So proud of the Commonwealth...
Sitting here, getting over an ugly cold, but 'beaming' with 'pride' on how MA voted Mitt and Hillary yesterday.... ...
(Rant in 5...4...3... ... ...) Look, I voted for Mitt in 2002, and I technically have no reason to dislike Hillary, but I just don't get it. I guess I understand Mitt in MA, but that's not my bigger point here...
Sure I'm a bit bitter over the past few days - a sucker punch on Sunday night that technically started after the first game of the season back in September, along with empathizing with death (or as I call it, "The Winter Cold - Each day brings a new Symptom!") Then to top it off - having the guy you first get behind in a political sense seemingly fall behind the long dubbed "Front-Runner"*, Hillary Clinton.
Pardon the stream-of-consciousness babble, but I really don't get it. I honestly don't know anyone who is a Hillary supporter. And if I do, I honestly and genuinely wonder if its based on three base tenants:
1) they only support her cause she's linked to Bill, which in turn...
2) was the last time the US govt was in a good place...
3) she's not Bush.
Listening to the speeches last night from Mitt, Hillary, McCain, (Stewart made) Huckabee, and so on, the detached observer has to admit that they all say the same thing. "The American People deserve a strong leader ... We're gonna win this thing ..... the American People have spoken ...." and what not.
I'm for Obama. First time I realized this was 2004 when I happened to catch his keynote at the Boston convention. The man spoke for betterment for EVERY AMERICAN. Every. Single. One. Which, needless to say in the neatly columned up "Left vs. Right ... Liberal vs. Conservative ... Progressive vs. NeoCon" BS that's been going on lately, is a refreshing change of pace.
I normally never do this - but I have to share something I read in his 2nd book, "The Audacity of Hope" , close to on par with his 2004 keynote in Boston, that blew me away.
"Maybe the critics are right. Maybe there's no escaping our great political divide, an endless clash of armies, and any attempts to alter the rules of engagement are futile. Or maybe the trivilization of politics has reached a point of no return, so that most people see it as just one more diversion, a sport, with politicians our paunch-bellied gladiators and those who bother to pay attention just fans on the sidelines: We paint our faces red or blue and cheer our side and boo their side, and if it takes a late hit or cheap shot to beat the other team, so be it, for winning is all that matters.
But I don't think so. They are out there, I think to myself, those ordinary citizens who have grown up in the midst of all the political and cultural battles, but who have found a way - in their own lives, at least - to make peace with their neighbors, and themselves. I imagine the white southerner who growing up hearing his dad talk about niggers this and niggers that but who has struck up a friendship with the black guys at his office and is trying to teach his own son different, who thinks discrimination is wrong but doesn't see why the son of a black doctor should get admitted into law school ahead of his own son. Or the former Black Panther who decided to go into real estate, bought a few buildings in the neighborhood, and is just as tired of the drug dealers in front of those buildings as he is of the bankers who wont give him a loan to expand his business. There's the middle-aged feminist who still mourns her abortion, and the Christian woman who paid for her teenage daughter's abortion, and the millions of waitresses and temp secretaries and nurse's assistants, and Wal-Mart associates who hold their breath every single month in the hope that they'll have enough money to support the children that they did bring into this world.
I imagine they are waiting for a politics with the maturity to balance idealism and realism, to distinguish between what can and cannot be compromised, to admit the possibility that the other side might sometimes have a point. They don't always understand the arguments between right and left, conservative and liberal, but they recognize the difference between dogma and common sense, responsibility and irresponsibility, between things that last and those that are fleeting.
They are out there, waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them."
The man's campaign slogan - Change - is what this country needs. We don't need the old tenants coming back, as the argument could be made that they did their part, however much smaller it was, to get us in the situation that we now have. The other thing, and its somewhat obvious but is never talked about, is that REPUBLICANS. HATE. THE CLINTONS. HATE. H.A.T.E.
If Hillary can bring similar change, fine - she will have less time to do it with having to deal with the inevitable relentless attacks that Fox Limbaoreilly will be...Christ, have already planned...to dish out.
Ugh, I don't know - I'm not even trying to be persuasive - if I could have anything now, it'd be the ability to have a full nights sleep without the aid of narcotics. After that, maybe a little bit of hope for my Country's future would be nice.
