There is one constituency that I don’t know how to reach: people like my old, dear friend Brooklyn Mike, who’s been posting here lately, who would never vote for McCain but just can’t support a bankrupt system by voting for a Democrat either. Without going into detail about how much I agree with the Brooklyn Mikes of this world in principle – I do I do I do – I really think it’s important that some of them, and by them I guess I’m referring to those who, in 2000 were reviled after the election by most liberals/progressives/whatevers – I speak of course of . . . Nader voters. Mike and I worked in San Francisco a few years back very hard for our college friend Matt Gonzalez’s campaign for mayor. Matt ran as a Green against a Democratic-machine-candidate, a fully plasticized man named Gavin, and he almost won! It was very exciting, inspiring, and, in the end disappointing, and I was glad I got involved. But if there was a viable Republican who could’ve won because of my support of Matt, I wouldn’t have been there. Matt is now Ralph Nader’s running mate.
When I look back at the last eight years, and I look at the decline in our schools, social services, support for the arts, support for workers, for government employees, when I look at the Iraq war, the Supreme Court!, the list goes on and on (and the Mikes of the world know the list better than I do), I can’t see how anyone whose politics I think I agree with almost across the board could not vote for any Democrat for president. And yet they are out there. Maybe it’s the difference between a cynic and an idealist, or at least someone who thinks that radical change is possible (I do not think it is, at least not in my lifetime unless, say, our economy collapses – hmmmm).
I suppose it’s a kind of lefty, domestic realpolitik I’m practicing, but it’s where I’m at. Mike, I hope I haven’t misrepresented you, and I hope you’ll respond. Those of you out there who are still furious at Nader voters from eight years ago, I say let it go, and go turn one of them to our dark side. Because there’s a side that’s so very much darker.
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This may seem obvious to anyone who was a poli-sci major for more than the two semesters I thought I was bound for lifelong activism, but when I look at the American Empire today, and by today I mean today, 9/23/08, I can’t help but wonder whether in fifty years people will look back on the “free market” capitalism, the Reagan Revolution, that rose to prominence from the 1980s to 2010 much more harshly than so many now look back on the Russian Revolution. Many conservatives, even reactionaries are willing to admit that the USSR socialist experiment was at least based on an ethically sound, if unrealizable ideal: equality for all people. But history will surely look back on this American era as one of an if not immoral then certainly amoral one of greed and irresponsibility, an era that, more than likely, brought a once-great nation based on the naive but lovable notion of liberty and justice for all to (the brink of) its demise.
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Wow. I just heard Keith Olbermann introduce Rachel Maddow (who watched the 2008 Super Bowl at the Rendezvous, I feel it’s my duty to mention) as the woman who last week beat Larry King in the ratings! Is that true? Wow.
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I bow before George Saunders – all others Palin comparison.
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I flipped to Fox News the other night to find Geraldo Rivera interviewing Ben Stein as an expert on the economy. There is no punchline. People take that network seriously.
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Here’s a Times Palin Piece that hits a lot of marks.
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And here’s a Timothy Nash Slate piece that refers to several studies of conservative political views as symptomatic of unhealth.
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The Bradley Effect is very real, alive and well, and something we need to fight. By now you’ve probably heard about the recent AP poll “that concluded that white Democratic racism may cause 2.5 percent of voters to “turn away from Obama because of his race.”” We need to convince some of these people, people who’s ingrained racism will prevent them from pulling the lever for a black man, of the simple truth: that McCain/Palin will be worse for their pocketbooks and make them less safe than Obama/Biden. There is no other way. Speaking of which, I can’t find it right now, but I hear there’s another poll that says that over 50% of Americans think that Obama will raise their taxes. Sigh. It’s an uphill battle gang, and having the facts on our side simply isn’t enough.
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These are tough conversations to have, but remember the alternative. Please, call your aunt in Redondo Beach who doesn’t know why, there’s just something about that Obama fellow that makes her nervous, she just doesn’t trust him. She needs your call – we need her vote.
