IndieSouth

Before tonight, I have been on the fence about who to vote for; John McCain or Barack Obama. While I disapprove of the amount of power the Republicans have managed to amass during Bush’s two terms, and the efficiency with which they have gotten their political machine to run, I was still considering McCain because of how much he differs from the Republican party line. He does seem to be his own man, but the thought gnaws at me; for how long? Washington is all about power, and the fires that drive power are fueled by money. McCain, as much of an individual politically as he might be, how long could he be expected to stay that way under the influence of a far too powerful Republican political machine?

I have similar issues with Hillary Clinton. Yes, she would bring a powerful charismatic force in Bill Clinton back into the White House, and yes she is an intelligent and politically effective woman. But she is also what I think of as Old School Politics. The Clintons are cut from the same cloth that the Republicans have come from since Reagan, if only from different sides. American politics must change if we are to keep our country as free as we imagine it to be. If Bush’s last four years aren’t enough to convince people that our country is changing quickly for the worst, at least from the top levels, then I don’t know what else could do it.

But tonight, with Barack Obama’s speech dealing with the questions raised about his pastor’s remarks, the third alternative is finally made clear to me. I am no longer faced with the question of which unrepresentative party to support as a means of mitigating the fallout of the previous party in power. Barack took a situation that is all to common in American politics today, the persistent and overblown examination of anything that even remotely sounds bad or could look bad for a candidate, and dealt with it in a way that has not been seen in American politics for a long time.

Barack dealt with the issue of his pastor with honesty, straightforwardness, and integrity. He did not sell the man out, as would be the course of action we have come to expect. Instead, he acknowledged the man’s faults, while unequivocally stating why the man was important to his life. In doing so, he challenged everyone listening to deny that there are people in our own lives with which we have a similar relationship. But, he went further. He went into the root causes of why this issue and the other recent race-related issues that have come up in the campaign are attractive to the general public and to the media. It is because these issues are not dealt with honestly in public. There is too much smiling and nodding, or there are too many downcast heads and frowns. There is too much posturing, too much over-simplification. There is too much effort to portray these issues as strictly polar - or for lack of a better term, as simply black and white.

Barack circumvented the entire current political playbook and trusted people to use their capacity to reason and to understand, and to recognize truth when it is spoken, even if that truth is subjective and is disagreed with.

What Barack showed tonight was true statesmanship, and that is something that we have not seen for a very long time. We need a man like this in office. Regardless of your party or your decision of who to support for the office of the President, I urge you to vote. However, I urge you to think deeply about your decision, and ask yourself if tradition is a good enough reason to vote for a party’s candidate. Ask yourself if you truly believe what politicians tell you the majority of the time, and then ask yourself about why the stereotypes about Republicans or Democrats really don’t hold up under the barest scrutiny. Ask yourself about what the real problem with politics is in our country, and I’ll suggest an answer. It is that we have come to scorn idealism. We prefer cynicism because it is easier to anticipate failure than it is to anticipate success. We allow our representatives to walk all over us, to lie, cheat and steal from us, and chalk it all up to that’s how the game is played.

We deserve better.

Am I 100% sure that Barack Obama is not like the McCain, or Bush, or the Clintons? No, I am not. But I want to believe that someone of integrity can one day take up the office of the President, and Barack tonight has demonstrated that he could be that person much better than either McCain or Clinton could hope to during the duration of this campaign and election. I’m willing to allow myself to believe that my ideal country is possible, and for that to happen I have to allow myself to put my trust in that most untrustworthy of creatures; the career politician. Obama, more than any other candidate during the campaign, has demonstrated that he is the most worthy of that trust.

You don’t have to agree with me, that’s a given. All I ask is for you to listen to this speech, and in the back of your mind consider what your expectations have come to be with the way issues like this are usually handled in politics. Consider his frankness, his honesty, and the integrity he shows in dealing with the problems that his pastor has caused for his campaign, and ask yourself if you have seen anything like it in the last 28 years. Yes, this is a non-issue. But if this is the way Obama treats an issue like this, then I am happy to trust him over any other candidate with the much larger and much more difficult issues that face our country during the next four years.

My choice is Obama. I ask you to consider him for your choice as well.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 12:40 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.