shows that McCain has made a Faustian bargain with the Republican devils, that he will do or say anything to win. Instead of connecting with every day Americans, perhaps drinking a shot of whiskey in a bowling alley ala Clinton or Obama, and talking about the grave issues that face us, it's one attack after another on Obama's trumped up link with Acorn, Ayers, terrorists. Obama's a muslim! He's anti-American! We need a leader who is above using these dirty tricks to appeal to the baser elements of the electorate.
If McCain does end up winning, which seems unlikely, but hey anything can happen, he did so not because he put on a good campaign but because he fought dirty, employing the same slime ball tactics that his Republican predecessors used against him. Life will go on, surely. I think the free credit days that have defined our generation are gone. It's time to tighten the belt, to get back to the tightwadedness that allowed our grandparents to survive the Depression. That's a good thing. But a McCain victory means that the same ideas and policies that brought us these disastrous times still captivate the people. The idea that brown people are terrorists, that gays are going to destroy "the sanctity of marriage." That women's health is not as important as mens and that their choices are irrelevant. That there can be more pollutants in our air and water as long as some very wealthy companies with powerful lobbies make extra profit. That humans are not the cause of global warming. That anyone who disagrees is anti-American, a socialist, communist, or a terrorist.
We need someone who transcends these ideas, not someone who delves in them in a desperate effort to win votes.
As annoying as those phone calls can be, they do help inform and energize the base and those left-leaning people who may be undecided. In the early days of the race, many liberal women were unaware that McCain opposes a woman's choice, comprehensive sex education, etc. But that illusion was lost when he teamed up with Sarah Palin. I respect her as a strong professional woman, but I disagree strongly with her ideas. Like Obama, she is relatively new to the political scene, but she does not have that strong intellectualism and deep grasp of the issues that Obama does.
I'm really excited about the prospect of Obama being president. These are tough times, brought on by Republican-sponsored deregulation (like Foreclosure Phil who runs McCain's dunderheaded campaign), and tough times call for fresh ideas. While McCain calls himself a maverick, his voting record toes the Republican party line, and his campaign has shown him to be anything but. Palin was a poor choice for VP, because, although she excites the right wingers--the Republican base that McCain used to set himself against--she frightens the rest of us. Her TV interviews were major disappointments. Even I could BS my way through an interview with Katie Couric. The mortgage crisis reminded people that Republicans, if you look at their voting records, always favor corporate impunity and deregulation. Granted, a lot of people took on debt that they must have known, in their heart, was infeasible, but they were helped along by slick guys in suits who preyed on their lack of financial knowledge and assured them that it would be okay. The greed and lack of regulatory oversight has done more to harm our economy than any terrorist could do.
McCain's downfall started when, at the RNC, the fire up Republicans chanted "Drill, baby, drill" as their solution to the energy crisis. While drilling might provide a little extra oil--and a lot of profit for the oil industry and its powerful lobby--it is a drop in the bucket of our energy needs. And I can't condone drilling in a national wildlife refuge--one of the last untouched sanctuaries for animals on earth--unless we are really really really desperate. Putting a solar panel on every roof should be our goal. That is a forward-thinking strategy.
The real end for McCain came at the last presidential debate, in which Obama came off as intelligent and self-assured, whereas McCain just looked like an ass. His repeated mention of Palin's compassion toward autistic children seemed wooden and out of place. In the discussion about abortion, he snarked that women use their health as a flimsy excuse for abortion. This was authentic McCain. (Of course, his running mate, the compassionate conservative, thinks that a raped woman must automatically become a parent, no matter how young the victim or vile the attack).
McCain is just not the kitchen sink fighter that Hillary Clinton is. The type of campaigning that started with that debate and followed just shows that McCain has made a Faustian bargain with the Republican devils, that he will do or say anything to win. Instead of connecting with every day Americans, perhaps drinking a shot of whiskey in a bowling alley ala Clinton or Obama, and talking about the grave issues that face us, it's one attack after another on Obama's trumped up link with Acorn, Ayers, terrorists. Obama's a muslim! He's anti-American! We need a leader who is above using these dirty tricks to appeal to the baser elements of the electorate.
If McCain does end up winning, which seems unlikely, but hey anything can happen, he did so not because he put on a good campaign but because he fought dirty, employing the same slime ball tactics that his Republican predecessors used against him. Life will go on, surely. I think the free credit days that have defined our generation are gone. It's time to tighten the belt, to get back to the tightwadedness that allowed our grandparents to survive the Depression. That's a good thing. But a McCain victory means that the same ideas and policies that brought us these disastrous times still captivate the people. The idea that brown people are terrorists, that gays are going to destroy "the sanctity of marriage." That women's health is not as important as mens and that their choices are irrelevant. That there can be more pollutants in our air and water as long as some very wealthy companies with powerful lobbies make extra profit. That humans are not the cause of global warming. That anyone who disagrees is anti-American, a socialist, communist, or a terrorist.
We need someone who transcends these ideas, not someone who delves in them in a desperate effort to win votes.