Getting ready to Caucus in WA - Still making up my mind...
Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 08:27:35 AM PDT
So, today, I will head to Maywood Elementary school in Bothell, WA, and caucus for the next president. Ever since I voted for John Anderson in the 1980 weekly reader poll when I was 6, I have been certain about who I support. I was a state delegate for Dean in the 2004 Caucuses in Colorado, voted for "he who shall not be named on this site" as a third party candidate in 96 and 2000 (and 92 as a writein). I supported Gore, then Richardson, then Edwards - and am left between two candidates. So, which will it be?
My wife has already decided, as she is a psychotherapist who has spent her life advocating for family and children issues. She cares about health care, and wants someone in there with real experience in that area. And Obama's lofty speaches, high on passion but short on details, leave her desiring for more substance. She feels like he's charming people into giving him a job that he's actually not ready for. She is definitely in the Clinton Camp.
I love my wife, but was initially repulsed at even the notion of Clinton being the Nominee - I do not like her inside the beltway connections, her lobbyist ties, her recently borrowed war-hawk persona - I felt that she is far too indentured to established and insular parties, and that would violate the core principles of participatory governance belied by my DKOS username. And yet, she has a heart, and looking at her life is looking at a modern day Eleanor Roosevelt - someone who has devoted her life to understanding those less fortunate - a girl who left the comforts of suburban Chicago living and served the poor - left the ivory towers of Wellesley and Yale - and moved to upstate arkansas in a pro-bono legal clinic - travelled across the world after her noble and failed attempt at Universal Health Care and worked for human rights. She is a model for women and girls everywhere for how to demand professional respect and be a conscious and loving mother (Ain't a darn thing wrong with Chelsea).
Barack is absolutely my speed. He speaks up to power, and has spent his life passionately lifting up those who are victims of inequality and giving them the voice to change things. He is John F Kennedy, and Cesar Chavez, and Delores Huerta, and Martin Luther King, and, most importantly, Saul Alinski. Chicago has given us great gifts over the years, with the rugged, egalitarian history of progressive politics in a city that has redefined community organizing. Barack Obama, aside from his eclectic upbringing, is one of those great gifts - and his rapid ascendency is a testament to how well he learned the rules of organazing for progressive change. And yet imbued in this passion is an aristocratic grace, a princehood - and therein lies my jumping off point.
What sort of Prince will Obama be? Machiavelli's famous treatise on the subject indicated that first and foremost the prince should be loved, and that there are times that the prince will be called on to do things, sometimes cruel things, to maintain the stability of power. From Wikipedia,
The theories expressed in The Prince are often venerated as shrewd methods that an aspiring prince can use to acquire the throne, or an existing prince can use to establish his reign. According to Machiavelli, the greatest moral good is a virtuous and stable state, and actions, no matter how cruel, to protect the country are justified. It is vital that he do anything necessary to keep his power; however, Machiavelli strongly suggests that above all, the prince must not be hated. He does give a concise answer on whether or not a prince should be feared or loved. He states, "..a wise prince should establish himself on that which is his own control and not in that of others; he must endeavor to avoid hatred, as is noted." He also says "It is best to be both feared and loved; however, if one cannot be both it is better to be feared than loved."
I am not here suggesting that Obama is Machiavellian, but I am doing something equally taboo according to some on this site - I am suggesting that we should make absolutely sure that he is not. We should withhold some of the premature hero-worshipping and annointing until we have more solid commitments from him regarding his true allegiance to the grassroots. He LOOKS GREAT! But whom will he serve. If we keep throwing him money and power and inaugural balls without holding tightly onto the strings of democracy that are OUR responsibility to maintain and use to hold our leaders accountable, we may very well be recreating the despot (possibly even against his will, if those of you with some psychological background can get this) we say we want to rid ourself of.
After all of this, I am still uncommitted, but DESPERATELY want some excuse to vote for Obama - and that excuse will come when I see it. And I'm still waiting to see it - perhaps your comments or some other message in the next 4 1/2 hours wil change my mind.
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