Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Why Obama Has To Win

Here's the simple fact of what's become clear to me today, in this environment of the revved up right-wing base, the calls for Obama to hit back stronger, and the neck-and-neck polling.

It's become quite clear to me that if Obama doesn't win this election, our politics - our country - will be lost for at least a generation.

For if McCain wins based on the same old Rovian tactics of divide, vilify, and conquer, how do you think they will govern? The same way the Bush-Rove team has governed for two terms: divide, vilify, and conquer. It will have vindicated their strategy. And what conclusion do you think Democrats will draw from this? That they need a similarly divisive leader to fight back. It will be the era of the Clintons, once again, and the battle lines will be drawn. There will be little willingness to compromise on the Hill, consider truly opposing viewpoints, and tackle our problems. And not that I don't love Hillary, or respect McCain. But McCain's winning in this once-again highly divisive way will have proven that Obama's strategy of running a high-minded, unifying campaign is just fighting too much of an up-hill battle. And even if the Democrats take back the White House in 2012 (and believe me, one term of McCain/Palin will probably be all Americans can stand), they will do so with a similarly divisive, take-no-prisoners campaign, creating all the same resentments on the Republican side that Democrats would have felt for the past 12 years. The idealism in our politics will be wiped out.

And meanwhile, our jobs will be overseas, the economy entering a Depression, the world an environmental hell-hole, our military bogged down in endless wars, and terrorists lapping at our shores. It won't matter whether Democrats or Republicans try to lead the helm, because it will be quite obvious that only by dividing the country can any party achieve power, and our country will be divided between two militant and angry parties that have burned their bridges to compromise. And our opportunity to rescue our country from cynicism and calamity will be gone.

Perhaps it sounds a bit desperate. But it's how I've been feeling. These next seven weeks are our last chance for an optimistic politics for America for the next twenty years.

Help us, Obama-Biden...you're our only hope.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

If America falls for this bologna...the Extreme right could never chant the battlecry Country first ever again!

Anonymous said...

If McCain wins America will probably not survive four years of the caos that will follow. The hard working people who built this country are being killed off by neo-cons who only care about the rich. If he gets elected I guess we deserve to fall. I was hoping America had grown but I am afraid there are too many bigots still thriving. The rest of the world looks at us in disbelief because we are so gullible. McCain being elected will only prove how stupid we really are.