...it's not dark yet, but it's gettin' there...
It's a buck dancer's choice my friend; better take my advice.
You know all the rules by now and the fire from the ice.
Will you come with me, won't you come with me?
Woh - oh, what I want to know, will you come with me?
—Robert Hunter
I forgot who asked me in the comments a while back, if I intended to stick by my public vow not to vote for John McCain if the Republican Party were stupid enough to nominate him.
I do not want to vote for a man who, when faced with an opponent whose radical associations were his greatest vulnerability, chose to hand our country over to the Socialist enemy within, rather than appear mean-spirited by highlighting those those radical associations for the American voter.
Nor do I want to vote for another president who is utterly incapable, for whatever reason, of pointing the finger at the Democrats when they are legitimately, demonstrably, and spectacularly to blame for something.
Whether I keep my pledge or not really doesn't make much difference since I live in California and Obama will win this state no matter what I do. But if I lived in Nevada, Colorado, Ohio, Iowa, Florida, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, or especially Virginia, there would be no question who I would be voting for. McCain. The alternative would leave me no choice.
John McCain has run a worse campaign than John Kerry did four years ago, and that's real hard to do. His performance has been so abysmal, against an opponent who is so dangerously and obviously a bad guy, that McCain doesn't really deserve to win. Nevertheless, when I go into the voting booth, I will darken the spot next to McCain/Palin for this reason only: I want America to stay America.
So my advice to you is this: vote for John McCain. Hold your nose and vote for John McCain. Vote for John McCain whether you think he'll win or not. Vote for John McCain because he's a genuine American hero who loves his country, even though he sucked as a legislator and he's even worse as a presidential candidate. Vote for John McCain if only to thank him for his Gang of 14 plan, which saved the filibuster on judicial nominees, and boy are we gonna need that now. Vote for John McCain just to stick it to the Dean and Pelosi and Reid who wish we conservatives would just go away. Vote for John McCain because he kept pushing until Bush changed generals, and thanks to Petraeus we might actually have won the Iraq War, even if Obama surrenders. Vote for John McCain because of what the rabid haters in the media said about Governor Palin and Joe Wurzelbacher, and what they refuse to say about gaffe machine Joe Biden, and the secret radical Obama.
Several years ago, I read an article by a self-described socialist in the Village Voice. I forget who wrote it, and I wish I'd saved it. The author lamented the fact that, with the success of many leftist social goals such as abortion on demand and sexual liberation, it appeared that the dream of a full-on socialist revolution in America had died. To the author, it seemed that the American left had become content with their peripheral achievements, and had lost the motivation to work towards the real goal: the overthrow of capitalism. Turns out, he was wrong.
Never, ever make the mistake of believing that when the Cold War ended all the communists magically vanished from the face of the earth. There have always been radicals in this country. For a long time they lived with their frustration at the hard-headed resistance to socialism unique to us Americans. Down underneath the rocks where they hid, they watched us, hated us; laughed at us; and waited. Most of us barely knew they existed. And if we knew, we never really worried about them. But they were smart. They didn't wait idly. They infiltrated the education system, and entertainment, and news media, and finally all levels of government. And now it looks like they will get a guy elected president, who at the very very least, is sympathetic to their world view.
But I don't believe he's merely sympathetic. I believe he's one of them. There is absolutely no evidence that Barack Obama is not just as radical as the America haters he's hung out with all his life; unless you count the self-serving denials that he makes reluctantly and rarely, and only when backed into a corner. Despite his denials and the unconvincing interference that the media runs for him, there's no evidence that Barack Obama has ever stood in the way of any of his radical friends' agendas. There's no evidence that he's ever even objected to any of them, except after the fact, when he's been caught out or embarrassed, and only after minimizing and excusing his friends' radicalism.
Then when I consider Obama's unscripted moments of candor, from his books and more recently when he didn't realize an audiotape would someday come back to haunt him, I can only conclude that Obama, like his radical friends, has been waiting for this day for years. This day, the day when he can "change the world" into the socialist utopian vision of Karl Marx's wildest dreams.
As I said a few days ago, everything will change if Obama wins. Everything. He says so himself; he makes no secret of that. What he has kept secret are the dirty details about where he wants to take this country. And because we're in a bad spot economically, and because the Bush presidency has been such a disappointment, the message of change for change's sake sounds tempting to so many people. This is how totalitarians get elected. You know, its almost funny—the irony—it wasn't too long ago that I heard liberals claiming that Bush wanted to use a national crisis to abrogate the Constitution. Never happened, did it? And now I'm afraid of the same thing, from the opposite side.
