*****
I’m
voting for Barack Obama.
We don’t
have time for leaders whose minds need complete changing. We don’t have time
for people who don’t get it.
If a house is on fire, and you know it, but people are in your way just standing there, not even paying attention to the fire, preventing you from getting to the hose, most of us would remove them as obstacles. Hurting them is better than letting the house burn down, which would not only kill us, but them, too.
There
are lots of ways of removing obstacles, some better than others. I’m sure we
can be more humane removing the political-economic elite who would prevent us
from trying to save the planet and live the lives we deserve to live, striving
for things that deserve striving after, than they have been considerate of us
in extracting wealth from our existence to live in a way they don’t deserve.
Maybe not, it’s likely we have to be as ruthless as they are if there’s to be
any hope for the future. Some histories suggest that’s the case.
And of
course, there are valid arguments against ruthlessness, regardless of its
motivation. That’s why I hope we can be more humane in achieving our
“lifestyles” than the capitalists have been in achieving theirs.
I wasn’t
going to vote because, quite frankly, the Democrats disgust me. Their feckless
idealism is nauseating. The Democratic Party has also been in the way of
necessary reforms, but the Democratic psyche could be more quickly altered,
relative to the Republican mind, due to its greater empathy. The more suffering
they perceive, the more Democrats want to do something about it. In fact,
Democrats seem to alter their way of thinking much more than Republicans do in
the face of reality. Do I really need to cite evidence supporting this opinion?
Really? Republicans are less rigid than Democrats?
Most of
you reading this would agree Republicans are far worse in dealing with reality
and making life better for most than Democrats. I knew several talented artists
who committed suicide during the most recent Bush-league regime. They couldn’t
take the day in, day out cynicism of it. The daily grind of a white, right-wing
culture under constant attack from facts. Defeating reality with its malicious
fantasies eroded whatever hope these decent, sensitive human beings had of having any hope.
Romneyites
will be more of that same hopelessness until the real world starts biting them
in the ass. I hope that bite takes the form of a lost election rather than a
lost civilization. I’m no fan of civilization, what the civilizing process has
wrought, but the falling action from such a climax would be catastrophic.
Hubris inevitably begets tragedy. I would prefer to mitigate it by deflecting
the hubris from its charge. Better, I would prefer to annihilate the form of
hubris that is the Republican Party, and change the nature of the drama, making
it a tragedy of my own making. I know that’s ridiculous, so I’ll drop it. It
will never become a “program” [or pogrom]. I don’t give a fuck about my will triumphing,
nor do I want someone else winning at my expense.
The most
important issue, of course, is global warming. It’s teeth are big and sharp. If
I were a biocentric Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell or Rev. Graham, which is to
say if I were an inflexibly ignorant ass, I could claim Gaia’s naturally
reacting to the pain caused by her red state regions. You think it’s just a
coincidence there’s a blizzard in coal country? That Texans can’t go outside
from May to October? That Wall Street’s going to be deeply inconvenienced? That
the Show Me state is being illegitimately raped and mind-fucked by moneyed
religious interests?
Anyone
with half a brain knows that global warming’s going to kick ass [it’s only
getting started folks], that the right wing in particular and capitalism in
general are finished, that the people at the bottom are tired, hungry and
thirsty and the people at the top have lost legitimacy. Our social positions
are no longer valid, whether we’re on the top, bottom or disappearing middle.
No one deserves their systemic advantage or disadvantage. Not fair really means
something, whether you want it to or not. It becomes a matter of life and death
when there’s not enough stuff for everybody to live [equally or not; people who
are fed and watered will tolerate a lot, but once they’re exposed look out].
Anyone
with three-quarters of a brain knows we ignore this situation at our own peril.
Do the one billion haves want to face six billion starving have-nots driven by
the survival instinct? Most with full brains understand that human civilization
has evolved itself into a trap. We know, like Edward Abbey, that changing human
nature means mutilating human beings. That’s the way it is when the rubber hits
the road. I can smell it, can you?
Mitt Romney
can’t, or at least we’ll never have any way of knowing. He contradicts himself
too much for any real understanding of him on our part. His word is poisoned
because of it. At least with Obama, he’s been true to his word if you’ve been
listening to him carefully and not projecting your own ideals into his
language. His relatively darker skin has made too many of us blind and deaf to
what he actually says and does. Yes, he’s felt a need to back down on a number
of things. But what are his options? Civil War? What does one do with people
who can’t be reasoned with while they’re literally burning up the planet? How
does someone save the village from them without destroying it?
