Obama for America!
Posted by Shaun Altman Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:05:02 GMT
I don't generally write political posts. I do a lot of business in the metaverse, and my general feeling is that business and politics should be separate enterprises. Following what was, in my view, one of the most important elections in American history though, I felt compelled to sit down and analyze some of my own thoughts on the topic. In an unusual departure, I'd like to share some of these thoughts with you, but please keep in mind that I talk with you today as a person, and as an American citizen. The views below are mine, and do not represent official views of, nor endorsements on behalf of the Metaverse Investment Fund.
The 2008 fight for the White House was long and fiercely contended, with serious campaigning spanning some 21-22 months. It was a much different campaign this time around though, in that the nominations brought a genuine choice between two truly great candidates. This is in stark contrast to recent history, where all we could really pick from as Americans was the lesser of two evils.
Now its no secret that I'm a registered Democrat. I'm not a subscriber to most of the extreme partisan ideologies though, and often find myself somewhere near the center. Its also no secret that I'm EXTREMELY anti-Bush, so this may come as a bit of a surprise to some, but I think we could have done a lot worse than Senator John McCain.
Having served as a wartime officer, Senator McCain knows a thing or two about wars, and we currently find ourselves embroiled in a couple of those. Unlike George Bush, he knows quite a bit about freedom and liberty, having fought for it. He knows a lot about human rights too, having personally been a victim of unspeakable acts of torture, and would have no doubt led admirably on global human rights issues as well as wartime conduct issues. He's also served our nation as a member of the United States Congress since 1982, and would have brought a wide breadth of leadership experience to the oval office.
Yes, as much as it bugs some of my friends on the extreme left to hear, we could have indeed done a lot worse than Senator McCain, had the election gone another way. In fact, we've been doing a lot worse through nearly a decade of the hands-down worst leadership that this nation has ever chosen to endure. The Senator from Arizona is an amazing guy in a lot of ways, with a rich history of national service. He didn't end up with my support in the end, but that wasn't because I have the kind of partisan hatred for him that has been so widely demonstrated recently, and it wasn't because I felt he'd have made a poor leader.
On the other hand, we had Senator and now President-Elect Barack Obama, another great choice for President, who we know absolutely nothing about. ...huh?!
That's right folks, as a nation, we've just decided to head to Vegas and roll the dice. Anyone who says that they have any clue whatsoever regarding how President Obama will actually govern is a liar. He's completely untried and untested in the capacity of the office that he's about to occupy. That doesn't make him a bad choice though. In fact, in the political and economic climate that we currently find ourselves in, both as a nation and as a world, I feel that it makes him a very interesting and indeed compelling choice for President of the United States.
I didn't choose to give my support to President Obama because of any kind of track record in the United States Senate which would lead me to conclude that he's the safer bet to lead us through these troublesome times. In fact, at the end of the day, we're probably taking a MUCH bigger risk with President Obama than we would have with Senator McCain, simply because our new president is such an unknown quantity. When it came right down to it, I did my best to weigh this risk, and decided to take a gamble. Like many of you, I took a chance on change.
President Obama speaks passionately about a number of issues that are important to me right now. I believe that it is exactly this passion that has a chance to bring us through a rather bleak today and into a brighter tomorrow. So, I took a chance on change.
One of the biggest problems that we face as a society today is our own polarization. The partisan politics of the extreme left and the extreme right rule the day. This only serves to drive us farther apart as Americans, with wedge issue after wedge issue distracting us from the things that are most important. This is THE MOST CRITICAL ISSUE we face, in my view. If we can manage to break the cycle of being so vehemently Democrat and Republican... if we can choose to come together around the things which unite us as Americans rather than spewing the hatred that divides us as the partisan extremists which so many of us have become... the rest will suddenly become a WHOLE lot simpler.
Let me give you a recent example from my own life of why this is such an important issue. Very close to the election, some news reports led me to be concerned that Obama may have adjusted his tax strategy at the last minute, which led me to take another look at Senator McCain. I struck up a conversation about this with a good friend, and fellow Obama supporter, in an attempt to gain some additional perspective. His most memorable response was to tell me to fuck off and stop whining. That's right, as far as my good friend was concerned, if I were to support Senator McCain in this election, I could fuck off and should stop whining.
Now I don't bring this up to cast a negative light on the man, who by the way remains my good friend. I bring it up to illustrate that the extreme political polarization of recent history serves only to turn friends and countrymen against each other. I'm sure many of you can think of similar personal, regional and national examples.
I could cite a lot more myself, but I'll leave it at this: We'll never get anywhere as a country when we start from polarized extremes such as "look, its either my way or fuck off, whiner", and these extremes are all too prevalent. We're a deeply divided nation, and we're in much need of healing.
I realize that this is general, and I could spend a lot of time drilling down from here into specifics. I don't really want to write a book tonight though, and looking up the page, I seem to be getting close already. :) So, suffice it to say, our division and lack of coherent national vision as a people were the main driving factors which led me to take a chance on a vision of change rather than to fall back on a proven leader.
President Obama talks a great game. He speaks of a United States, rather than red and blue states. He speaks of unity, peace, a return to international credibility, community and infrastructure building on a national level, cultivating a culture of involvement and national service, and more. He talks a good enough game to convince me to to take a chance on change.
Never in my lifetime has our nation been in such a bad situation on so many levels. We're in the aftermath of nearly a decade of an extremist, arch-religious, ultra-conservative political machine walking all over our constitution, walking all over us and walking all over the world as a whole. These wounds will not be easy to heal, and its going to take all of us to pull it off.
Its definitely not the time to bury our heads in the sand and live in fear of our situation though, because by contrast, never in my lifetime has there been a national environment that is so ripe for change and true progress. While the odds against meaningful societal changes are always long, for a variety of reasons, there's never been a better environment to take the chance.
Unlike a lot of my friends in the Democratic party however, I'm not celebrating tonight. I'm not celebrating because so far, we've only done the easy part. We've elected a president. We've come together as a nation, and we've picked. That was easy, it just took a few hours.
Now that we've taken what I believe history will define as one of our biggest national risks to date, its time for the hard part, which is giving that risk the best possible chance and the best possible environment to perform and pay off. President Obama has a great vision, but he can't pull off the kind of change that we sent him to the White House to deliver alone. If we REALLY want the kind of change we voted for on November 4th, its going to take each and every one of us participating to pull it off. We can't go home from the polls and leave our brave new leader in the trenches alone.
So I'm not celebrating tonight, because I recognize that the road ahead is long and hard. Instead, I choose tonight to be cautiously optimistic. I believe that the voice of the nation on November 4th testified to its desire for true change and real reform. Now its time to do the hard work. Its time to stand up and fight for the changes that we desire. We're at a major turning point as a nation, where its time to hop off of the 1990's gravy train and embrace a national culture of civic responsibility.
I believe that we can do this together. To quote one American hero, who would also like very much to see us all come together, America IS worth fighting for, and I think that as a country we recognize that. I'm ready to stand behind our new President, and join together with my friends from everywhere on the political spectrum, to build a better America for we the people - for all of us. I hope that you are too. I believe that we have the right man at the right time to lead us on this journey, and I'll leave you with that thought tonight. I remain cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to come out of our Democratic and Republican trenches to face these challenges as Americans. I believe that if we're willing to try though, then yes... yes we can! :)
