For crying out loud, get over a potential Obama Presidency already! There’s nothing to be SCARED of!

I am quite sick of seeing rednecks, bigots, conspiracy theorists, blind partisans and white trash talk about being “scared” of an Obama Presidency.

There isn’t anything more to be scared of than there is that George Bush is going to declare martial law and establish himself as some kind of authoritarian leader under the guise of formulated and largely faked national chaos.  Quite frankly, I imagine that had George Bush ever seriously entertained the idea, it wouldn’t have lasted in his head for five second before being blown to smithereens by, oh I don’t know, totally selfish self-interest.  Here is a guy whose ticket is written, for as long as he’s alive.  He doesn’t have to work another day in his life if he doesn’t want to.  Medical care, security, fame, influence . . . being a former President may not be the easiest job in the world, but I suspect that is because of the type of personality that usually ends up being President–the type of personality that can’t be happy just relaxing.  But really, does Bush strike anyone at this point as the type of guy who is looking forward to doing anything more than taking the next few years off?  I suspect they’ll establish a semi-permanent security perimeter around his ranch and favorite fishing spot and pretty much not have to move too much until sometime in 2010 or 2011.  Bush may actually contribute to an obesity epidemic in the Secret Service.

He’d give that up for what exactly?

Back to Obama.  He’s being called a socialist, a Marxist, a traitor, a terrorist (or at least someone with such sympathy for terrorists that he would make America’s interests secondary to those of terrorists or other foreign powers), etc., etc., etc.  If he wins the Presidency, teh gayz are going to over-run the country, and Obama is going to start sneaking in Sharia law because, after all, he is a closeted Muslim foreign national, and we’ll offer immediate military surrender to Canada.

Truth:  Obama is a charismatic, but ultimately run-of-the-mill (from a policy perspective), Democrat.  Many of his proposals are moderate by liberal standards.  There is nothing about this election that will cause real change.  The differences are, I guess measurable, but ultimately not terribly significant.  Oh noes, a McCain Presidency will mean the overturning of Roe v. Wade!  No it won’t.  Democrats are shooting for a filibustering majority, and certainly will attain a solid simple majority even if McCain somehow magically pulls through.  McCain would ultimately be forced to nominate a justice that would uphold Roe v. Wade and maintain the status quo.  And here we’re talking about legitimate and expected political opposition, not radical departures.  Obama is actually not going to take away your right to defend yourself with a gun.  The government is not going to unilaterally start seizing property (any more than it currently does, anyway).  We’re not going to give up national sovereignty to join a one world government headed by the UN (or anyone else).

There really isn’t anything that should need to be added to that.  Time to put away the crazy and fold up the foil hat.  The next four years may not be exactly like the last eight years, but they’re gong to be a whole lot on average like the last 30 or 40 years than some bizzaro leaping off point into America becoming like North Korea, or Saudi Arabia, or whatever.  Get a grip.

McCain needs some damn Bobby Knight in his blood.

Can McCain really be surprised by this?  Ads run by the RNC, or with McCain’s own endorsement, tangentially or by implication fan the very flames he tries to put out here.  And while he’s trying to find a pail to put water in to douse the fire he’s started, his VP pick isn’t just blowing on the ashes, she’s picking up flaming logs and chucking them all over the place.

If McCain and his campaign were totally innocent of starting and/or fanning these rumors around, then maybe I could say he’s doing the honorable thing by what he says.  But at the end of the day I just don’t believe that.  Too many ads endorsed by him that dance around these topics with a wink and a nod, and too much of Sarah Palin being out of her depth.  Way out.

Without knowing him personally, I do figure John McCain is probably a pretty decent guy.  Some people (my wife among them) can’t get past the affair (true whether it is Republican (her lean) or Democrat), but with all the mistresses and affairs of world leaders, here and abroad, I’m not going to pass judgment there.  But what I get the feeling is happening here is that instead of setting tones and choosing directions, he is being carried by the current of the river of his party and supporters.

Having gone to IU during the Bob Knight years, I am reminded of an incident I witnessed while attending a game.  Some fans were shouting . . . unpleasantries at the opposing team (could have also been the refs).  During a time out, Knight grabbed a microphone hooked up to the PA system.  He didn’t meekly say “Now, I know the other team’s coach and their players, and, why gosh golly gee, you’d be ok if they were here, on this bench, in place of me and the IU team.”  No, He took that microphone (capitalization intended . . . that’s the kind of presence he was in a room, no matter a closet or a stadium) and said (paraphrased) “CUT THAT CRAP OUT.  STOP GIVING THE UNIVERSITY A BAD NAME, AND ACT LIKE ADULTS.”  It went on for a bit longer than that, but you get the drift.  His personality was the kind that set the tone, it didn’t follow it.

Now Knight had his problems, and his personality while he was at IU was both a blessing and a curse, but when he perceived someone as out of line he set them straight.  If McCain had that in him, that fire, he would have taken that mic back and said to the whole room (paraphrase) “CUT THAT CRAP OUT.  STOP MAKING ALL OF US LOOK LIKE IDIOTS, AND ACT LIKE ADULTS.”  Then he could have said something about an Obama Presidency not being the end of the world (I’m a libertarian, and I don’t even think that) and, you know, actually sound powerful and authoritative.

But what I saw there was someone being pulled along by the current, not picking up his trident and making the water do his bidding.  That to me is a weakness, but I’m not sure where it comes from.  Certainly he is otherwise a strong and able individual, but somehow he’s gone from pulling in a positive direction to being dragged in a negative direction.  Handlers?  Party leaders?  Campaign advisers?  If what we are seeing is part of the Rove playbook, then that paradigm, at least for this election, seems to me to have been broken.

And maybe he can’t win.  Maybe, through no fault of his own, he is the sacrificial lamb that Bush and the economy and the War demand.  That is a possibility.  But if that turns out to be true, then he should take up his post and say with spit and thunder and command “!@(*&-Dammit, if we’re going down, then we’re going down with honor!”  That’s the only kind of spirit that could turn a ship like this around, but I don’t see that happening, and especially not after watching that performance above.

“Prosperity Gospel” makes my blood boil

The Time article “Did God Want You to Get That Mortgage?” is exactly the kind of thing I mentioned in the comments here that disturbs me greatly. Do the pastors that preach this personally take responsibility when things go wrong for their parishioners who take this kind of advice? Of course not. Either the individual wasn’t devoted enough to God (thus their own fault), or God has a plan (thus God’s fault), but never the individual’s fault (who was stupid enough to believe this shit), or the pastor’s/church’s fault (for pushing it).

Just a week or so ago our pastor was pumping for additional donations, and said that God has already blessed him with $120 towards the extra financial commitments he had made to the church for the upcoming events/year. Give the money you don’t even have, because God will give it to you.

Makes me sick, but it is prevalent in Christian theology since the early Church. God blesses the faithful, whether that is military victory, money, land, punishment of enemies . . . it encourages the faithful to take risks they otherwise wouldn’t take on the belief that God will save/support them, unless he doesn’t, in which case they are just wretched sinners anyway and deserved it, but God will beam them to Heaven after death.

If the God of the Bible (or of the Koran, or whatever) exists, and is a just being, then surely he will give a pass to all those who turn away from Him based on the behavior of so many who purport to follow Him. Maybe that’s guilt by association, but you can barely find a church (or other place of worship relating to the associated diety) today that doesn’t preach exclusivity, favoritism, intolerance. Things that drive wedges between individuals and cultures. Until they become like us, that is.