I voted for Barack Obama in 2008, in part because the thought of a black man running this country seemed so dire to the many small-town racists I call neighbors that I had to do my part to make it a reality. Also, I identified with the whole "dad out of the picture/raised by mom and grandparents" angle of his story, and I caught a speech of his at Clemson, on campus, where he captivated and amused us in equal turns. The guy could deliver a speech, and whatever else you can say about him, he's done that much for a fractured nation after the Mad Libs style of the former Malaproper-In-Chief.
But I'm not sure that he'll be much more than that, when all is said and done. And it's not because he hasn't tried, but because he's been stopped at just about every turn by an opposition that, going back to Nixon, traffics in the victim mentality while simultaneously victimizing those it deems as its very oppressors. You can's spell Tea Party without KKK, in my opinion, and all those who oppose Obama just because of who he is, as opposed to what he stands for, do so with a panache and a visual appeal to the dumbest among us that leaves little doubt how far they'll go to "take our country back."
Before Obama, I thought Bobby Kennedy was the last decent human being to run for the office, and that was with the knowledge that he'd approved wiretaps on Martin Luther King, among other things. But we live in a world where our politicians spit out family values while fathering a whole other family or two on the side, so I prefer the honest ones (the few honest ones) who own up to being fucked-up, but self-awareness is not prized in political debate. I didn't even have to watch the GOP candidate debate to tell you that most of them would blame Obama for everything that's ever gone wrong in this country. Obama will be a historic president for his race alone, but they would have you believe that he's consulting the Little Red Book of Chairman Mao while sacrificing white virgins to his heathen gods. Obama is not a saint, but he's a damn sight more appealing than the dunderheads currently angling for the honor of trying to unseat him.
That includes the "not a candidate" candidate, Sarah Motherfuckin' Palin. She's a political beast unleashed on the body politic who will gnaw at the very fabric of American democracy before someone has the good sense to tell her to go to hell. She is John McCain's gift to America after he's gone, his giant "Fuck You" to the country that failed to elect him when he ran as himself, and thus had to reinvent himself after Bush screwed him over as a tried-and-true conservative when he was probably the furthest thing from it prior to 2000. The John McCain of back then was like Willie Stark in the early part of All The King's Men, the John McCain of 2008 was more like Willie post-governorship, after he'd been corrupted.
If I were alive in '68, I would've voted for RFK, and I will vote for Obama in 2012, because someday I can tell my grandkids, with my head held high, that I helped elect the first black president of the United States (and perhaps got him re-elected, too). But if he doesn't win, and some idiot from the Tea Party's "hot list" gets in, I won't worry too much. It's a little crazy to get invested in politics to the extent that you threaten to leave the country if the other guys win. Besides, whatever else, this is still the best country on the planet in terms of opportunity, even though sometimes it feels like that opportunity is getting harder to reach. One reason I can't vote GOP: I ain't got enough money. The minute I realized that, almost over a decade ago, I decided that I could never vote for such monied assholes (unless, of course, I get a shitload of money. Then it's GOP all the way, baby!). So I don't care who the Repubs run, I ain't voting for 'em. And if they win, I'll talk bad about 'em all I want. Unlike certain members of my family, I am not bitter enough yet to piss on other people just because they don't agree with me. I went through that phase and was unbearable. Nowadays I just hope for the best.
Because I'm guessing the best we can manage under President Bachman or Romney is nuclear war with Canada.
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