We Can, We Must

World Party - Put the Message in the Box (mp3)* (buy)

I do not believe that optimism is dumb.

Relentless, logic-defying positivity, sure, maybe brightsidism ain't all that bright.  (Annoying, at the very least.)  But that's not what we're talking about here, we're not voting President Unicorns-and-Rainbows.

Our country's gotten very small these last seven years.  Our financial resources have been boarded up or shredded to sand, our military capability's thin as milk, yes, but that's not what I mean.  And not in the way we've us-against-them'd ourselves into a wee pouty corner, though that's some of it.  We've allowed ourselves to think small, to get petty and scared, to suck our thumbs and point and wail, to attack without any reason other than fear and self-interest, to mock and decry without any attempt at understanding or growth.

It's time to become a great nation again.  It's time to grow up, be big.

Barack Obama's is a determined, pragmatic, involving optimism.  There is work to do, people.  Our infrastructure needs to be reconceived, our social services need to be more fiercely and competently purposed, our world role needs to be respected**.  If we're going to pull ourselves out of our status quo quicksand, follow the man with the inspired, upright trajectory.  The very organization of his campaign should impress upon you his effectiveness as a leader, the unflappable temperament and obvious intelligence that have withstood two years of media circus should impress upon you his steady, fair hand.

John McCain is a good person who has done some great things.  But he has run a very small campaign that has revealed a lot of small thinking.  The overdramatic rudderless actions (the suspension of the campaign, the choice of Palin***), the inability to get past pet peevishness (the "ten town hall meetings" nonsense, earmarks) - which might indicate a 20th-century hawkishness (three letters - K, G, B), a reliance on irrelevancies (Ayers, etc.) and name-calling over issues, and the extreme ideological shifts made since his last campaign in 2000 to please his party faithful... all serious, sad flaws.  If, as a conservative Republican, you can't budge from the ideal of small government (say, a government of Clintonian size rather than the swell of the Bush years) or fear that a 5% tax hike on folks and corporations making over a quarter-million dollars per year is capital-W Wrong, that's fine.  Stick to your guns, remember the Alamo, cool.  America thrives on a struggle between viewpoints.  No single way is right, in nature or in government.

But to scream "Socialist!" at a guy who professored at the Milton Friedman Mothership and who claims Warren Buffett as an advisor, well, that's silly ideological all/nuttin' thinking.  It's small.  Obama's far from perfect, and those looking for a messianic figure are bound to be disappointed - the post-convention retreat to safe politicking took its toll on those looking for sermons, I'm sure.  He's not here to save us or to sacrifice us.  But he can draw us together so that we, as a nation, can lift ourselves up.

We can do great things.  We can! 

Let's start by voting, by voting BIG.  Big numbers, sure:  If you have a voice, get out there and use it.  Even if it's for the other guy.  Even if it's for Nader or Barr or None of the Above.  Even if you're in the bluest of blue or reddest of red states.  Even if the lines stretch miles.  (You know how long some people have been waiting for this?  A lot longer than you'll wait in any line today.)   A mandate would be so good for a country so sharply divided for so long.  But not necessary.  Let's get everybody out there, let's everybody come together to make a decision, let's everyone respect and support that decision.  Act as countrymen so that we may live as countrymen.

You, yourself:  Get in that booth and VOTE BIG.  Don't vote out of fear or hate or timeworn tradition or stubborn affiliation.  Vote for all of us, vote for the better, hope for the best.

*Feel free to not think of World Party's Stones/Beatles-worship as naïve boomer-pandering hippie-shift or that song as too-appropriate or emptily appropriated.  Because even if  "Box" assumes the world's message will inspire action, at least it demands action of its messenger.****  It's not deep, but at least it's not passive flower-power bullshit.

Not so sure the world would want you to waste the fossil fuels, though.  So much easier just to post an mp3.

**And if you don't think global respect leads to global marketplace bucks, you're probably still busy swearing at your Freedom Fries.

***The impulsive choice of Palin has always been the problem, not Palin herself.  Though she's queen of the small-thinkers, at this point I care less about Palin's silly familial troopercrap and petty falsehoods than Michael Bloomberg's bald plutocratic coup - but that's a whole different election (assuming Bloomie allows us to hold one)).

**** The last time I put a message in a box, put the box into a car, and drove the car around the world, I wound up on the ocean on a pony on a boat.*****

***** Yes that is one of my favorite songs.  Back off.

tags: obamarama  

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