Christian Leftist

I came to an understanding with myself on Wednesday night that makes me feel a little better about my soul but slightly worried for my future as a business person.

I flat-out told an undecided voter — one who was undecided, open, friendly, ready to talk politics and probably leaning Obama after watching the debate in the room where his Democratic friend was — that when it came down to it, I’d rather he vote for McCain than not vote at all.

This is not a position Democrats are going to shout from the rooftops (Republicans should shout it, but only to registered Republicans if they plan to win). Look at what happened when Bush decided to force elections on the Gaza Strip. I bet Hamas is still thanking him for that blunder. “Real democracy” doesn’t necessarily mean that the populace will vote in its own best interests. If you want to run a registration drive, be sure you know what audiences you’re targeting and whether you can afford to spend the time educating and persuding them to vote for your issues.

As you know, my suggestion is probably not the wisest thing to say to someone who might be looking for an excuse not to vote for your candidate but who wants to know that someone understands, that he’s doing the right thing.

I said it anyway.

As badly as I want and need and hope and pray for Obama to win this election, as painful as the last eight years have been, as furious as I am with the Bush Administration and conservatives right now, I don’t want to sink to their level. I want to win this fairly. I need to know that of the people who care enough to actually register, stay informed and vote on November 4th, more of them believe that Barack Obama is the better person for the office. I have to see that my neighbors and relatives and friends and peers and acquaintances and rivals and those who are strangers to me all stop what they are doing or could be doing on that Tuesday and do whatever it takes to cast their ballots because they give a damn about what happens on this planet and know that as a great force in world history, part of the planet’s future depends on what we decide and will lay out a path forward upon which the next generation will have to walk.

Yes, there are many, many important decisions that we cannot afford to make under the rule of another conservative, like Supreme Court appointments, business regulation and civil rights laws. In the shadow of the steps our country has taken backwards, those choices are more critical and more prescient than ever. That doesn’t change the fact that a dishonorable victory would feel hollow and hypocritical.

What would it say about the progressives of this country if we had to resort to suppression, intimidation, threats of violence, misinformation, propaganda, cracking, fraud, trickery and outright lies in order to triumph?

How would we sleep at night, when despite knowing that acts of nature and of artificial means had melded together so fortuitously at one time, that the rest of the world thought we had a fighting chance to prove that we are who we say we are and not just a band of selfsh people who want all the power and privilege without the sacrifice or the responsibility, that for once we didn’t have to say one thing but believe another or make rules for others to obey that we ourselves do not follow, that we had held in our grasp all the cards, that the deck was all but spent and someone had probably dealt us a winning suit, knowing we might yet turn back from the precipice — that the very stars had aligned for our cause — despite having all these favors, we still had so little faith in ourselves that we cheated and forfeited the game to avoid risking the hand?

How would anyone else trust us or believe in our sincerity ever again? How would we trust ourselves?

I think Bill Maher put it perfectly last night on Larry King Live when he said, “If you want to be the first black man to do anything, you have to be better than anyone else.” That is what Obama has done. It was not John McCain who held to his straight-talk mantra that “he’d rather lose the election than win the war.” It was Barack Obama who staked his candidacy on the idea that a candidate could run for a political office without employing dirty tricks and personal attacks and win. Unlike McCain, Obama’s not using the type of smear tactics Bush’s unofficial advocates used to defeat him in 2000, like automated voice calls that claim Obama’s close friends with a terrorist, that the terrorist’s group killed multiple civilians (Weather Underground killed one police officer, and William Ayers was never convicted of a felony related to the WU), or that Obama’s a radical leftist who will bring socialism — oh, the horror! — to Washington, D.C. Obama’s not the one who’s consulting with a GOP state manager who gave talking points to his volunteers on how to compare Barack to Osama Bin Laden ‘”because they both have friends who attacked the Pentagon.” Nor does he stir up a cloud of fear, panic and xenophobia with implications about his opponent’s origins that are both nativist and racist, then make no clarifications when the racists at his rallies shout out “Terrorist!” and “Kill him!” or fail to point out that not all Muslims are Arab, not all Arabs are Muslims, and not many Muslims are terrorists, then demand that his opponent APOLOGIZE for RIGHTLY calling the bigots on their hate speech and for chastising him for allowing such behavior to go unchallenged. Those are but a sampling of the varied skill sets that McCain has acquired over the course of the campaign as the campaign has slowly acquired him.

