This is my first diary here at DailyKos....well, let me clarify that: I did a couple of diaries anonymously some time ago, but this is my first as, well, me.
I'm a writer of fantasy sword and sorcery books - action adventure, but with a clear sense of idealism, of right and wrong. It's no accident that my love of such ideals extends to my interest in politics, particularly in these Sauron-infested times. Since I work at home, I, unlike so many Americans, have the time to sit back and pay attention.
It hurts. Everything I grew up believing about my beloved America seems so distant now, as we torture people with impunity.
This awareness and near-despair leads me to consider this the most important election of my lifetime. The issues couldn't be clearer to me, and the idea that the American people will make the wrong choice this time seems...well, given my astonishment in 2004, frightening.
So there's the preamble. I have something I want to share, something I just have to scream, over the jump.
These are the two themes we're already hearing in an endless loop, and they are fast becoming the strategy of the Republican Party. Make no mistake about it, the Republicans are in serious trouble. If the elections were held right now, they'd lose the White House, at least 5 Senate seats and probably 30+ House seats.
The biggest reason is George Bush, of course, and his disastrous war and his economic nightmare. Another big reason is the influx of Democrats throughout the primaries, mostly among the younger voters. So what do the Republicans have to do? Character assassinate Barack Obama, of course (and they've got the far left helping them every step of the way thanks to the Alex Bennetts of the world), and also, to drive people away. Turn off the energized kids.
How to do that? By claiming "they're all the same."
No they're not.
Let's start with the left wing purity crowd. We see them all the time. They think they've got to hold Obama's feet to the fire, regardless of the nagging little technicality that he hasn't won anything yet. So essentially, they're trying to hold a candidate's feet to the fire, disregarding, or not even caring about, the simple fact that their constant insult to him and to those who plan to vote for him are playing right into the hands of the candidate who promises to be even more regressive than the medievalist who has held the White House for the last seven years. You know, the other candidate who called the SJC's ruling that habeus corpus stands (since the 12th century, by the way) "one of the worst decisions" ever?
I would remind the purity crowd of a couple of things. First, if you are 40 years old or younger, the most liberal President in your adult lifetime, by a mile, was the guy who pushed and signed NAFTA, the guy who signed DOMA and the guy who caved and gave us Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
That's the simple truth of it.
To expect Obama or any candidate to step into this gigantic machinery and rewire it overnight is pipe-dream territory. Democrats hold slim majorities in Congress, but liberals certainly do not. Not even close, because while many Democrats are actually center or right of, no Republicans are left of center. None. Not one. Chafee was the last, as far as I can tell.
So when Obama says that he wants to make some changes to NAFTA, or when he says that he will fight against the FISA immunity provisions, well, that's simply not enough for many. No, no, he must scrap NAFTA and begin protectionist actions (which would isolate us further, but that's another debate) and he must stand against the leaders of his own party on FISA.
Now for the record, I want him to take a stand against FISA. I'm not afraid of terrorists; I'm far more afraid of eroding the Constitutional rights. I don't know where Obama actually stands on this bill, to be honest, because he's vowing to fight it over the side issue, which, hopefully will put its passage off, kill it through the summer and through this Congress.
I want to see this bill written with a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President. Then is the time to lay it all out there.
Now is the time to voice displeasure, but the over-the-top anger, and over-the-top finger pointing at the Democratic nominee is, frankly, crazy.
As in, "are you kidding me?" nuts.
A Democrat can't win, figuratively and I fear literally, with this fickle crowd of purists. If he doesn't shield his ideology toward the center, he will lose and be called a "bad candidate." That's the catch-all excuse, after all, right? Well, Gore was a "bad candidate" and Kerry was a "bad candidate." Why? Because of the way Gore was treated by the media, most of all. He was painted as a pathological liar over things he had never even said. Remember?
Kerry's mistake, obviously, was in thinking that the American voters were too smart to believe that he, a decorated war hero, was the coward, while Daddy's little National Guard boy was the real "John Wayne" (the image, not the reality). Remember?
I argue that in both of those elections, it wasn't so much "bad candidate" as it is gullible and distracted voters, manipulated by a Republican Party that knows how to turn an absent lapel pin into a stream of "dire warning" e-mails about a Muslimchurian Candidate.
So for the purists, I point to 2004, emphatically. This country re-elected George W. Bush to the White House. If you think that the US would now elect someone to the left of Russ Feingold, you're out of your minds.
Let me say that again: this country re-elected George W. Bush in 2004, after the invasion of Iraq, after the Downing Street Memos, after the whistleblowing by Joe Wilson and the outing of Valerie Plame, after the first Sy Hersh revelations about Abu Ghraib, after an entire term where the middle class was being pressured downward while the rich were getting huge tax breaks.
Given the fact that there are light years of difference between Obama and McCain on foreign and domestic policy issues, and that Obama is closer to your purity than McCain on every issue, how, exactly, do you think you're working to make anything better?
And for the right wing "nyah nyah" crowd, more a few of whom continually express their hand-wringing over the Democrats inability to stop the war or the Democrats' failure on FISA, I offer the FISA vote in the House:
Democratic 105 yea 128 nay 3 no vote
Republican 188 yea 1 nay 10 no vote
TOTALS 293 129 13
The majority of ONE PARTY voted against the new FISA. One-half of 1% of the OTHER PARTY did so.
So why, I wonder, would people who supported George Bush and his party on war and spending and warrantless wiretapping and all the rest now be castigating Democrats over their inability or unwillingness to undo everything they supported? It's a simple strategy being rolled out by the right-wing radio leadership: turn off the voters. De-energize the youth vote. Bring back the big, helpless, resigned (and soon to be apathetic) sigh.
Barack Obama is not the messiah. Those of us who support him are not "bots." He is the far better choice for President. I believe he will be a very good President. He may even be a great President. I don't know yet, and neither does anyone else. What I do know with near-certainty is that he'll be miles better on those issues I care about than John McCain, by John McCain's own repeated (proudly repeated) admissions.
I also know that Obama's job right now, between this moment and November and every tick of the clock in between, is not to exhibit some notion of idealistic purity. It is to win. It is to take the oath of office on January 20, 2009 (my 50th birthday present, I hope!) and begin to repair the damage wreaked on this country by 8 years of George W. Bush.
If he has to don a lapel pin to get there, then so be it.
I know that all of these things have been said in other diaries, but I wanted to put them altogether, because I can't emphasize strongly enough that they have to be repeated a million times. There's that old cliche "eyes on the prize," and right now, that to me is the only thing that really matters. If we mess it up this time, I don't believe there's any going back.
To anyone who made it this far, thanks for listening. I just had to get that off my chest.
Bob Salvatore