During this election season, I’ve noticed people focusing their dislike on Obama or, depending on one’s political perspective, Romney or Gingrich, and, with particularly intense relish among progressives, Santorum and Bachmann.
(When we’re done laughing at them, we might want to consider how the fact the Republican Party fielded such candidates in the first place might indicate the potential for ugly extremism at some point in the future.)
As was the case with progressive hate toward W, if we over-emphasize our perceptions of the wrong-doing or ineptitude of individual politicians (and corporate leaders), we neglect to invest our minds in systemic analysis and our guts in constructive conflict that might actually change things for the better.
Regarding Obama, despite his extraordinary intelligence we kept hearing about in ’08 from the liberal wing of the corporate media— he doesn’t seem to have that very rare quality of greatness with which to pursue a vision that defies conventional wisdom and the systemic pressures that are on him.
Having said this though, it shows something positive about our democracy, in my humble opinion, when our nation has a bi-racial president who wasn’t born into extraordinary wealth and whose formative years where spent in a Muslim country. He presents a far better example in support of meritocracy than was the case with W or what is the case with Romney, the son a wealthy politician.
So, I plan to vote for Obama again, even though he doesn’t seem to display greatness, at least not so far. But it’s irresponsible to cling to the hope that he will change, and somehow rise above the corruption of money in politics. Beyond those few minutes in the voting booth this fall, my job as a citizen is to help in my own small way with putting pressure on him that counters the influence of lobbyists and wealthy donors.
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