Andrew Sullivan has an excellent post up on the Obamanomenon. Many of you probably know that am an Obamite; I have sent them some money, plan to send some more, and hope to volunteer with the campaign during the summer, although since Colorado is a post-Feb 5th primary state, that's kind of wasted time.
Now, this is not to say that I necessarily think Obama would be the best president. I like his positions, for the most part, but he is frankly a bit too cautious for my taste. Sometimes, there is value in compromise. But sometimes, you are just right and the other guy is just wrong, and you have to be willing to say so. His instincts are a bit too bipartisan, and I'm vaguely afraid that the right wing smear machine might chew him up and spit him out.
For pure policy reasons, I mostly like Edwards. Almost all the specific policies his campaign has released so far, I have been in favor of. I love that he's driving the debate on health care, and specifically I love that his plan give the opportunity to really see how truly public health insurance stacks up in an honest competition to private insurance.
But I think that, more than anything right now, America needs a rebranding. We've done the Southern White Guy thing for quite a while now (even Reagan was a Southern-wannabe, which means George HW was the only non-SWG in the last 30 years.) Frankly, it's time for something new. The world wants to follow America's lead, especially after 9/11, but this administration has consistently pissed on the shoes of anyone who tried to do anything other than follow us in exact lockstep, to the point that large portions of democratic Europe thinks that we are more damaging to the concept of world peace and order than Islamic theocrats are. This is, to say the least, a non-ideal situation.
As far as I am concerned, the only thing to do is start over again. Get a new face, a new set of positions. Hell, I'd be excited about renaming the country, at this point. Nothing major; just pull a Kentucky Fried Chicken on 'em and change the name from the 'United States of America' to 'USA'. And nothing would say 'this is a whole new USA' better than electing Obama. It will be much easier to accomplish all the wonderful things our country is capable of if we can move past all the bile and hatred of the last 25 or so years, and I think he's a big step in the right direction. For that reason, among others, I'm supporting Obama for President in '08...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Right behind you on all of that. Hear hear.
This is one of the best cases I've heard for Obama so far, and one that I find convincing. I have yet to pick a candidate that I endorse, but I'm up for hearing why folks support who they do. Thanks for posting this.
Though I agree with most of what you said, I have to completely disagree with "the world wants to follow America's lead". In all my worldly travels (which are actually pretty numerous) I've yet to see any country that really wants to follow America. Most of them want to emulate the things that we do well, but have very strong self-identities that are vastly different than that of the USA.
LJ,
'wants to follow America' is shorthand for 'wants to do those things that make America an exemplar of what human beings are capable of, but which we seem to be in very short supply of at this precise moment.' Nobody, not even Tony Blair, really wants to follow America lockstep in anything.
But there are a vast number of things, such as greenhouse gas reduction and Darfur genocide abettance, where every country in the world worth taking seriously would follow if we led the way.
But Bush has shredded our street cred so thoroughly that we need to hit the reset button before we could seriously attack any of these things.
Post a Comment