Naturally, there are a spate of anti-Obama books coming out now that the nominees of both parties have been decided. Most of them are filled with outright lies, warning us of Obama's secretly radical agenda against the United States or some other ridiculous thing. It makes me crazy to see how desperate the Right has become that they are so utterly determined to take Obama down one way or another and cement for themselves another four years in the White House, when we all know too well of the failed policies of the past 8 years. Just this morning I read in the newspaper of both candidates plans for health care, a very big and important issue for me personally, and McCain's won't do diddly for most of us who are underinsured, let alone those who are uninsured. It's more of the same free market philosophy that we've already seen has failed
this country big time. Letting the markets decide the prices has done nothing but make prices skyrocket on just about everything. They say that competition will drive down prices, but we've seen that this is contrary to what has happened lately. Deregulation has also driven prices through the roof on just about all of the commodities out there, placing many of us in financial distress over how we're going to pay for things. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why my heating bill is so high when I live in such a tiny apartment. I keep it at 68º when I am home in the winter and at 58º when I am gone, and even so, I don't turn the heat on in the winter until after sunset because my living room windows face south and I get some natural solar heat that way. My place is also very well insulated, so no worries there. But ever since the Bush administration came into power,
the prices on just about everything have skyrocketed out of control, and now they want to continue those same policies by electing John McCain for President, and an untested, inexperienced woman as their Vice President, a move certainly meant to pull away disgruntled Hillary voters who have said that they refuse to vote for Obama because he is the wrong gender. I'm so afraid that the culture wars will escalate as issues of race and gender will doubtless come to the forefront of this campaign as fall wears on and things tighten up in the race. I know that there are folks who are leery of electing a black President and who still don't trust black men to be smart enough to run our country. Racism is still very pervasive in this country in spite of the advances in civil rights, and it really upsets me that people would let the color of someone's skin determine who they would vote for as President rather than important "kitchen table" issues like the economy, jobs, health care, the environment, education and the like. But sadly, there are still plenty of people perfectly willing to vote against their own economic interests and vote for people who will continue to screw them royally. One has only to read books like Thomas Frank's "What's the Matter with Kansas?" and Joe Bageant's "Deer Hunting with Jesus" to find out how many people out there regularly vote against their own interests and instead support candidates who will continue to ship their jobs overseas and leave them wanting for the most basic necessities like access to health care because of some weird proclivity to support the candidates who don't care and won't look out for the little guy. I can't say that I understand this at all, but I'm really nervous about these anti-Obama books and how they may end up stoking up racial fears about Obama and the ever present rumors that he's secretly Muslim because he lived for a time during his childhood in Indonesia and his father, Barack Obama, Sr. was a Muslim, albeit a fairly secular one at that. Still, ever since 9/11/2001, anti-Islamists have stoked up all kinds of irrational fears of anyone who practices Islam, regardless of whether they are moderates. It's the continuning fear of Muslims in this country that has people suspicious of Obama's name and his father and step father's origins. And radical right wing screeds like Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage still have huge listenerships on their radio shows that people freely buy into. It's so hard for us liberals to counter people like that, even in spite of Air America, which does
not have the luxury of wide listernership like the Right Wing radio screeds do. I'm very concerned about the power that these folks wield in elections and that they will do everything possible to sway the electorate to vote for a white guy/war hero who is a known loose cannon and who won't do anything to change the current bleak economic picture and the unending war in the Middle East. So if McCain wins and the economy continues its slide south and the wars rage on with no end in sight, the electorate has only itself to blame for being dumb enough to fall for the fear factor that the Right is using so effectively to control people. I just wish I could be more optimistic that Obama has a snowball's chance, but it's going to be an uphill battle for him to get people past the race issue, which I am quite sure will be the ultimate deciding factor in this election, not who can best lead the country in a time of crisis, but who looks most like us. Sadly, I suspect that in the end, a white guy will win it because whites can't get themselves past their fears of blacks. Racism exists, and we've got a long way to go yet to get past our old fears and hatreds in this country. We've come a long way, but we've still got a long road ahead of us to put race to bed as an issue once and for all.
