Fighting back against talk radio blather

Once both of the party conventions are officially over, the real Presidential campaign begins. Unfortunately, both local and national talk radio shows, which disturbingly high numbers of people listen to, are already in full swing trying to smear Obama in any possible way that they can. More people listen to these radio talk shows (both national, like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, and local, like Howie Chisek and Bob Golic on WNIR "The Talk of Akron", 100 FM) than read blogs or newspapers, and so it seems that our most potent weapon this fall will be to launch a concerted effort to fight back and call these nefarious right wing talk shows and bring talking points to the table. Why would a blue collar worker who, like most of us, is probably struggling day to day just to survive this economy, want to elect a President who would continue to foist upon him or her the same failed policies that put them financially between a rock and a hard place to begin with? I read in today's newspaper that many union members don't care to support Obama, despite the fact that Democrats have always done right by unions, because Obama's skin is the wrong color. That this kind of racism exists in the 21st century is deeply disturbing and speaks of the mountains of old hatreds that Obama is going to have to climb this fall if he is to win over blue collar workers and union members. It's these kinds of embittered voters who frequently are the ones to call talk radio shows and blather on about race, creed and color and who are the same kinds of people who don't hesitate to openly use the "N" word when speaking of African-Americans. Unfortunately, we are going to have to mount a rather concerted attack against this kind of mentality if we are going to elect our nation's first black President. Of course, people who are entrenched in their mentality are impossible to change in their mindset, but all one can do is to try. If we don't call in to the talk radio shows and combat the smears that are propagated on them and to try to speak truth, then we're going to face an uphill battle come November to elect Obama as President. There are just too many rednecks, right wingnuts and radio screeds out there who either host or call into talk radio shows, and they are far more numerous than blog and newspaper readers. So we have to meet them on their own battleground and fight on their terms. In so doing, maybe we can put just a dent in the smear mongering that will doubtless ratchet up a notch once the party conventions are done and the campaign heads down the homestretch to Election Day.

THEY'RE JUST LIKE US

One of the things I appreciate about the current Democratic candidates is that they come from normal working class backgrounds and have lived lives very similar to ours. They've faced the same struggles as we have, so they know what it's like not to be born with a silver spoon in their mouths and have wealth and privilege handed to them from the get-go. These candidates worked their way up from the bottom, with hard work, determination and an idea of making the world just a little better a place. Obama, for example, just finished finally paying off his student loans that he had to take out to attend college. And he's 47! Joe Biden comes from a working class Irish Catholic family from Scranton, PA. His family lived like so many of us, in working class neighborhoods where you weren't better than anyone else and you worked hard to get ahead and hoped that by so doing, that you'd make life just a little easier for the next generation. That's something I, as a Baby Boomer, can identify with. My parents generation worked tirelessly hard to give us Baby Boomers a better life than they had growing up. And I grew up, like Obama, in a single parent household where we never lacked for anything. We had food on our table, a nice modest home filled with books and antique furniture, clothing often made by our mom, shoes frequently mended by the little Italian shoe repairman near our Catholic school and we had each other and our friends, neighbors adn teachers for a support system. That's how it used to be. You could grow up in a single parent household and still make it. There was no need for the single parent to work two and three jobs just to be able to provide. Our mom was a full time stay at home mom until we were in our teens, and only then, went back to work part time. We had the privilege of having her there all the time when we needed her as children. She was there to mend every scraped knee or elbow, to sit by our bedsides when we were sick and to take us to see doctors when we needed medical attention - and we never had to worry about paying the medical bill afterward like you do now. Obama and Biden understand this. They're one of us. They remember the hard times when money was tight. They remember how it used to be growing up working class. Bush & Co. could never understand how hard it is when bills are due and money is tight, when someone you love is sick or injured and needing medical care and the worries over how to pay for it, when paychecks don't stretch far enough to make it between paydays, when food prices are so prohibitive that you wonder how you're going to eat, when filling the gas tank is a financially painful experience - they couldn't possibly know how tough it is for working class people to get by. But Obama and Biden do. They've been there and remember. That's why we need to elect them this fall to take back the White House. Because nothing less than everything, and I mean, everything in our country's future is at stake. And not just our future, but the future of the world is also at stake. Time to stop living in the darkness of fear and time to start living with the bright light of hope.