President 2008
I am torn on who to support or what to believe for the 2008 Presidential election. Gen Xers have been burned by the Democrats over and over and over and over. Through my whole memory, you have either had the corrupt inarticulate foils to the conservative nutjobs of the 80s, the too-centrist to understand what they stand for Clinton Democrats of the 90s, or, the absolute worst, the craven cowards of the first half of the aughts.
2006, supposedly was a corner-turning moment--the Democrats ran on an anti-war platform, and dammit, they won! They beat incumbents from Rhode Island to Virginia to Montana. They took back both houses of Congress. Aside from Joe Lieberman winning, the news in November 2006 was sparkling.
But what happened then? The Democrats took power, and they pushed through Nanci Pelosi's first 100 hours agenda. And then, Harry Reid failed to even get a vote on a nonbinding resolution against Bush's war escalation. The entire democratic party is terrified about standing up to Joe Lieberman on the war--amending schedules of meetings so that Joseph will feel comfortable attending Democratic luncheons. No one is talking about Russ Feingold's or John Murtha's resolutions on ending war funding.
And then you have your 2008 Presidential candidates. In this context of Gen X Democrats having endured endless promises to the base (most painfully, Clinton's promise of allowing gays in the military and of universal health care) from candidates who have pretended to be our people. So, colour me less than overjoyed when Hillary Clinton promises to have universal health care by the end of her second term. Colour me skeptical when John Edwards, with a minimum of experience in national office, and a relatively conservative voting record while in office, says that he has now seen the light on the war and is a vociferous proponent of health care. And really, forgive me when Barack Obama alternates between arguing against an imaginary "far left" that apparently consists of the Weathermen and the SLA and a vaguely defined 'Politics of Hope' couched in religious terms, all the while avoiding content. His primary argument seems to be that people on goddamn facebook love him.
And beyond this field, who is there? Bill Richardson, yet another Clintonista? Al Gore? Al fucking Gore? The guy behind the 2000 campaign is the one that's going to save the left, if he contradicts everything that he's been saying and spontaneously decides to run? Really?
I don't know what my point is, exactly, except that I'm kinda cynical these days. There doesn't even seem to be a Bill Bradley to support this time around. I'm probably going to support Obama, who at least hasn't disappointed me with a horrible vote in the past, and find a few Senate primary candidates that I like. Then I can blandly support the Democrat in the general.
Yay life.
2006, supposedly was a corner-turning moment--the Democrats ran on an anti-war platform, and dammit, they won! They beat incumbents from Rhode Island to Virginia to Montana. They took back both houses of Congress. Aside from Joe Lieberman winning, the news in November 2006 was sparkling.
But what happened then? The Democrats took power, and they pushed through Nanci Pelosi's first 100 hours agenda. And then, Harry Reid failed to even get a vote on a nonbinding resolution against Bush's war escalation. The entire democratic party is terrified about standing up to Joe Lieberman on the war--amending schedules of meetings so that Joseph will feel comfortable attending Democratic luncheons. No one is talking about Russ Feingold's or John Murtha's resolutions on ending war funding.
And then you have your 2008 Presidential candidates. In this context of Gen X Democrats having endured endless promises to the base (most painfully, Clinton's promise of allowing gays in the military and of universal health care) from candidates who have pretended to be our people. So, colour me less than overjoyed when Hillary Clinton promises to have universal health care by the end of her second term. Colour me skeptical when John Edwards, with a minimum of experience in national office, and a relatively conservative voting record while in office, says that he has now seen the light on the war and is a vociferous proponent of health care. And really, forgive me when Barack Obama alternates between arguing against an imaginary "far left" that apparently consists of the Weathermen and the SLA and a vaguely defined 'Politics of Hope' couched in religious terms, all the while avoiding content. His primary argument seems to be that people on goddamn facebook love him.
And beyond this field, who is there? Bill Richardson, yet another Clintonista? Al Gore? Al fucking Gore? The guy behind the 2000 campaign is the one that's going to save the left, if he contradicts everything that he's been saying and spontaneously decides to run? Really?
I don't know what my point is, exactly, except that I'm kinda cynical these days. There doesn't even seem to be a Bill Bradley to support this time around. I'm probably going to support Obama, who at least hasn't disappointed me with a horrible vote in the past, and find a few Senate primary candidates that I like. Then I can blandly support the Democrat in the general.
Yay life.
Labels: politics
posted by Valatan @ 1:28 PM
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