I don't post too many diaries, as a graduate student I tend to not have the time to spend to do justice to the DKos readership. This, however, started out as a comment that got a bit out of control. I decided to post it because I'm concerned with the lack of a spine in the Democratic party electorate. Now is not the time to react fearfully to BS "electability" arguments. When we operate from a place of fear, our action is less wise than when we operate from a place of confidence. This election is ours to lose. We have not, in my lifetime, been closer to realizing the possibilities that progressives hold dear. We are playing to win, not to avoid losing.
I am operating on the assumption that Barack Obama will be our candidate, which I believe that clear-eyed, educated Democrats are starting to realize is the case. I have heard a few comments that he's lost his appeal to independents, that McCain will pick off the independents, due to racism, patriotism, and I don't know what else. A recent Gallup poll shows that the divide between the Democratic candidates is bitter, and that Clinton supporters may choose McCain over Obama and vise-versa. This is my brief argument as to why angry partisan Democrats will come to their senses and why it will be relatively easy to persuade independents to vote Obama, if we reachout and communicate with them.
This is, in short, my pitch to independents and jilted partisans:
We can have four more years of the same, of 100 years in Iraq, of "there will be more wars", of "bomb, bomb Iran." We can, in a time of major economic downturn, vote for someone who has himself admitted to not being that educated on economic matters. We can vote for someone who champions ethics reform and hiresa staff of lobbyists, gets so close with a female lobbyist that his own staff says they must intervene to "save him from himself", someone who was personally involved in one of the larger ethics scandals in recent memory. Choosing McCain would also be choosing someone with questionable emotional stability. Senate collegues, Republican even, have mentioned feeling uncomfortable with the idea of McCain haing his finger on the button. Oh, and did you see the video of him badgering and yelling at the NYT reporter?
And, most importantly, aren't you tired of our politicians trying to scare the shit out of us all the time? Especially when that someone has demonstrated, repeatedly, that he does not understand the factors at play currently in the middle east, as a result of the biggest foriegn policy blunder of the last 30 years?
Barack Obama offers something different. He has shown judgment and a willingness to work with people, such as Republicans Coburn and Lugar, to pass legislation to keep us safer and to make our government more transparent, in order to hold our elected officials more accountable. I think we can agree that the secrecy and lack of ethics of the current administration have been two of the major problems. Barack Obama offers something clearly different, as shown by his years as an elected official, working for the reform of ethics laws. McCain offers more of the same. Obama appeals to our better natures, while McCain clearly appeals to our fears. Another great thing about Obama is that he knows the law, he has been a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School and president of the Harvard Law Review, a very highly coveted position. It'd be nice to have someone in office who actually knows the law, and has shown the integrity throughout his career neccesary to uphold it, wouldn't it?
There is obviously a great deal more that can be said about reasons to vote Obama over McCain. The point of this is not to be exhaustive, but rather to show, in a terse way, the fantastic contrast that can be easily drawn between the Democratic and Republican nominees. So fear not! If we roll up our sleeves, we have the opportunity to not only win, but win big. When we find ourselves despairing, sick and fearful from the Democratic infighting- remember this- McCain is a chump.