N A D E R

I recently received a message from a very good friend and Obama supporter asking how she should respond to people who want to vote for Nader. I typed “tell them to get their heads out of their ass-cracks” and hovered over the “send” button. I then erased the hateful sentence and tried explaining why one should not vote for a progressive, intelligent, and honest human being who spent most of his career helping the greater good, then spent the last 9 years erasing all he had accomplished.

My personal political beliefs are about as far left wing as you can get. If elected President of the Universe, I’d abolish the stock market, imprison the CEOs of every major pharmaceutical company, illegalize non-commercial driving inside major cities, and buy every single citizen a bicycle. Oh, I'd also impeach George W Bush and incarcerate him for crimes against humanity. Yes, I'm a left wing nutjob. You with me now, Naderites?

But guess what? I’m unfortunately not running for President, and I’m not voting Nader. I'm voting for a moderate, about 2/3rds of whose views accurately reflect my own. But Obama represents something that is far more important and impactful than any detail of policy: Personal Responsibility.

What the hell does that mean? Barack Obama, just like Ralph Nader, began his career as a community organizer. Rather than just sitting in a cell in Vietnam, brain rotting away like his Republican counterpart, Obama brought people together to create change in their own cities and towns. One his accomplishments as an organizer was to help workers outside of Chicago keep a steel mill open, saving hundreds of jobs and families. His work in early life resembles in nature what Nader accomplished with his PRG groups.

Of all the things Barack has said about diversity and change, this is what speaks so strongly to me: “the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose - a politics that puts solving the challenges of everyday Americans ahead of partisan calculation and political gain.”

What does this have to do with personal responsibility? Well, when Barack Obama says he wants to change the system, he doesn't mean he can do it on his own. He means that you and I taking personal stock in what happens in the community around us is what will change the nation, not sitting there letting Washington control everything. Obama's eloquent speeches on change are not about making promises, it's about inspiring citizens to wake up and take charge of their own government. What I love most about Obama is that he is not an idealouge. He's not about forcing an agenda onto the population, but about giving the population what they choose to fight for.

As I've written about before, I grew up in the bible belt. Specifically, Lee's Summit, MO, the town in which the documentary "Jesus Camp" was filmed. I grew up around a lot of hate. Kids I went to school with said women who get abortions should receive the death penalty. I encountered the Fred Phelps posse on more than one occasion. But no one, not my mother or father, told me this way of thinking was wrong. I just knew that is was. I felt that from a very early age. I was an outcast, not because of my skin color or religion, but because of the way I thought. So at age 17 I said "Sayunara Motherfuckers!" and got the hell out of there. I moved to New York City, where I was surrounded be people... JUST LIKE ME. I couldn't believe it! All the freaks and weirdos from all over the world were united in one magical place!

But soon I encountered another kind of hatred, that like the racism and evangelical beliefs of my hometown, stemmed from ignorance. The Coastal Snobs. In NYC, though my worldview more reflected by new neighbors than my old ones, I was again ridiculed. This time because of where I was from. Spoiled NYU kids would stupidly ask me if I only listened to country and if I grew up on a farm. Over the years I've heard many friends espouse their hatred of the midwest and south, regions of the country they've never been to and know very little about. I find northeasterners in general know more about Europe than they do their own country. And this angered me. Firstly because as with a family member, I'm allowed to insult my hometown, but YOU are not. And moreso, because they don't actually know what they're talking about. Many midwesterners are intelligent and forward thinking, but their identity gets highjacked by a very vocal few.

Over the years I became really saddened by this dispersity between my hometown and adopted home. I felt their hatred of eachother not just unfortunate, but damaging to any kind of national progress.

This is what drew me to Obama. In 2004 while watching the Democratic National Convention, the handsome senator gave the speech we all remember, about being a child of a Kenyan and Kansan, who gave him a funny name. But it was towards the end of the speech when he said "There are not red states or blue states, but the UNITED STATES" that my heart leapt. I was dumbstruck. Finally, someone who GETS IT. Someone else who understands that we really are more alike than different. That this regional hatred is unfounded. The minute he finished that speech I hoped with every pore he'd become president one day.

That is something that neither John McCain OR Ralph Nader really get. They, like everyone in the political arena, are dogmatists, who believe their agenda is right and will do whatever it takes to push that agenda through, despite the cries to the contrary. Hell, I'm and idealist too, and my utopia would be a world created by thinkers like Nader and Kucinich and Zinn. But there is no Utopia. So instead I'd like to work with what we've got. Elect a person who's head and heart is in the right place (meaning not up the asses of corporations) and work towards a BETTER, though still not perfect, America.

I know I'm taking a bit of a leap by assuming all Nader voters would vote Obama were Ralph not on the ticket. I know that's incorrect. And for you Naderites who vote for him simply to support an independent party, I can commend you. You are much more respectable than the crybaby Clintonites who are threatening to not vote because their candidate didn't get the ticket. But remember, we are at a time of great crisis. And to place your vote simply on the basis of non-party affiliation shows a lack of comprehension of the issues at hand. Anyone who this time around says "But the two candidates are exactly the same" are truly living in a tunnel. Obama and McCain are VERY different. You can see that clearly with just the slightest bit of research. I'll let you look at their websites rather than write it all here.

And finally, one Naderite asked me a few years ago "Do you think the world would really be better if Gore were President?" To which I would like to look all of you in the eye and say "YES. It would be." Did you see an Inconvenient Truth? Did you hear about that Noble Prize thing? Look what he accomplished simply as a citizen? Imagine what he could have done for the environment as President.

