The Vote

In a blog post in September 2004, I wrote, "I'm audacious enough to imagine a Clinton-Obama 2008 bumper sticker." And two years ago, almost to the day, I wrote a post, entitled, Barack Now that explained the reasons I thought he should and would be President. I included these lines, "I think he's going to run and I think he's going to win."

Friday, I submitted an absentee ballot in my eighth presidential election with my vote for Obama-Biden. The more disillusioned I have become about politics, the more emotional I am about having the right to vote. And so I cried, like I do every time I vote.

When I filled in that little circle with my black pen, I thought of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Medger Evers, Emmett Till, Harriet Tubman, and so many other black Americans who gave their lives for such a moment. It is powerful and yes, hopeful, to see not only a man of color's name at the top of the ticket but such a colorful name it is - a name that represents the very idea of America.

I have been asked many times in the last few months, if I have become a Republican because I have questioned the authenticity of Obama's platform of change, because I have refused to make cruel jokes about Sarah Palin and her family, and because I haven't judged John McCain's personal life nor do I believe he is evil.

My answer is no, I have actually become more liberal.

And yes, I am fully aware that if either of the Obama girls were teens and pregnant, the Republican Right would be relentless in their assessment of Barack's and Michelle's parenting. I know that if Michelle had been pregnant when she married Barack, the Republican Right would say she was unfit to be First Lady. I know that if Barack had gone to six colleges and earned mediocre grades, he would not have gotten this far in the race.

But I thought - and believed Obama thought the same - that we Democrats respected all Americans -whether they were Red State or Blue State. That Democrats didn't need to be negative because our ideas were better and because we hold ourselves to a higher standard. That's why I stood for Obama when so many people said I was naive and didn't understand how politics work in this country.

What this campaign has revealed to me is the growing hypocrisy of the Democratic party. What I continue to find is that Democrats (including our nominees) can be just as manipulative, phony, greedy, and politically expedient as Republicans. And sometimes, more. Democrats wallow in Wall Street money (more, in fact, than McCain) and lobbyist money and make deals with those who help get them elected.

That is our system, everyone says. You have to play the game to get elected.

But when a candidate says they are running on a platform of change, he or she is asking to be held to a different, higher standard. And when that very stance is the one that has inspired millions of new voters, young and old, to get involved, it says something else. It says, maybe you don't have to play every single game to get elected.

So yes, I am going to hold you to a higher standard.

What this campaign has revealed to me is the utter state of mediocrity of the media and their push to divide instead of fairly and accurately presenting the facts. They have been relentless in trying to surface examples of racism. Didn't they learn anything from the Iowa primary? Americans are, in fact, ready and willing to vote for a black man for President! They present poll figures that "indicate racism" when in fact, no Democratic nominee has gotten more than 50% of the vote since FDR, with the exception of LBJ, 11 months after JFK died.

Keith Olberman, Chris Matthews, and Maureen Dowd, among the self-identified liberal press, proved they could be just as petty, stupid, self-righteous, egotistical, and hateful as Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.

They write stories with a decidely sexist angle without shame. Consider the male who lost the Democratic nomination in 1980. He gave no speech, attended no event, and offered not a single appearance for the winning nominee. The winning nominee's eventual loss ushered in the Reagan Revolution which was devastating to the very people this losing nominee said he stood for. But this same man is now so highly regarded in the Democratic party that he was granted the power to "pass the torch" to a new generation of male leaders during an excessive and overwrought Democratic convention. Yet, a female in the same position in 2008, who gave a stirring speech, along with her husband, in support of the winning nominee and who makes weekly appearances for the candidate, is presented as "not doing enough," "only stoking her ambitions for four years later," and "not authentic or effusive enough in her praise."

Yes, it's true some women were angry when she lost. Much like Michelle Obama's honest admission of hesitation, in the heat of the campaign, when asked if she would support Hillary if Barack lost. Hillary supporters felt the exact same way when Hillary lost. They also felt the exact same way Michelle did when moments later she said that she would, of course, work so that the party won.

