This is a response to a well-written diary on the recommended list, written by Snickers77. Please head over and read it, and make sure you give Snickers77 some mojo for a personal, well-written diary. The diary itself was not what disturbed me.
Here's what disturbed me, in the words of Snicker's pastor:
He said that we should not be afraid that if we don't vote that McCain will get in, that we have survived Bush, Bush Sr., Reagan, The Vietnam War, 2 World Wars, A great Depression, A Civil War, Slavery, Jim Crow, Segregation, and a Revolution, we will be OK!
I felt a little bit of a chill when I read that.
I'm not going to sit here and pretend I can imagine the fury and sorrow that, should Clinton take the nomination by coup of superdelegates (whether allowed by rules or not, it WOULD be seen as overturning the will of the majority of voters), black Americans would feel. Obama supporters would be pissed, too, but black Americans would see this as yet another slap, yet another injustice, piled high on top of a history of injustices that white America has heaped upon them.
I could never imagine the anger something like that would cause, so I won't pretend I can try.
But here's what I could imagine:
I can imagine President McCain's disastrous policies as it regards the war in Iraq.
I read about his lip-service vows on lowering taxes for the rapidly shrinking middle class family and giving us affordable health care, but I have yet to see anything resembling a comprehensive plan.
I read about another glacier melting, another ice shelf on the verge of collapse, another species dying off. Then I read McCain's answers to this problem, which basically consists of "reducing our dependence on foreign power" but gives no PLAN.
I hear him mocking a war with Iran by citing a friggin' Beach Boys song.
I see him pursuing more of the same sorts of goals and policies as Bush.
More importantly, I see our country on the edge. The edge of a great many points of no return.
We've used up pretty much all of our global goodwill. Another 4 years of ceaseless wars and foolish actions will set us back even further than now. Generations, possibly.
Our economy is collapsing. The rich are dominating the poor and the middle class. Corporations and CEOs make millions while our jobs get shipped overseas, while our jobs are eliminated entirely. Families can't afford the cost of living anymore.
Healthcare. People WITH HEALTHCARE are being denied it and dying as a result.
Our environment is, quite simply, fucked. It's gotten to the point where immediate action is needed. We don't have decades to "study the problem" anymore.
How many more wars will we start? It will be a friggin' miracle if we don't end up attacking Iran before Bush leaves office. Do you think McCain wouldn't?
I could go on, but this is making me angry.
When I think of all of that, when I think of how close we are to not being able to recover on MULTIPLE fronts, I can't understand how people can honestly think that "we'll be OK."
This is not the same time, the same culture, the same world as it was. We have gone further downhill than ever before. We can't count on being OK, we can't count on surviving another 4 years of incompetence.
This is really just a rant, I have no answers, I don't have some super charismatic call to a higher ideal, some silly "Do what's right for America" statement. I don't have those things because, as I said above, I don't know what it's like. I don't know what the fury would be like, the sense of betrayal, the disappointment.
All I know is that We're really close to the edge, and it won't be simply a matter of "we'll be OK" if we have to deal with John McCain as president.
The damage a third term of Bushco could do is very real and very intense.
I really hope we'll be OK should that come to pass.
But just in case, even if it's via coup, I'll be voting for Hillary Clinton.