I spent a few hours this afternoon at an Obama rally on the football field of a local high school. The line to get in extended around the block but people were friendly and the weather was perfect. There was only one sighting of the soon to be unrepresented American fringe of the right wing variety which was only about 4 people strong- "Barack Hussain Obama! He's hiding behind his race! This is a Christian nation! He's a socialist!" Other than that brief encounter with the oily, sinister underbelly of America, thousands of people filed into the stadium and waited for the address. The two things that struck me immediately were 1. the diversity of the crowd and 2. the overwhelmingly positive feeling. There were elderly people, young people, families with kids, disabled people, and people from all racial, religious/non-religious, and ethnic backgrounds. On my right was an elderly Black woman, on my left was a White single father and his daughter, and in front of me was a middle aged Hispanic woman with a teenage daughter. When Obama came out on stage the elderly Black woman standing next to me had to wipe her tears. If he wins this election it will be due to a repudiation of 35 years of fear mongering and intentional divisions of the electorate. If McCain wins, his victory will be due to race baiting (That One/The B Story/"He doesn't look at America like "we" do"), terror baiting ("he pals around with terrorist"), and the outdated red baiting (he's a socialist). This may well be the dismantling of the Reagan coalition and the Goldwater arguments. It's too bad about the route modern conservatism has taken. Gwen and I both have some conservative values but find no representation in the current GOP.
If you're tired of the political posts, don't fear. There are only ten more days to go and lately I have immersed myself in this election. After next week, it will be back to business as usual (unusual?) with family updates and witty stories.
