America is down on itself, for sure. Eighty percent of us think that America is on the wrong track, and the other twenty percent thinks that there’s something wrong with the eighty percent. We don’t like ourselves or each other very much.
We have some good reasons for self-loathing. Against our friend’s advice, we spent all our money and credibility on a mistaken war. We beat people up and told them it was for their own good. We borrowed money from a rich friend (China) to pay for our addictions to oil and fancy weapons, but now we’re really broke. We are the abusive, alcoholic husband who has lost his job and whose friends have abandoned him. We think that we might feel better if we could just find someone new to beat up (Iran). We’ve started asking ourselves if our best years have come and gone. America is Brittney Spears, Anna Nicole Smith, and Heath Ledger , and we wonder whether, like theirs, our downward spiral is irreversible.
There’s a new guy who moved in next door named Barack who is trying to help us. He tells us that there’s hope. He says that all of our mistakes have not doomed us. He wants us to get into a twelve-step program to help us overcome our addictions. He seems like a nice guy; he’s smart, attractive, and he seems to actually care. But we’re not sure if we can trust him. He’s so different from us. Sure, he can have hope: he’s wealthy, educated, and seems to be a good father. He’s got everything going for him. And he’s black. We’re not racist or anything, but black people seem to have it easy these days, especially wealthy and smart black people. Can we really believe in the hope that he promises? Can we really change? Do we really want to change?
After all: THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH US! SURE WE’RE BROKE, WE EAT AND DRINK TOO MUCH, WE’RE LONELY AND ANGRY, OUR FRIENDS WON’T TALK TO US, WE CAN’T DRIVE ANYWHERE ‘CAUSE IT’S TOO EXPENSIVE, WE CAN’T LEAVE THE COUNTRY ‘CAUSE THE DOLLAR’S NOT WORTH ANTHING, BUT WE’RE FINE, GODDAMIT. AND WHO IS THIS UPPITY NEIGHBOR TO TELL US TO CHANGE ANYWAY? JUST WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS, THE ONE? WE DON’T WANT TO CHANGE. WE ARE COMPLETELY FINE THE WAY WE ARE. GO AWAY, MR. "CHANGE SO YOU CAN SURVIVE." I’D RATHER DIE THAN CHANGE.
And that’s the way some Americans obviously feel right now. They are the people the new McCain ads are aimed at, and those ads just might work. When you’ve made a lot of mistakes, every admonition that you should change just reminds you how much you’ve screwed up. It’s why so many people choose self-destruction over hope: it’s easier not to have to admit mistakes.
America can’t kill itself all at once, but it just might do it slowly by refusing to change. A vote for McCain is a vote for denial. It’s not that there’s anything in particular that we like about him, but he’s not expecting too much from us, and that’s a relief. We can keep pretending we’re fine, and when we’re gone, hopefully the rest of the world will call it an accidental overdose.
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