Did that not feel like McCain was on stage just to act as a devil's advocate? And a bad one at that. I feel like we just won the election. I have to admit, Hillary definitely helped to prepare Obama for this asshole. I'm not sure if that’s a backhanded compliment or not, I’m just trying to give her a little credit. The leader that we knew during the primary (and long before for some of us), who we understood as the most important voice of reason at this time in our country, is always just the right amount of confident and humble. I think last night those who couldn’t see that before easily know it to be true today simply because of the stark contrast McCain offers.
Tom Brokaw looked like an ass. We were talking a lot here during the debate and agreed that the public would rather have this debate go on until fucking midnight instead of Brokaw deciding who and when the candidates could go beyond the allotted time.
I live in a strictly working-class, broke-ass neighborhood, surrounded by people who are too busy trying to pay the bills to be really engaged. There are usually people driving and walking around most hours of the day and night (partly because there is a main bus line at the end of our street, which is one house away from ours). I was smoking -- I don’t smoke at all anymore, but smoked a lot last Thursday and tonight -- in the front doorway and there was NO ONE on the streets, NO ONE. I suppose many were part of the 63.2 million who watched the debate.
Steady hand? Steady hand? That particular line coming from the 72 year old who has displayed over the past few weeks he's nothing if not erratic and unpredictable, was almost laughable if it hadn't been about such a serious topic. Just another instance where he appears to not understand that age doesn't automatically equal experience and wisdom to most folks. All he's succeeding at is magnifying how goddamn old he is.
And I know I say this every 4 years, but it seems especially appropriate this year: Who the fuck is undecided at this point? If you’re not working two jobs with two dependents or more, and you plan to vote, how the fuck do you not know who you’re going to vote for at this point? Ben Smith may have the answer via Giordano.
Watching Senator Obama at the conclusion of the debate talking and take pictures with the attendees, it reminded me why I loved hanging around at the end of the rallies. If possible, I would just go and stand behind the crowd to watch him interact with the people. He is us. He really is. And you can sense that from him on television, but you can feel it in his presence. I love that man, and I love Michelle. Looks like the town hall participants do too.
The racist shit and the terrorist references will, as many of their tactics have against this one of a kind candidate, backfire in their faces. There are a lot of bigoted people in this country who were raised by a marginally racist family member who quietly blames the _____ for _____, but are aware that is an irrational way to think. They feel a lot of guilt for the racial slur that pops in their head involuntarily every once in awhile because the word was casually used by someone close them when they were a child. I know these people, they’re in my family. I was lucky because I was raised by “the liberal one” on my mom's side (who was actually a registered Republican, until, I think 1984). None of them are outright malicious racists (that I know of), they wish no harm on anyone or want separate rights for different races, unless you're gay, I presume, but that's just a guess based on the fact that they're a bunch of Christians. I could be wrong and really, while they two issues are intertwined, that topic deserves it's own post. Even though they wouldn't call themselves racists, in the presence of some company, they might laugh at a joke that is racially tinged and/or they might feel weird if their child brings home a black boyfriend or girlfriend, but irresponsibly not question why they have that reaction. This is why I’m so militant about racism, when you talk to these people about it, bring it out in the open, most of them feel horrible when forced to face their own words and actions/inaction. This shit is deeply ingrained. Ask your black friends who were raised in this country, they know, they have their own stories of hate and mistrust passed down in their families. If you bring it to discussion, their father knows it wasn’t their current ignorant asshole neighbor who burned a cross in their grandfather's front yard and they can admit that their anger is misdirected. It’s not about who has the right to hate/mistrust who. Of course it’s understandable why many black folks don’t trust white folks. And it is understandable why the history of white ignorance is passed down from the older generations of an uneducated/uninformed white family to younger generations of dumb white kids, when they allow it to incorrectly explain away why they hate and don't have much control over their own lives. The latter is a stupid fucking excuse to you and me, but they don’t know any different. They’ve only seen around 250 faces in their entire life, all but 20 lily white (or if you're in Southeastern KY, we have "Blue People"), because they can’t afford to leave the tri-county area. Ask them how the 10 Latino guys who put the roof on the house across the street are responsible for taking their job at the plant, a layoff of 300 people which included many of their friends and family. Ask them, they don't know, but it's what their daddy told 'em, and nobody questions daddy.
And of course we’re rightly much more sympathetic to someone who still experiences racism on a daily basis than we would be to someone who is an agent of hate. That doesn’t mean both aren’t a giant barrier to greater compassion, understanding, and true equality. My point is, at their core, empathetic people, even bigoted ones, know this. They might be afraid to say anything when their uncle utters something stupid, baseless, and insensitive about the guy he works with, but when that person gets in the voting booth alone, they’ll think about their uncle and punch Obama’s name for the both of them. I’m confident in that. You and I might think they're cowards in their everyday lives, but pointing fingers from they percieve to be an "elitist" perch does nothing to help move us forward.
When writing or speaking of racism, ignorance, and this election I tend to go on and on and on because I honestly don't think we've had a real national discussion about bigotry yet, I really don't. I think Obama gave his speech back in March and everyone clapped their hands and said, "whewww, glad he said it and not me, I'm so relieved we can move on." Maybe that was partly the intention, to not allow the media to label him as simply the black/bi-racial candidate, I don't know. But that was during the Primary, while running against a democratic candidate, who no one really thinks is a racist piece of shit, even though a sect of her supporters were. Now we're dealing with the party of organized racists, which is becoming crystal clear everyday. I heard more honest talk about racial issues out of Chris Rock in his Shoot the Messenger hour-long special than I've heard in all of the 6+ months since the speech. The media is good at herding people into pins so they can tell us how people vote based on their skin color and that's the extent of any mention of racial issues. And that's not helping, quite the opposite, actually. I don't think it's Obama's, nor every black blogger or journalist's responsibility to bring it up, I think it needs to be talked about by everyone, all races, bluntly, by professors to plumbers, everyday. That's the only reason I loved my last job, I worked with people who came from countries and cultures all over the world, and we would talk frankly about this stuff almost every single day. I miss those conversations desperately.
As important as it is that we flood states like Ohio and Virginia with our extra volunteers, it's a damn shame that we lose so many, because going and talking to people door to door is the kind of thing that can start a conversation at the dinner table. We might not be able to change Pappy's mind, but the grand-kids listening get to hear a the side of sanity and logic, maybe for the first time in their lives. But because of the way the electoral college works, our lucky state gets to stay stupid because we have so many rural/mountain folks who are poor and uneducated, and fucking like rabbits, creating a whole new ignorant generation. I can tell you McConnell will never do anything about it. It's a fucking shame we let the dumb patriarchs continue to poison their children, I'm not sure what to do about it, this is all I know how to do for now.
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