The choice for me is obvious. I don't like the idea of McCain as president, but an Obama presidency would be apocalyptically bad. Or perhaps I should say will be. To paraphrase one radio commentator I heard yesterday: if the worst happens, so be it. That's when the fight will really begin. I'll be fighting and you know what, so will you.
My god. This is horrible. America a socialist state? Please. And this was designed years ago as a socialist take over?
Being tied to radical ties?
I hung out with Communist Chinese - does that make me a communist? See my blog - "afterglow".
I hung out with the USA millitary / police trainer in Heidelberg, Germany for the first Iraqi police force who all his students were killed with a bomb blast during their graduation in Baghdad... Does that make me a terrorist?
Apocalyptically bad? You mean - causing multiple wars all over the world? Being at the helm of a global financial meltdown?
Americans are hated around the world now. For the first time I know of. I am told repeatedly that they cannot believe i am American. And i tell them - I am true blue American. We do not want war. We want freedom. We believe that anyone can be what they want.
What hit me the worst was during the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics - thats when it hit home... See "opening ceremony".
But let me say this - this conspiracy theories - division - will destroy us as a country.
Posted by: Soul Parking on Oct. 29, 2008So, I was wondering what it would take to get you back to blogging; this post answers it all for me.
Having enough money for the shoes and the Beemer (or whatever new wheels you are sporting these days) wasn't the answer, was it?
Oh yes, it was a fitting reward for all the three years of the limbo of law school and the endless cramming, studying, isolating yourself so you could pass the bar and become a human being again, but it isn't really enough is it?
Each of us has a duty to contribute what we can to make humanity a little better than the way we found it, and your duty is to run this blog and try to set a few stray souls who come this way straight about the world.
Well, you do it well, girl and you need to keep doing it. A little less sleep or a few less billable hours won't matter.
Welcome back - really, welcome back.
Besides which, Casca and I really had nowhere else that was nearly as much fun.
Now, let's have the Wednesday poetry back as well.
Posted by: Shelly on Oct. 30, 2008What the old one says is true. Not McCain, Shelly. Yes, the fight begins Nov 5th no matter who wins. Actually, I think Mav might just pull this off, even if he does make Dubyah look like the great communicator.
Posted by: Casca on Oct. 30, 2008Cas ought to know; he's from the redneck capital of the world and the about to be center of the universe for the next few days.
Here's some simple back up for the Old Gyrene's gut feelings:
1) Exit polling for Tom Bradley in 1982 had him +7 and he lost by 1 point. You do the math.
2) Doug Wilder, In Virgina, experienced similar numbers.
3) Simple conclusion: People will not admit they are bigots and won't vote for a black person. Worse, they will lie about it to a pollster.
4) Some argue that 1982 is not now, and things are different; maybe so in California, but how about rural Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida Panhandle, Missouri, Iowa, etc.? Casca and his Marine buddy Murtha know these folks.
5) Interesting numbers; with Obama on a roll headed for the finish line in the Democratic primary, he roll into the Rust Belt and what happened? Hillary kicked his butt, in some places better than 2:1. Now, who amongst us wants to support the theory that they LOVED Hillary? Dunno, but from here, the only folks I can see that do are Chelsea and the hard core femlibs.
So, you tell me, will race play a part in Tuesday's election? My buds placed high up in the Obama superstructure tell me they think it is probably 5 points in the aforementioned states. Bradley itself argues 8 points.
It is going to be interesting, and a lot closer, I think, than anyone thought it would be.
OK, Casca, tear this apart, if you can, but I'm feeling like no one else wants to say this stuff for fear of being labeled a bigot.
Well, I'm not advocating anything, as Annie likes to say, "I'm just saying..."
Posted by: shelly on Oct. 30, 2008Oh, I'll only quibble with the fine points. I think it is unfair to call it bigotry. The reality is that people vote for candidates they connect with, or against people with whom they have no connection. Now back in the hill country, they might state it differently along the lines, "He ain't like us," but what they're really saying is that they don't trust the smarmy fucker from who knows where, no matter how much illegal campaign cash he uses to blow smoke up their collective asses.
One of life's lessons is that there are smart people, and dumb people, and even smart people who do dumb things, but in the great scheme of things, it's a very fine line that divides any of us. The reality is that Red-staters come from real communities where they know each other. Anyone coming from outside that community had better have the right moves if he wants to connect. It was perhaps Bill Clinton's only real skill. No matter how much BO shucks and jives, he just ain't got it. I think the number is going to be North of ten.
Posted by: Casca on Oct. 30, 2008If Casca is remembering the folks correctly, this will be the biggest upset since Truman beat Dewey.
