The Shape We’re In

I'd like to start out by saying I'm not a politician, but that's not exactly true. Politics aren't limited to those who hold or seek office. Anyone who tries to bring people together toward a common goal is a politician. Anyone who understands or attempts to understand anything about group dynamics is a politician. By profession, as the wonderfully articulate James McMurtry would attest, "I'm a beer salesman," but I'm of the mind that if we want things to be different, we must affect change. We must be heard.
I'll give you some words I sang at the top of my range and voice, in repetition, most nights for six years, words I don't remember uttering even once since I began this phase of my life: "I'm scared shitless of what's coming next." Never has that been so true.
I miss singing those words. I miss singing all those words, but more than that, I miss seeing people in the audience who actually felt like they had some control over their individual and collective fates. It seems, in hindsight, that the folks I met on the road seven years ago were more hopeful, more convinced that they too had some kind of voice.
"You get the government you deserve." I've heard it said and I've said it myself. I'm not sure if it's true, but it's the kind of sentiment I can get behind. Cold, stubborn, rallying, almost. We don't, however get the education we deserve. We don't get the freedom to worship (and NOT to worship) we deserve. We don't get the health care we deserve. We don't get the renewable energy we deserve. I think this is because we aren't given the information we deserve.
It seems to me that the modern conservative movement treats the general American public like children. Because Americans can't raise their kids properly, they should have to pray in school. Because American women can't handle the responsibility of choice, they shouldn't be allowed to have abortions under almost any circumstances. Because some Americans are so strange and misguided that they have become attracted to members of their own sex, they should be denied the rights of heterosexuals until they clean up their loathsome act. I can't make myself see the logic in this last one. If marriage is so sacred, where's McCain's first wife? If family is so important, where is Cindy's half-sister and why does she keep referring to herself as an only child?
I believe that, if given enough information, Americans can make good choices. I think two daddies can have a perfectly normal life with a functional, sane, and well-adjusted child. I think atheists can be kind and generous. Every time I'm stuck in traffic in Atlanta or Birmingham or Boston, I am happy that abortion (and birth control) hasn't yet been outlawed. Sounds rough, I know, but how many people do we really need?
Are these the real issues, though? Maybe the help we need isn't in decision making, but in the creation of opportunity. Will pouring money (tax-cuts) on the top really cause the divide between rich and poor to reduce it's size? I don't know. I'm not an economist. I do know of, however, a lot of beat-up trailers with McCain signs in their front yard. These folks had Bush signs in their front yards a few years ago. Reagan signs when the trailers were new and shiny. I think the irony is lost. I think these people, for the most part, vote with bibles in hand while they starve to death. You might be able to roll a joint with that rice paper, but you can't eat it. Meanwhile the same government they support waits for the surplus to trickle down. We need a steady stream, not a trickle.
I'm going to vote for the man who doesn't hug W. in public. I'm going to vote for the man who Rudy Giuliani can't stand. I can't stand Rudy Giuliani. He mocks hope. Maybe Obama doesn't have a lot of experience. Neither did Thatcher. Maybe he has a strange name that sounds somewhat foreign. I'm not scared by that. I look at Obama, I listen to him speak, and I trust him. More importantly than that, I think he trusts us. I think he believes in our decision-making ability. Hopefully that will continue.