Hillary Past and Present (Why I Voted Obama)

October 2000. I stood on a street corner frostbitten, rubbing my wind-chapped cheeks with ungloved, icy fists. It's not usually this cold on Columbus Day! I skipped class so I could march in the parade, and was frightfully unprepared. Now, I've read "A People's History of the United States," Howard Zinn's left wing retelling of the entire American story, and I believe it too! So why the hell would I be marching in a parade celebrating a man who co-orchestrated genocide? Because I was campaigning for a person who could change the whole thing, set us in the right direction and lift our culture out of centuries old patriarchy. Hillary Clinton was running for Senate. And I was right there behind her, smashed between two Teamsters who kept me warm.

While following her down 5th avenue, sign in hand, alongside scores of union workers and lesbians, another crowd was right behind us. And next to us. And in front of us. And sometimes it sounded like flying overhead. The Hillary Haters. Mostly comprised of fat housewives from Long Island, old cracker NRA types, guidos (obviously!,) and well dressed Anne Cultor protoges, they stomped red-faced down the parade yelling out the most filthy obscenities I've ever heard in my entire life. And I'm a perv. They blasted their disgusting comments at the center of attention and to her supporters, who would shove our signs over their faces so the cameras wouldn't focus on them. Me and the bigger teamster even managed to get one fat housewife knocked out of the line with a few well placed shoves. It was like a mosh pit of moderates. And this wasn't even a protest, it was the damn Columbus Day Parade!

News was they were following her everywhere. For months. Maybe some of them still are. What surprised me so much was the amount of hatred and anger this fairly unradical politician from Arkansas caused in people. What made them shake with such anger they decided to use their sick days shouting out vulgarities? At this point in time, what the hell had she DONE besides try (and fail) at health care reform and then realize that to create change she needed to become a politician rather than just be married to one. It's not all that revolutionary a concept. Her personality left alot to be desired, but it was never nasty. Just ambitious.

I felt the answer boiled down to one thing: our woman hating culture. The moment a female seems to posses all the goods required to take a position of power, the population freaks the fuck out.

That's what turned Hillary into what she is now; a pol-bot with a wall so thick you have no idea what she really believes anymore. And that's a problem. I used to know what Hillary stood for. Now all I hear are overly rehearsed, meaningless soundbites. Where did the passion go? Washington didn't beat it out of her. Those fucks marching down the street did. And I understand why she changed so much. If I'd had those people stalking me for a decade, not only would I be afraid to say I believe in single payer health care, I'd be too scared to leave the house!

As you can tell, I have affection for Hillary. It's hard to sometimes, but I remember how she sounded back in the days of the turquoise headband and the horrible bob. I miss her. I miss the tourquoise headband. But she's gone.

Could she win a presidential election? I absolutely think so. Shortly after witnessing the fiasco at the parade, I watched her win a senate seat in a state she had never lived in, by a fairly large margin (55 - 45.) Yes, her challenger was a hot headed retard, but still, it was pretty amazing considering how much upstate despised her. Then, 6 years later, the unthinkable happens. She wins again, but this time it's a landslide and SHE CARRIES UPSTATE NEW YORK. That's right. During her first term in the Senate, she spent much of her time turning the farmers and even some suburbanites in her favor. They love her now. Hillary is a formidable politician with more than a few tricks up her sleeve. She does whatever it takes, and accomplishes the seemingly impossible.

So yes, I do think Hillary could keep that crazy old coot McCain out of office. But I won't be marching down any streets for her this time, even in LA where it's always warm. I have a hard time even CARING if she wins, because I don't believe she is the same person anymore. Some optimists think this new sterner, more practical Hillary with her moderate health care plan is just a facade to win. Once she's in she'll sweep the world by a storm from the left. But I don't buy it.

Now let's move forward a little bit closer in time to 2004. The Democratic Convention. He made my heart stop. His words were aural ambrosia, and after a depressing primary season, he made me proud to be a party member. Some criticize that good oratory abilities do not a qualified leader make. I disagree. Effectively moving a population in any direction can be done with little more than the tools of good speech. Hitler being the bad example. Churchill and MLK Jr being a good ones. The President of the United States needs to be a person who people want to follow. Someone who inspires not only his own citizens, but other people around the world.

The President of the United States represents us. Many in other countries truly believe we are all just like GWB. We are not. A multi-ethnic Midwesterner who's lived in many corners of the country from Harlem to Hawaii could not be a better representation of the whole. We'll be able to proudly travel abroad, American passports in hand.

The facade of course is not what's most important. Politics of personality is what's killing our electoral system. Let's be iconoclastic and talk about what's most important: ISSUES. Obama will talk to Syria and Iran. Even CUBA (omg that's so dangerous! What if they attack us with rum and cigars?!?!?!) His health care plan is not John Edwardian unfortunately; it's fairly Hillaryesque. Yes, this has been her passion and she goes on and on about the war wounds to prove it, but once again I believe she's been scared into a too moderate plan. And one of his greatest passions is fighting poverty. You don't hear too many politicians in this country even talking about it any more. But that's one of his tenants for making American proud again. Making sure no one here is starving. He and Hill are about on par with their environmental plans. But once again, I feel that Obama has a more inspiring personality that would actually be able to move our population into changing it's habits. Also, we have the technology to end our oil habit. Electric cars have been around for years. But an oil-man has been in office for 8 years. That's the ONLY reason we still drive the cars we do. An environmental change can't just happen with the people greening their lives, it also requires an enforcer to change the practices of corporations and fund green projects. I don't believe a rank-and-file lifetime politician will take the extreme measures required. It takes a fresh force who owes little to anyone currently in the system. It takes a Howard Dean. Woops, too late. Ok, it takes a Barack Obama.