politics, because sometimes I can't help it
Specifically, when the News of the Day involves me meeting someone in person. I think that's where we went wrong, ending up with a country too big to meet the people who we deem most fit to be in charge of several important areas of our lives. I still have my autographed Ken Salazar sign on the wall of my dorm room, from the time we campaigned for him and I made it in the Denver Post shaking his hand, which was pretty cool.
I also still harbor a kind of fondness for Alberto Gonzales who 1. has the most amazing handshake of anyone I've ever shaken hands with and 2. we (as DoJ interns that summer in Washington) met right around the rumors that he would be nominated to the Supreme Court, arguably the first hispanic Justice (Cardozo was Portuguese, and there's argument about what that means in America's essentializing system of race). I'd say that was the apex of his public esteem--he had a solid record, and was a pleasant contrast to the Age of Ashcroft. He still seemed trustworthy. Then, of course, the spiraling senate hearing crap where we all learned that while attorneys can be either deviously charming or irritating when they prove how much cleverer they are than Ted Kennedy, Gonzales' stonewalling on that unarraigned terror suspect bullshit was the later. And then the nadir-plumbing fakeout, releasing or changing the status of detainees before their cases could be heard in the supreme court (which was a defeat for his position, but he refused to apologize/retract anything). So yeah, I'm conflicted about that guy; did I mention he has an amazing handshake?
The reason I mention these episodes is because next tuesday, Steph and I are going to LA. To see... the man himself, Senator Barack Obama! After two years of Krys haranguing me about his convention speech, I picked up his book last semester, and it blew. my. mind. In addition to my joy at his exploration of multiraciality in his life, I think my ideal America and the Senator's are pretty similar. I happily drew in the ideology of elementary school American history. America is a land where we are always progressing to a more just state. American history remembers those who fight for noble causes, and as a country, we own up to mistakes. Americans are fundamentally decent people, who may sometimes be manipulated by the ruling class (and capitalism, etc) to do some shitty things, but never in malice. America is really about those ideals we all share, deep down, about fairness and justice and equality and freedom and the desire to make our country the best fucking country in the world. Stuff like that.
Well, so, as a history major, I know most of these ideas are partly or completely fictitious. The constitutional convention was a lot of things, but a summit on liberty and universal rights for all races and genders was not one of them. It takes a HUGE fuckup for America to apologize, and most of the other stuff it doesn't even bother to try to twist into favorable narratives--it just conveniently forgets about American imperialism, historical infringements on the rule of law, minority rights, and so on. This is a problem, at least for my optimism.
And that's why I will now declare that nothing would please me more in the next 18 months than Barack for President. His words, spoken and written, seem to me to be rooted in personal conviction that we can do something about all the problems. It's well and good for chuck hagel to blow up at his senate committee about how much time they spend sitting on their hands. And it's nice to hear some inspiring visionary (calculated) message from John Edwards, I guess. But there is no price to be put on authenticity. And Sen. Obama has it in spades. To me, the Presidency is more about articulating a vision of America than picking an mpg rating for our light trucks to meet by 2011. And Sen. Obama has that vision--you can hear it every time he talks about his country. Our country.
That's why going to this rally is making me excited. The mixed-race Presidential candidate is a wonderful thing in of itself, to be sure, and it's already forced a lot of fucking idiots to rethink their narrow racial categories, which is cool. But that aside, his ideals, what we can be as a country, as The American People, are what blow me away.
If you have half an hour today, http://www.barackobama.com/tv/
It would mean a lot to me, and I honestly believe that it will mean a lot to you as well.
Tuesday night, we're going to the Clips game, too. But that's not quite as exciting, especially if elton brand is out.
I also still harbor a kind of fondness for Alberto Gonzales who 1. has the most amazing handshake of anyone I've ever shaken hands with and 2. we (as DoJ interns that summer in Washington) met right around the rumors that he would be nominated to the Supreme Court, arguably the first hispanic Justice (Cardozo was Portuguese, and there's argument about what that means in America's essentializing system of race). I'd say that was the apex of his public esteem--he had a solid record, and was a pleasant contrast to the Age of Ashcroft. He still seemed trustworthy. Then, of course, the spiraling senate hearing crap where we all learned that while attorneys can be either deviously charming or irritating when they prove how much cleverer they are than Ted Kennedy, Gonzales' stonewalling on that unarraigned terror suspect bullshit was the later. And then the nadir-plumbing fakeout, releasing or changing the status of detainees before their cases could be heard in the supreme court (which was a defeat for his position, but he refused to apologize/retract anything). So yeah, I'm conflicted about that guy; did I mention he has an amazing handshake?
The reason I mention these episodes is because next tuesday, Steph and I are going to LA. To see... the man himself, Senator Barack Obama! After two years of Krys haranguing me about his convention speech, I picked up his book last semester, and it blew. my. mind. In addition to my joy at his exploration of multiraciality in his life, I think my ideal America and the Senator's are pretty similar. I happily drew in the ideology of elementary school American history. America is a land where we are always progressing to a more just state. American history remembers those who fight for noble causes, and as a country, we own up to mistakes. Americans are fundamentally decent people, who may sometimes be manipulated by the ruling class (and capitalism, etc) to do some shitty things, but never in malice. America is really about those ideals we all share, deep down, about fairness and justice and equality and freedom and the desire to make our country the best fucking country in the world. Stuff like that.
Well, so, as a history major, I know most of these ideas are partly or completely fictitious. The constitutional convention was a lot of things, but a summit on liberty and universal rights for all races and genders was not one of them. It takes a HUGE fuckup for America to apologize, and most of the other stuff it doesn't even bother to try to twist into favorable narratives--it just conveniently forgets about American imperialism, historical infringements on the rule of law, minority rights, and so on. This is a problem, at least for my optimism.
And that's why I will now declare that nothing would please me more in the next 18 months than Barack for President. His words, spoken and written, seem to me to be rooted in personal conviction that we can do something about all the problems. It's well and good for chuck hagel to blow up at his senate committee about how much time they spend sitting on their hands. And it's nice to hear some inspiring visionary (calculated) message from John Edwards, I guess. But there is no price to be put on authenticity. And Sen. Obama has it in spades. To me, the Presidency is more about articulating a vision of America than picking an mpg rating for our light trucks to meet by 2011. And Sen. Obama has that vision--you can hear it every time he talks about his country. Our country.
That's why going to this rally is making me excited. The mixed-race Presidential candidate is a wonderful thing in of itself, to be sure, and it's already forced a lot of fucking idiots to rethink their narrow racial categories, which is cool. But that aside, his ideals, what we can be as a country, as The American People, are what blow me away.
If you have half an hour today, http://www.barackobama.com/tv/
It would mean a lot to me, and I honestly believe that it will mean a lot to you as well.
Tuesday night, we're going to the Clips game, too. But that's not quite as exciting, especially if elton brand is out.
posted by sam at
5:45 PM
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