Personally, I don't see the runaway, but then I never knew any folks from Hill Country, unless you classify Shaker Heights in that category.
Posted by: shelly on Oct. 31, 2008What? You've never been to the football Hall of Fame? I grew up about a mile from there, and played football in Fawcett Stadium. Went back a couple years ago, and the reality struck me that no matter what frustrations one may have in life, there is nothing more uplifting than realizing how far one has come.
Posted by: Casca on Oct. 31, 2008Good to see you back, Annie. It only took me a couple of months to stop checking in here on a daily basis and, lo and behold, you'd posted twice. Ugh.
With regards to your not voting for McCain vow: I made the same vow years ago, but I'm on the verge of breaking it. Not just because I like Gov. Palin, and not even because of Obambi being a Marxist in moderate clothing. What finally pushed me over the edge was the public anal exam given to Joe the Plumber. In 3 days I knew more about Joe than I knew about Obama. His only crime was being outside when The One came up and started talking to him. Oh wait, he a greater sin: he asked a question that Obama was stupid enough to answer honestly for once. But somehow, Joe is Satan.
I survived Carter and would likely survive a simple socialist in the White House. What may not survive, thought, is having Chicago machine style politics writ on a national page.
I used to think that liberal Democrats were merely my opponents; I still think that that is mostly true. However, I've come to the conclusion that some fraction of them are my enemies, and not simply my opponents.
Anyway, it's good to have you back. I hope that you're well on your way to a partnership.
Posted by: physics geek on Oct. 31, 2008I think about you every time I go to the range, and I've thought about you a lot lately, wondering if you'd keep your vow. I'm glad you won't. I hope others won't too.
Posted by: Sarah on Nov. 3, 2008This is just a response to Soul Parking's comment about America being hated a lot now...for the first time he knows of. Hmmm...strange. Obviously he didn't travel the world during the Clinton years. (Although reading his blog, I believe he did.) I lived in both France and Germany during that era and like Soul Parking got the comment: wow, you are intelligent for an American...and other such drivel. I asked one guy who told me that: okay, I am intelligent for an American, huh? How many other Americans do you know? He replied: well, you're the only one. Hmmm...interesting. So you are basing your opinion of American stupidity on what you see on TV or what?
I remember having dinner at a French friend's house and her aunt was there, and the aunt said she had never been to America and had no desire to go there (this was in the 90s, bear in mind). And I told her about all the great places to visit in America, and encouraged her, and she said: "you know, maybe I have changed my mind now. Maybe I will visit America one day." The question begs: who was she listening to before? Had she ever talked with an American?
So Soul Parking, don't kid yourself and act like Americans are only now disliked. No, now the rest of the world thinks it has some valid reason.
Ugh, and your example of your "terrorist associations": did the US military trainer blow up his students? No...so no, you didn't associate with a terrorist.
And hanging out with communist Chinese? China seems closer to capitalism than America right now...Unless you hung out with party leaders, you hanging out with some Chinese people doesn't give you communist creds. Because party leaders are pretty much the only communists left in that country. Come on, there are Starbucks on every corner there...I mean, when I was there, they still had Starbucks in the Forbidden City (I mean, think about it: that's like having a McDonalds in the White House or something...) Capitalism gone wild!
But I will give you props for having a cool layout on your blog...it's pretty sweet.
Posted by: CaliValleyGirl on Nov. 4, 2008True, true. Starbucks and McDonalds are everywhere. That's not including Gucci, Prada, Levi's, Audi...
Read on soulparking.com/blogs "Foreign Babes in Beijing (Beijing)" - I stole the title from the book with the same name. But the capitalism is rampant.
And yes I traveled a lot during the Clinton years - but then I was afraid of the foreigners... I was very naive then.
Lived in Munchen, Paris, and Bologna, Italy... Actually because of my travel - I missed the whole Monica-gate. But I was never a Clinton supporter, I voted for Bush / Dole then.
But right now - I am seeing the switch. Mortgage lenders, banks, automakers, credit card companies - ALL SOON TO BE OWNED by the government. And there is no supervision. BAILOUT gone wild!
I definitely see this as LAME DUCK or a Democrat led congress - GOING WILD with ego...
Now I am worried. All I can do now is HOPE, CHANGE we can believe in - that Obama will run a centralist type government.
But a little concerned about Obama / Biden / Clinton (secretary of state) - hopefully he will fit McCain in there...
Thanks for the props to the new threads on SoulParking... And thanks for being there in the beginning. I can only hope I can get as famous as you did.
You kick ass Annika!
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