(...end Rant)
*-MSM
(Rant in 5...4...3... ... ...) Look, I voted for Mitt in 2002, and I technically have no reason to dislike Hillary, but I just don't get it. I guess I understand Mitt in MA, but that's not my bigger point here...
Sure I'm a bit bitter over the past few days - a sucker punch on Sunday night that technically started after the first game of the season back in September, along with empathizing with death (or as I call it, "The Winter Cold - Each day brings a new Symptom!") Then to top it off - having the guy you first get behind in a political sense seemingly fall behind the long dubbed "Front-Runner"*, Hillary Clinton.
Pardon the stream-of-consciousness babble, but I really don't get it. I honestly don't know anyone who is a Hillary supporter. And if I do, I honestly and genuinely wonder if its based on three base tenants:
1) they only support her cause she's linked to Bill, which in turn...
2) was the last time the US govt was in a good place...
3) she's not Bush.
Listening to the speeches last night from Mitt, Hillary, McCain, (Stewart made) Huckabee, and so on, the detached observer has to admit that they all say the same thing. "The American People deserve a strong leader ... We're gonna win this thing ..... the American People have spoken ...." and what not.
I'm for Obama. First time I realized this was 2004 when I happened to catch his keynote at the Boston convention. The man spoke for betterment for EVERY AMERICAN. Every. Single. One. Which, needless to say in the neatly columned up "Left vs. Right ... Liberal vs. Conservative ... Progressive vs. NeoCon" BS that's been going on lately, is a refreshing change of pace.
I normally never do this - but I have to share something I read in his 2nd book, "The Audacity of Hope" , close to on par with his 2004 keynote in Boston, that blew me away.
"Maybe the critics are right. Maybe there's no escaping our great political divide, an endless clash of armies, and any attempts to alter the rules of engagement are futile. Or maybe the trivilization of politics has reached a point of no return, so that most people see it as just one more diversion, a sport, with politicians our paunch-bellied gladiators and those who bother to pay attention just fans on the sidelines: We paint our faces red or blue and cheer our side and boo their side, and if it takes a late hit or cheap shot to beat the other team, so be it, for winning is all that matters.
But I don't think so. They are out there, I think to myself, those ordinary citizens who have grown up in the midst of all the political and cultural battles, but who have found a way - in their own lives, at least - to make peace with their neighbors, and themselves. I imagine the white southerner who growing up hearing his dad talk about niggers this and niggers that but who has struck up a friendship with the black guys at his office and is trying to teach his own son different, who thinks discrimination is wrong but doesn't see why the son of a black doctor should get admitted into law school ahead of his own son. Or the former Black Panther who decided to go into real estate, bought a few buildings in the neighborhood, and is just as tired of the drug dealers in front of those buildings as he is of the bankers who wont give him a loan to expand his business. There's the middle-aged feminist who still mourns her abortion, and the Christian woman who paid for her teenage daughter's abortion, and the millions of waitresses and temp secretaries and nurse's assistants, and Wal-Mart associates who hold their breath every single month in the hope that they'll have enough money to support the children that they did bring into this world.
I imagine they are waiting for a politics with the maturity to balance idealism and realism, to distinguish between what can and cannot be compromised, to admit the possibility that the other side might sometimes have a point. They don't always understand the arguments between right and left, conservative and liberal, but they recognize the difference between dogma and common sense, responsibility and irresponsibility, between things that last and those that are fleeting.
They are out there, waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them."
The man's campaign slogan - Change - is what this country needs. We don't need the old tenants coming back, as the argument could be made that they did their part, however much smaller it was, to get us in the situation that we now have. The other thing, and its somewhat obvious but is never talked about, is that REPUBLICANS. HATE. THE CLINTONS. HATE. H.A.T.E.
If Hillary can bring similar change, fine - she will have less time to do it with having to deal with the inevitable relentless attacks that Fox Limbaoreilly will be...Christ, have already planned...to dish out.
Ugh, I don't know - I'm not even trying to be persuasive - if I could have anything now, it'd be the ability to have a full nights sleep without the aid of narcotics. After that, maybe a little bit of hope for my Country's future would be nice.
(...end Rant)
*-MSM