McCain’s bid for the presidency, in all its Sarah Palin-esque glory, has taken on a slimy, rotten personality of its own, and as we count down the days until the final voting, this malicious and odious quest to tar and feather Obama’s reputation — not just as a candidate, but as an American — threatens to overwhelm its creator and take him with it on a ride to the end, no matter if that end justifies the means or not.

This is our first true Web 2.0, YouTube-enabled, 24/7 live-blogged and live-recorded presidential election in history. Every off-color joke, every lie, every gaffe or faux pas, every contradicting quote, every smirk of contempt and twitch of apoplectic rage, every hate-filled diatribe, every nasty, false email circulated, all of it will be logged, categorized, downloaded, cached, duplicated, mashed up, remixed and re-distributed, forever. We inhabit a world where the press no longer sleeps because its power never lies solely in corporate hands anymore. Someone is always watching, witnessing, waiting for the first mistake. Sure, the pseudo-intellectuals and Karl Roves of the future will lie through their teeth, even when the footage is playing back at them, but every time that happens, they reduce their honor and the ethical capital they have to spend. They look that much worse.

For his sake, I hope that’s the price John McCain is willing to pay in order to win: his honor and integrity. That is what this race has cost him — his legacy. Long after he is gone, people will remember how low one campaign sunk to reach so high. He must know by now that bloggers never forget. I know I won’t.

…Aaaand we’ve come full-circle.

I knew George W. Bush was going to give me a headache when in January 2001 he used his second day in office to deny African aid organizations U.S. funding if they chose to give women information about abortions. Never mind that the drugs to prevent spreading HIV to one’s unborn child weren’t usually available to women in poorer countries back then; they may not be now. The point was that regardless of the final decision women may have made, the mere action of discussing the option of aborting was enough to economically devastate non-profit aid groups who were giving health care to women who needed more than almost any other group in the world.

Now it appears that Dubya wasn’t done making his point.

Nicholas Kristof reported that USAID, or the United States Agency for International Development, has ordered that six African countries it serves not use any of its money to supply British aid organization Marie Stopes International with any condoms, I.U.D.s, birth control pills or any other contraceptive devices whatsoever.

The Bush Administration has falsely claimed that this action was a response to Marie Stopes Int’l.’s support of the Chinese government’s family-planning policies. Yes, China still madates that couples have only one child, and this law occasionally results in forced abortions, and it’s a horrible way to exert population control, but there is absolutely no evidence of MSI’s involvement or support for such measures. It’s outright dishonesty and misinformation.

GWB taking out the religious right’s issues with Planned Parenthood on some of the most vulnerable and destitute human beings in the world was not a responsible, moral, or ethical move seven years ago. It isn’t a good move now.

…is that good men do nothing. Or in this particular struggle, to stand by and watch passively as friends, neighbors and peers engage in hideous acts of moral repugnance.

Here are some McCain supporters in Lehigh, PA waiting to get into Lehigh Universty to hear him at a rally.

The transcript:

The protesters line one side of a street leading to a parking lotto the auditorium, while McCain supporters form a fast-moving line on the opposite side with many more people. A quick pan reveals a sampling of the protesters’ signs and slogans. McCain supporters shout insults at the protesters as they file past them, sometimes insulting the reporter as well.

McCain Man 01: …And one thing we don’t need is another lawyer in Washington, and that’s Barack Obama! He’s a lawyer!

McCain Man 02: (to the cameraman/reporter) I think you’re stupid. *woman grins in background*
Reporter: Why, sir?
McCain Man 02: *looks uncomfortable, as if he didn’t expect reporter to reply to his insult* Because if that guy gets elected, he hangs around with terrorists…
Reporter: Who’s [sic] the terrorists?
McCain Man 02: Obama.

McCain Man 03: Obama’s a terrorist! Don’t you know that?

McCain Man 04: Obama’s a Muslim! He’s a terrorist himself!
Reporter: Do you really believe that, sir? *pause* Do you really believe that? Do you believe Senator Obama’s a terrorist?
McCain Man 04: (to reporter) I believe he supports terrorism.

McCain Man 05: (to protestors) *flips them off* Here it is! Love it.

McCain Man 06: Commie f*ggots! Commie f*ggots…

McCain Woman 01: He’s a terrorist.

Some middle-aged woman cackles at an off-camera joke or insult. In the background, another younger women stops and shouts at the protestors.

McCain Woman 02: GO HOME!

McCain Woman 03: *points at protestors* GO HOME!

McCain Man 07: Go get a job! Go get a job!

McCain Man 08: Go get a job.

