I'd have to say yes. And no.
When trust and faith have been so abused and no one feels safe or secure and our collective future is at stake, I'd have to say no, it's not the same as usual. When more people than ever in our nation's history are involved and engaged in an election and political conversation and debate, no it's not the same as usual. When just about every important issue that we as a nation, as a planet are facing and seriously looking for ways to change, no it's not the same as usual.
Yet, there are different view points, different ideas, different experiences, different priorities for all of us and we are engaged in standing up for what we believe is the most important issue and/or stance, then yes. It is the same. Pandering, flip-flopping, media bias, Republican vs. Democrat, Man vs. Woman, Black vs. White, Religion (whose is the right one?), YES, it is the same. Money, campaign finance, the haves, the have- nots, right wing, left wing, conservative, liberal, centrist. Yes, it is the same.
We had three to choose from now it is down to two. Follow me.
Two men involved in the same situation at exactly the same time and when asked about their experience, they each have a different truth of what happened. That truth for each of them is equally valid and equally true because each has a different history to bring with them and different viewpoints. It doesn't make either of them wrong, just a different way of looking at the situation and the experience as a whole. That is the human element. I think that is why I like math. It is always true. 1 + 1 = 2 always. No viewpoint involved. Solid truth.
So in choosing a candidate to support, how do you evaluate which one is the right one? Which one is telling the truth? Which one is worthy of our trust and faith to lead us into a better future? You can't really use math. The only math involved are the polls and votes and dollars and all of those things are based on human manipulation.
Here we have a young, articulate, black man from a bi-racial background, brilliant, well educated, family man, BUT...he's different. He can't be trusted. We've never had a black president before and we have certainly never had a man for president with such a scary name, a name that has been associated with the radical Muslim extremists that have caused us to lose lives. If we give him our trust, what kind of a world will we have then?
We all pretty much know how everything will go if we elect the older, white man, the Veteran, the one that has been around forever, the one that believes we are in a justifiable war and that we should continue down that road, the one that wants to pick up drilling off our shores again where more marine life will suffer, beaches will have black grunge washed up and mixed with the beautiful sands, more money will line the pockets of those that got us into this war, yet there will be no visible or foreseeable relief for us; the common man at the pump, with our utilities going up more and more.
So let's look at the other guy again.
What does he offer?
From Barack Obama's Blueprint For Change:
"So I hope this booklet
gives you a good sense about where I stand on
the fundamental issues facing our country."
FISA, Homeland Security, etc have been a HUGE topic lately. Let's see what this guy says about that.
"Getting Politics out of Intelligence
Obama would insulate the Director of National Intelligence from political pressure by giving the DNI a
fixed term, like the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Obama will seek consistency and integrity at the top
of our intelligence community – not just a political ally."
"This Administration also puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand. I will provide our intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to track and take out the terrorists without undermining our Constitution and our freedom.
That means no more illegal wire-tapping of American citizens. No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime. No more tracking citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war. No more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient. That is not who we are. And it is not what is necessary to defeat the terrorists. The FISA court works. The separation of powers works. Our Constitution works. We will again set an example for the world that the law is not subject to the whims of stubborn rulers, and that justice is not arbitrary.
This Administration acts like violating civil liberties is the way to enhance our security. It is not. There are no short-cuts to protecting America, and that is why the fifth part of my strategy is doing the hard and patient work to secure a more resilient homeland.
Too often this Administration's approach to homeland security has been to scatter money around and avoid hard choices, or to scare Americans without telling them what to be scared of, or what to do. A Department set up to make Americans feel safer didn't even show up when bodies drifted through the streets in New Orleans. That's not acceptable.
My Administration will take an approach to homeland security guided by risk. I will establish a Quadrennial Review at the Department of Homeland Security -- just like at the Pentagon -- to undertake a top to bottom review of the threats we face and our ability to confront them. And I will develop a comprehensive National Infrastructure Protection Plan that draws on both local know-how and national priorities.
We have to put resources where our infrastructure is most vulnerable. That means tough and permanent standards for securing our chemical plants. Improving our capability to screen cargo and investing in safeguards that will prevent the disruption of our ports. And making sure our energy sector -- our refineries and pipelines and power grids -- is protected so that terrorists cannot cripple our economy.
We also have to get past a top-down approach. Folks across America are the ones on the front lines. On 9/11, it was citizens -- empowered by their knowledge of the World Trade Center attacks -- who protected our government by heroically taking action on Flight 93 to keep it from reaching our nation's capital. When I have information that can empower Americans, I will share it with them."
And then there is the argument about whether or not we should publicly criticize when it appears that this man we have vested our faith in, has disappointed us:
"But I also hope that this booklet sparks a dialogue and that after you’ve finished reading it, you get in touch
with our campaign and give us your thoughts on the policies you find here. It’s time to put government back
in your hands, where it belongs. If we want to have policies that are good for the American people, then we
need the American people to help shape those policies.
We all know what’s at stake. This is a defining moment in our history. Our nation is at war. The planet is in
peril. The dream that so many generations fought for feels as if it’s slowly slipping away. We’ve never paid
more for health care or for college. It’s harder to save and retire. And most of all, we’ve lost faith that our
leaders can or will do anything about it.
But it is because of their failures that this moment of challenge is also a moment of opportunity. We have
a chance to bring the country together in a new majority - to finally tackle problems that Washington has
ignored for too long. And that is why the same old Washington textbook campaigns just won’t do in this
election.
The Democratic Party has always made the biggest difference in the lives of the American people when
we’ve led not by polls, but by principle; not by calculation, but by conviction; when we summoned the entire
nation to a common purpose - a higher purpose. And I run for the presidency because that’s the party
America needs us to be right now. I run to offer this country change that we can believe in.
I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over.
I’m in this race because I want to stop talking about the outrage of 47 million Americans without health care and start actually doing something about it. I’m in this race to end our dependence on Middle East oil
and save our planet from the crisis of climate change so we can give our children a planet that’s cleaner and
safer than we found it."
Many more of his ideas/plan can be found in the Blueprint here:
http://www.barackobama.com/...
So, I ask you, is it really politics as usual or is it that the same old politics will not and cannot work in the world we live in today?
Here's a poll for your thoughts: