Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Convention-al Musings

It may be corny, but I really am loving the Democratic convention this year. It's the whole deal, the terribly earnest conventioneers, with their wild eyes and funny hats and the summer camp feeling of grown adults acting silly. I can't help but feel that something in the air has changed, and we DO have a chance to get rid of the Bushes and their ilk.
It has been wonderful to hear speeches that say in so many words what we all know already: that the administration of the past 8 years has given our country and its economy over to the oil industry and the rich and powerful of the world. It has cynically thrown the rest of us to the dogs, and literally watched as the poor and powerless drowned, in the aftermath of Katrina and in the ongoing economic crisis.
It still makes me angry that our country carried out an impeachment process against Bill Clinton, a man who was weak and somewhat sleazy, but who after all held things together on a national level and presided over a period of peace and security, but now refuses to do so against an administration that has ignored and abused every principle of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and every other value we pretend to stand for as Americans.
But at least in making a concerted effort to throw out the bastards and to speak the truth about what has happened, a truth that has remained unspoken for the most part until now in the major press, we can do something meaningful. That is more important than any one candidate or party. That, indeed, is what we have fought for and called freedom.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love seeing Frederick Douglass, a portrait fitting for today's blog entry. We must regain the presidency.

Robbi N. said...

Absolutely. And I was so impressed by Barak's speech. All the specificity I ever wanted! That was the problem I found with his previous speeches--they sounded great, but lacked detail.
But R and I talked afterwards, and coming from the Bible Belt of VA as he does, he is convinced there are way too many crackers and pinheads in America to ever elect a black man president, even one who has more white in him than black. I hope he is wrong, but I don't know. I lived in VA too, and there was unbelievable hatred of Jews and blacks, but that was 30 years ago. It was worse still in Georgia, and that was this year. But lets just hope Bob Barr gets some of that hate vote and splits the Republicans and that they don't pull any dirty tricks like 2000.