America does not hold town hall meetings anymore where the people deliberate over the most pressing issues of the day. America holds what one could equate to concerts for politicians to espouse the artful rhetoric and woo us with their charming personality.
Obama tells Americans what it’s going to be and artfully parses and manipulates words with charisma and candor in a way that surely makes Bill Clinton jealous. (I bet Bill Clinton probably thinks Obama learned from him.)
These rallies might as well be held in mega churches out in rural American valleys. For, it is in mega churches that thousands also often gather for hope and change.
Unity is built around a belief in what the priest is espousing. He preaches a religion that if those in the mega church repent than they will be able to go to the Kingdom of God and be “saved.” They will experience “eternal life.”
The priest who acts as a megaphone for a religion is not much different from an Obama who preaches the politics of hope.
Both lack scientific reasoning, which does not bode well for those committed to a progressive way forward.
Those who wish to look at the objective reality and diagnose the problems America faces run up against the spirituality of Obama and have no chance at all of reasoning logically with such spirituality.
I’m afraid that the reason so many Americans are uniting is because so many Americans just want to unite and Obama is a good enough reason.
Polarization has become sin over the past eight years, and for so-called liberals and progressives who have seen so-called conservatives gleefully drive wedges into any efforts to unite behind a progressive agenda, they are sick and tired of it.
The poverty, the fear, the anxiety, the anguish and pain, the uncertainty which fuels the anxiety, the insecurity which brings about the fear, the tiredness --- And so hope and change wins because why set the bar so high?
Why aim higher when we aren’t sure we won’t miss? America can't take another "failure." Its populace is fragile and weak and that's what Obama's candidacy shows.
My fellow Americans this a tragedy.
Lowered expectations mean creativity and imagination are no longer of any importance or rather, people no longer know what constitutes creative or imaginative politics. What’s creative or imaginative is anything that tastes or smells different from the dark years experienced over the past eight years.
In this hour of delusion, I plead with you to consider the words of Augustine of Hippo:
Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.
You’ll make your tactical vote. That’s fine, I guess. But if your fixation on Obama continues---if you cannot tell that he is simulating your desires for bottom-up policies while at the same time promoting a continuation of the very top-down centralized strategies the Bush Administration and the Clinton Administration has imposed upon us throughout the past couple decades---I fear the worst for America.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).