Were I a Democrat, it'd be no contest. But over on the other side, oh what fur there flies over these conservatives endorsing Obama. Were I going to endorse Obama for the whole enchilada, instead of only, as I have, for the Democratic nomination, I'd make an argument I haven't heard yet so will try out here.
A Democratic president is only a matter of time. Look at the popular vote percentages for Democratic candidates since 1960. They appear in the latest issue of GOOD magazine [not online yet, sorry], and they show that the only Democratic candidate for President in the past 50 years to exceed 51% the vote is a guy named Lyndon Johnson. They also show that in the past two elections both Gore and Kerry came damn close. This may be a function of polarization and mobilization. It may be a function of Bush being a rotten candidate and an even worse President. (Yet his election and reelection suggest otherwise.) I think the real story here is that the whole United States is trending Democratic for all manner of reasons, the main of which are (a) people really really like sex and (b) people don't want to be burdened with the practice of politics.
I know these sound like incredibly cavalier trivializations of many many major issues, but I urge you to think for a moment how someone might think about this characterization who actually does celebrate sexual diversity and the freedom from politics. They might say, "Yes, there are increasing numbers of people like me who want the government out of the personal conduct business yet want the government IN the personal security business, guaranteeing the basic services people need to not worry about in order to live flourishing lives of cosmopolitan excitement and individual freedom."
Now at the head of this tide there will be a Democratic president. Not necessarily now, not even necessarily in eight years -- but for that matter, 'not necessarily ever' is also both true and useless information. The Democrats have every right to want to install a Dem president as quickly as possible. And the Republicans have every reason to be punished for their performance in power, especially over the past six or so years. A Dem president is coming, and most Dem politicians are gravely ill-suited to the task of being President. For this reason, Hillary Clinton rose to power. She is fairly well-suited to the task of being President, only she is a volcano of crap ideas and, most important of all, she is the cosmic focal point of the world's largest mass vendetta, that held by enemies of not just the Bush administration and all it represents but of conservative principles, ideas, and even daydreams.
Yes, we are going to get a Democratic president very soon now, and the longer we take getting one, the more brutal a change it's going to be. And we're all kidding ourselves if we think the GOP can stretch this reign out for another twelve-odd years. The numbers just don't have it. And even if they did have it, it'd be very weird, right? Winning that much is distorting and corrupting, right?
Anyway, if we're going to get a Democratic president, and the country is increasingly crawling with very busy and increasingly competent and wealthy and good-looking freaks, then by God we had better do our best to prevent the White House from being taken over by a Dem with a vendetta the size of her or his vast left-wing ego.
And if there's one thing Barack Obama doesn't have, it's a vendetta. The most charming thing about his ego is its noble repose. Blue-collar social-justice types like Hillary Clinton look at this leopardlike cool and think "Aloof! Sense of entitlement! Bahh!" whereas anti-Richard Florida types who nonetheless endeavor mightily to fulfill all his crackpot prophesies like myself look at Obama and think "Patrician! Pathos of distance! Yeahh!"
Obama is going to be the softest landing out of power that the Republicans are likely to get in the next 50 years. To blow this opportunity is to invite a world of hurt down the road. Yes, he's a very liberal dude. But he's not going to rub anyone's face in the road-appled dirt. In Deadwood terms, terms to which we all should recur, Obama's a Sol Star. He's no Seth Bullock. And that's a good thing.
Good enough to put him over the top for conservatives? Against John McCain? It's hard for me to swallow despite the nice yard I've just spooled out for you. But it's hard to deny that any other matchup headed down the pike will be any easier to choke down. And believe me: in the future, it'll be force-fed.
As a Liberal in Britain, I sometimes think the same thing in hoping Cameron becomes elected in the next election, rather than risk a more reactionary conservative 5 years later.
Posted by: shariq | March 25, 2008 at 09:31 PM
As a fellow pomocon (though I prefer "Right-Postmodernist"), I must say: you've hit the nail on the head so square and true, its nose must be bleeding.
Posted by: Knemon | March 26, 2008 at 12:56 AM