Election Reflections...

I’d like to put down now how, exactly, I feel about the 2007-2008 presidential campaign. Some folks won’t like it. Oh well, this is reality as I see it, feel free to write me back and tell me how I’ve got it all wrong, same as people have been trying to do for years when I say America is coming to a wriggling, kicking, screaming close as the #1 head honcho.

Before I begin I'll provide some voter background for myself. I was born in 1976. I remember turning eighteen in 1994. Clinton was elected two years before so I didn’t vote for the first time until 1996, and for all my presidential voting experience B.C. (Before Cunt, how I delineate the Bush Jr.-era) I made it a point to vote third party. My thinking in this was if a third party could get that measly 5% then we would have a debatable alternative to the two party system which has gridlocked A LOT of progress in this country for a long time. Many people told me I was throwing my vote away, but I saw it as the only logistical way within the system to really herald change.

Then came The Cunt.

Once it was down to The Cunt you’d better believe I was voting for the Democratic candidate. But this isn’t voting, it’s Emergency Voting, a further example of the sad but true nature of this two party system, where many of us find ourselves voting for the lesser of two evils.

Now two terms later I am finally ready to cast a non-emergency vote again. And you’d think I be ready to go third party again, but look, it’s all but completely disappeared. Essentially Barrack O’Bama has taken that spotlight, almost a third party idealist running in one of the two major parties. So you’d think I’d be voting for him, but I’m not. Here’s why.

Time for the terrible truth the way I see it, please hold your tomatoes until the end.

I’m fine with Barrack O’Bama as president – in maybe four or eight years. The shame of the campaign is that the way Hillary and he have picked on one another my initial hopes that he might bow out and become her running mate is pretty much in the trash bin (unrealistic expectation fostered by those campaign years of West Wing). Fine, I’m a realist, and if not that scenario then I just don’t want him to win. I want Hillary Clinton. Barrack is a revolutionary candidate to a degree, and there is a lot about him that would do wonders for this country, internally. However, what we are looking at in the next 5-10 years is the beginning of a new world paradigm where America is no longer going to be the #1 world power. We’ve got China and to a lesser degree India engaging the world market with more of a presence, and this is only going to continue. Don’t believe me? Ask any economist who has a thing about oil prices and they’ll tell you the reason our oil prices are going up is because these two countries are adding demand for the product. Eight years ago there were 6 million cars on the road in China, today there are 20 Million, with their oil consumption in recent years increasing by as much as 30%* annually, and expected to increase 150%* by the year 2020.

However, while both China and India are entering more of a manufacturing domain as well, with industries such as automobile production and export vying more and more for dominance in the world market for China and things not too far behind for India**, China is the encroaching new economic powerhouse on many levels. A recent study by Georgia Institute of Technology suggests that China specifically may soon rival the U.S. in terms of being the principal driver of the world's economy, a title the U.S. has held since World War II.***


So what does that have to do with Barrack O’Bama? Why should changes in the global paradigm have anything to do with him as president? Wouldn’t his charming, think fast and never abandon hope persona fit like a glove in this new world arena?

The president-to-be is not necessarily the object of the issue here. We all know it’s the people the elected surround themselves with that really make the difference, whether just by supporting their campaigns or actually doing the brunt of the work. I still think, to some degree, President = Queen in a figurehead sort of way.

Will O’Bama be able to surround himself with the right people? I’m not so sure. Would Hillary? I can’t say for sure, but I think someone in her position, with the hundreds of favors I’m sure Bill would be able to call in, she’d have a better shot at it. She’s from the institution. It’s not the individual’s experience per se, it’s their contacts. It’s their abilities to be able to handle the rising shit storm even at this moment bearing down on this country like a Tornado on a trailer park (RUN JED RUN!!!).

And there’s another, really nasty reality I see as well. With this flux of power going on America is going to act like it almost always does when it’s interests are threatened– we’re the biggest kid in class and you better believe we’re going to beat up anyone within range just to ‘set the record straight’. On our way out of the head of the class we are going to kick and scream and carry on. Would O’Bama help this? I have no doubt he could stem the tide of some seriously ugly political strategies or dealings, but how would that go over? I’m not talking about with the rest of the world but with the myriad of covert and not-so-convet agendas that comprise the enormous python that is the political reality of this country? I’m sorry, but I think ‘not very well’ is the realistic answer here.

And just what happens to people in places of power and spotlight that don’t ‘go with the flow’? They die. They die the kind of deaths that occur at the end of high-powered sniper rifles. Shit for that matter, just to come right out and say it, O’Bama is black. Now, this means nothing to me, and I hate to treat it as an issue, because it shouldn't be, but to pretend its not is to ignore history. What happens to strong, insightful and revolutionary black leaders in the U.S.? See the above statement.

Now think about what would happen if this country was already struggling through a difficult re-alignment in the pecking order of world economy/politics and then the first black president gets assassinated? I’d call it the worst thing that’s ever happened to this country; an event that would add momentum to the out of control nose-dive we’re already seeing the beginnings of. Is that worth having such a breathe of fresh air in the White House right now? Or is a solid, no surprises, probably slightly mundane 4-8 years of stabilizing and nurturing what this old sick dog needs to be able to sit back up calmly and start thinking about learning some new tricks? A revolution of hope is a good thing, and it is exactly what this country needs, but first we need to have some synapses repaired so we can recognize hope for what it really is: a ladder that simply must be placed on a solid surface in order to be climable without a premature tumble back to the lower floors from whence we’ve traveled long, long ago.

So yeah, I guess I finally understand what it means to be a Democrat. Now I just have to be careful not to get stuck there like most of them do.

References: You can find this stuff anywhere on the internet enws and science sites. These are probably the most basic articles and thus hte ones I directly reference. Georgia Institute of Technology grad. I am not. Take them for what they are, but if You look, its common knowledge. That being said...

*http://www.voanews.com/tibetan/archive/2006-04/2006-04-04-voa8.cfm for the full article

**http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/in-india-more-cars-going-faster/

***http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080124103159.htm for the whole article on the study.