Naturally, there are a spate of anti-Obama books coming out now that the nominees of both parties have been decided. Most of them are filled with outright lies, warning us of Obama's secretly radical agenda against the United States or some other ridiculous thing. It makes me crazy to see how desperate the Right has become that they are so utterly determined to take Obama down one way or another and cement for themselves another four years in the White House, when we all know too well of the failed policies of the past 8 years. Just this morning I read in the newspaper of both candidates plans for health care, a very big and important issue for me personally, and McCain's won't do diddly for most of us who are underinsured, let alone those who are uninsured. It's more of the same free market philosophy that we've already seen has failed 
this country big time. Letting the markets decide the prices has done nothing but make prices skyrocket on just about everything. They say that competition will drive down prices, but we've seen that this is contrary to what has happened lately. Deregulation has also driven prices through the roof on just about all of the commodities out there, placing many of us in financial distress over how we're going to pay for things. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why my heating bill is so high when I live in such a tiny apartment. I keep it at 68º when I am home in the winter and at 58º when I am gone, and even so, I don't turn the heat on in the winter until after sunset because my living room windows face south and I get some natural solar heat that way. My place is also very well insulated, so no worries there. But ever since the Bush administration came into power, 
the prices on just about everything have skyrocketed out of control, and now they want to continue those same policies by electing John McCain for President, and an untested, inexperienced woman as their Vice President, a move certainly meant to pull away disgruntled Hillary voters who have said that they refuse to vote for Obama because he is the wrong gender. I'm so afraid that the culture wars will escalate as issues of race and gender will doubtless come to the forefront of this campaign as fall wears on and things tighten up in the race. I know that there are folks who are leery of electing a black President and who still don't trust black men to be smart enough to run our country. Racism is still very pervasive in this country in spite of the advances in civil rights, and it really upsets me that people would let the color of someone's skin determine who they would vote for as President rather than important "kitchen table" issues like the economy, jobs, health care, the environment, education and the like. But sadly, there are still plenty of people perfectly willing to vote against their own economic interests and vote for people who will continue to screw them royally. One has only to read books like Thomas Frank's "What's the Matter with Kansas?" and Joe Bageant's "Deer Hunting with Jesus" to find out how many people out there regularly vote against their own interests and instead support candidates who will continue to ship their jobs overseas and leave them wanting for the most basic necessities like access to health care because of some weird proclivity to support the candidates who don't care and won't look out for the little guy. I can't say that I understand this at all, but I'm really nervous about these anti-Obama books and how they may end up stoking up racial fears about Obama and the ever present rumors that he's secretly Muslim because he lived for a time during his childhood in Indonesia and his father, Barack Obama, Sr. was a Muslim, albeit a fairly secular one at that. Still, ever since 9/11/2001, anti-Islamists have stoked up all kinds of irrational fears of anyone who practices Islam, regardless of whether they are moderates. It's the continuning fear of Muslims in this country that has people suspicious of Obama's name and his father and step father's origins. And radical right wing screeds like Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage still have huge listenerships on their radio shows that people freely buy into. It's so hard for us liberals to counter people like that, even in spite of Air America, which does not have the luxury of wide listernership like the Right Wing radio screeds do. I'm very concerned about the power that these folks wield in elections and that they will do everything possible to sway the electorate to vote for a white guy/war hero who is a known loose cannon and who won't do anything to change the current bleak economic picture and the unending war in the Middle East. So if McCain wins and the economy continues its slide south and the wars rage on with no end in sight, the electorate has only itself to blame for being dumb enough to fall for the fear factor that the Right is using so effectively to control people. I just wish I could be more optimistic that Obama has a snowball's chance, but it's going to be an uphill battle for him to get people past the race issue, which I am quite sure will be the ultimate deciding factor in this election, not who can best lead the country in a time of crisis, but who looks most like us. Sadly, I suspect that in the end, a white guy will win it because whites can't get themselves past their fears of blacks. Racism exists, and we've got a long way to go yet to get past our old fears and hatreds in this country. We've come a long way, but we've still got a long road ahead of us to put race to bed as an issue once and for all.
1 comment:
Obama lost the votes of most of my neighbors simply because of his middle name. Sad, but there it is.
Nothing quite like having the ER people ask how you will pay and having them tell you that because you have no insurance, you mst pay a 30% surcharge.
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