We can’t
change the nature of Republicans and corporate libertarians [laissez-faire
capitalists] without hurting them. If you’re a decent person, and you know
they’re human, and you might actually like their company during a football game
or some other sporting event…what the hell are you to do? You can’t really go
about damaging their interests without inflicting damage on one’s self [as opposed merely to one’s
interests]. It’s inhuman not to feel the ramifications in advance. It’s
psychopathic to not even be able to imagine how it’s all going to feel…not only
for yourself, but others.
Obama
may be a killer, but he’s not a psychopath. This is what makes him a different
president more than the mere shade of his skin. Like Jimmy Carter, he’s decent
enough to try to see the decency in everyone. He struggles, usually in vain, to
raise our overall dignity as a nation the same way Carter did after Vietnam and
Watergate. Obama shows a respect for these conservative jerks in a way I can’t. He sees a form of human
dignity in them. Whether it’s true or not, I respect it as a way one treats
others with the appropriate humility [yeah, sometimes you bow—Jesus would’ve
washed their feet].
I’m
voting for Obama because I’d prefer to prefer democracy, and if not democracy,
at least the hope for some semblance of a republic. If Romney gets in there, I
suspect the rich will be emboldened enough by their greed and selfishness to
accelerate their efforts at lowering the planet’s population to a level that’s
less threatening to their way of life, which isn’t negotiable. If that happens,
it will be my responsibility and the responsibility of humane people everywhere
to drive them into negotiations. Either way, we’ll have to find a way of
herding and coralling them, keeping them out of the way and far from the levers
of power. This must be done regardless of who wins the election. Obama will
talk and negotiate. Romney won’t. Obama understands America more than Romney
does, which makes him more American
than Romney, not less. Democracy is all about compromise. Romney and
Republicans are all about authority.
Fuck
them. The planet can’t be saved as it is. Its existing regime is no longer
tolerable. So which way will things go?
Global
warming and debt are forcing civilization to adapt or perish. The former is the
planet forcing all of us to evolve with it; the latter is the rich coercing the
poor to adapt themselves to their conditions, and by doing so accepting death.
What
Republican interests desire is inhuman and unnatural. The nature of
civilization itself must change if people are going to make it in any way worth
making it. This means the systems of the old civilization must evolve because
they’re no longer working toward the common good. We can see corporations and
their people operating in their own private interests, and the havoc that’s
begetting all over the planet. The Republican leadership represents these
private interests that are out to enrich themselves regardless of the suffering
it causes. They represent the same old order. Mitt Romney wants to be Julius
Caesar as much as Haffez al Assad does.
Philip
K. Dick wrote repeatedly of how the Roman Empire—the black iron prison that
descended over humanity two-and-a-half millennia ago—never went away, it’s
still here, everywhere. It’s a frame of mind…a delusional definition of progress.
The Roman elite and citizenry are as nasty as they are because they know their
way of life is doomed and pointless, which means their psychological advantages
as rich people have eroded. So they commit suicide for fun, but only after
they’ve used everything up.
When
tomorrow comes, would you rather be a Roman or a Hun?
This, of
course, is a bizarre equation. With 7 billion people in the world and counting,
it’s absurd that we should all compete against each other not just for
survival, but the simple pleasures of living. But such is the case in the
reality of Republicans, in the me-first/you-last Social Darwinist hostility of
their dollar sign-sucking goddess, that Bride of Moloch and Queen of Hell, Ayn
Rand.
I’m
voting for Barack Obama because he’s at least talked about “being on the right
side of history.” As all the shit goes down and we find ourselves thrown up, I
prefer Obama over Romney.
History
shows that when a Democrat’s President, it’s tear gas and billy clubs deployed
against the hungry masses. When a Republican’s in charge, it becomes bullets
and bombs [yeah, Tea Partiers, Clinton was an exception when it came to the
Branch Davidians and Ruby Ridge; but when you think about it, Homeland
Security’s pretty nonpartisan because it grows its job regardless of who’s
elected—in other words, the national security state remains in power despite the will of the people].
So, I
guess you could say I’m voting for Obama because I’d rather be tased than shot,
bro. Either way, we’re in for a shit storm down here at the trailer park…
RELATED:
“What’s Obama Up To? Does He Get It?”
“A Mitt Romney Poem”
“Ron Paul, Libertarianism and Corporate
Personhood"
“You Are What Consumes You: A Review of The Corporation”