Women aren't that stupid to vote for a ticket that doesn't support women. It is after all women who elect the leaders of this country. We vote in greater numbers and with more consistency than men. And yes, have no fear, we still we continue to vote for men instead of women because our standard for women is much higher than for men. But that's another post.

And yes, racism does exist in this country. But I always find it intriguing when it's blamed on poor, white women. Last time I checked, the majority of government, corporate, religious, and academic institutions and organizations are being run by white men.

With the exception of Obama, I'm not sure that's going to change anytime soon. A recent article in The New York Times relayed that transition teams for both parties are hard at work getting potential Cabinet members and appointees in place. And I equally noted neither side mentioned a single woman's name. All white men.

Yes, change we can believe in.

This campaign also revealed to me my own immaturity in thinking that Barack Obama can or is even responsible for making America live up to its potential. And the more I sought to understand why my disappointment in him was so deep, the more I realized how little Americans, me included, actually do for their country.

And then I understood the reason Bush's junta succeeded in subverting the constitution, why our economic system is on the brink of failure, how two wars we started are spiraling out of control in violence and cost, how we can ignore a crumbling infrastructure, how we can tolerate an unmanageable and inefficient health care system, how we can accept embarrassing infant mortality rates, and how we do nothing about a public education system that allows children to graduate without being able to read or write.

The reason is because Americans are lazy, apathetic, ignorant about their own history, and only really care about issues when it affects them personally. We (and the Democrats) are the reason Bush, Cheney, and that whole lot of men have been able to run this country into the ground.

Yes, we are the ones we have been waiting for - and none of us showed up to make a difference because we were too busy watching cable TV, working overtime, filling our SUVs with gas, shopping online and at the mall, reading celebrity gossip, going out to dinner, bitching about evil Republicans, and isolating ourselves from the fact that our country is falling apart.

But at other times in this country's history, regular citizens standing up did make a difference. When did we stop having the courage to make a difference?

If we want this country to be different we have to stand up and fight for it. We have to do more than vote. We have to work to find new solutions and not just because someone with charisma and a talent for speech making tells us to. We have to do it because it's the right thing to do. John Edwards, even though he is being vilified for behavior that is quite common -especially among politicians and government officials -still had the best line in the campaign, "It is time to become patriotic about something other than war."

Patriotic means learning about your country's history, reading the constitution, holding your representatives accountable, criticizing them when you feel they are wrong, participating in your community's growth and success. It means not accepting racism, sexism, homophobia, or any other intolerance of people who are different than you. It means fighting just as hard for peace as we do for war (when we aren't ignoring it.). It means being more responsible with energy and finding ways to reduce consumption. It means we have to stop being a victim and stop demonizing the other side.

I know the media likes us to believe old lies like "war and poverty will always be with this" or "those groups have been killing each other for years" but until we change our thinking about what is possible we will have the same corrupt political system.

And so I voted for Barack Obama because when he gave that speech in July 2004, he inspired me to believe again in the potential of America not as the "best country in the world" but as a place where liberty, tolerance, and innovation flourishes, where women and men who think differently, believe differently, and live differently can still be respected and treated with dignity.

I voted for Barack Obama because I am as committed to my country as I am to the world. I am willing to pay more taxes to make better all that we need to make better - to bring our troops home and to care for them when they get here, to support diplomatic efforts, to provide health care for every single American, to reaffirm the values and morality of the Constitution, to clean up the corruption in corporations and Wall Street and in government, and to listen again -without judgment -to those who think there is a different way to get there.

I voted for Barack Obama because even though his actions to date have not yet reflected the change he offers in his speeches, he does represent a symbolic shift in what is possible to achieve in this country. That alone is reason to be proud and joyful.

Most important, I voted for Barack Obama because if we all accept our role to participate fully in creating, supporting, and accepting the changes that are necessary, then yes we can change the world.

MLW will be reporting the European perspective live from Paris, France, on Election Day 2008.