McCain Man 09: GET A JOB!

…et cetera. It gets worse. Much, much worse. It’s not the only video on YouTube, either. If you have a strong gag reflex, search for “Obama monkey.”

20 more days.

I’ve been so busy with job hunting and volunteering for the Obama campaign that I literally have had to bookmark about 20 or so stories I’ve found in the past week that are so ridiculous or rage-inducing that I have to blog about them someday. I hope I’ll catch up to the present. Here’s one that is both fresh and prescient, a news byte I guarantee will not make the front pages of many papers tomorrow.

From the Davenport Liveblog of a McCain rally by John Deeth of the Iowa Independent:

Before McCain’s arrival, a minister delivering an invocation said, “There are plenty of people around the world who are praying to their god, be they Hindu, Buddah, or Allah, that (McCain’s) opponent wins. I pray that you step forward and honor your own name.”

I ask that you re-read that and let the works sink in for a moment.

This is one of those nasty, devilishly clever smears against one’s opponent that the McCain campaign has let others make for them or don’t care if they make or not because they’ll benefit from the consequences regardless.

1. It states a point that is nearly impossible to prove or disprove and that the Obama campaign may not want to disprove: there are a ton of people outside of the U.S.A., many of them people of color and/or non-Christians, who believe that the Democratic candidate’s victory would be immensely better for the earth at large and who are hoping and probably praying that Obama wins the presidential election.

I don’t personally have a problem with that, though it is clear from the context of the location where the minister spoke the words, his explicit identification of non-white and non-Christian people of faith, and the sentence that the minister does. When every single country in the world outside of ours except for Russia, Israel and religiously-controlled dictatorships would elect a Democrat over a Republican, a Leftist over a Rightist, a Liberal over a Conservative as defined in America, I have to conclude that they might have a point. They feel their interests are intimately connected to our own. They have seen, fron far less biased viewpoints, in most cases, the cause and effect of American politics and our government’s economic and foreign policies. It has very little or nothing to do with their individual religion in most cases, except when they’re bemoaning the path on which George W. Bush’s religion of blind faith and blockheaded attitude has taken him during his quest for “freedom.” This brings me to the second point.

2. By stating that scary, non-Christian brown people (OMG! OMG! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!!!!1!11) want Obama elected, the minister implies that everyone outside of McCain supporters are in on some big secret that they aren’t. That Obama is a Seekrit Muslim, maybe?

Thus, the actions of millions of people over whom Obama has absolutely no control prove that ‘Obama is a dangerous terrorist who must be stopped.’

…Say whaa?

3. But wait, that’s not all! Not only do you get a nice, healthy dose or race-baiting, fear-mongering medicine, but you also receive a free sample of religious prejudice and judgemental hypocrisy!

You see, anyone who votes for Obama, That One, The Other Fella, well, they aren’t REAL Christians. They’re just fake Christians who will burn in Hell when Jesus shows up and takes over. Don’t count on receiving Communion if your priest sees that O-shaped bumper sticker on your car.

This, my fellow human beings, is how you smear someone without actually coming out and saying what you really feel. Wrap it up in the professional cloak of one’s religion, disguise it as pseudo-fact, then repackage it as a call to arms for the faithful and sell it back to the sheeple in a somber prep speech.

What’s the worst part about this? It probably happens every day in pulpits across the country. We just don’t see it because most of us have never wanted to look for it before.

Our national debt has ballooned to such an insane amount that it has surpassed ten trillion dollars and broken the debt clock.

Yes, you read that correctly: the national debt clock has run out of digits.

I just don’t know what to say at this point that hasn’t already been said a hundred times over the past decade. We use credit to pay for most of our purchases these days that we can’t can’t afford in the first place, so why should our government be any different?

It’s bad enough that we owe credit card companies so much money. Think about the half a trillion dollars we owe to China (if McCain’s estimate is accurate, and I take his word with a grain of salft, but it’s still a huge amount regardless).

We have to stop spending so much on foreign wars. We can’t afford ten billion dollars a month, even if we do owe it to Iraqis to repair what we broke. We can’t expect other nations to shoulder our debts and risky ventures, or they’ll all collapse with us (see: massive bank failures and emergency stop-gap measures this week, everywhere). We have to start making and buying products on U.S. soil again. The entertainment industry cannot hold up our entire economy on its own, and it looks like that is the direction in which we are heading.

In other words, we can’t afford to pretend to be the richest nation in the world. We’re the nation with the richest population of debters, for sure. But that’s a far cry from being rich.