nemorathwald (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nemorathwald) wrote2008-09-28 12:49 pm
nemorathwald) wrote2008-09-28 12:49 pm
Reasons To Watch A Political Speech
Last night, after ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
le_bebna_kamni said she couldn't go with me to the Obama speech due to sickness, it took a long time for me to decide whether to go. My plan had been to read stories to her and maybe play a pocket game, and I would be bored out of my mind without her.
That led to a good conversation about why I was going. I have no interest in what Barack Obama will say today. We are at that point in the political process where a candidate must make pre-processed soundbites to win the election.
If it was his speech on religion, that would be different. After this election, maybe he'll go back to giving speeches like that. Speeches of substance, the kind in which I feel I am hearing an actual human and not an electable political costume designed by committee to match what the population wants to hear. Honestly though, even the good speeches I can get on the internet, and being there in person adds no value to me.
The reason I wanted to attend was that I felt like it was something I could do to help save the world, in a small way. I consider it a demonstration, a rally. I want large crowds to turn out to his speeches so that he'll be perceived as more popular, which seems to be working in his favor so far. My contribution is equally insignifigant in voting or showing moral support at a rally. But I'm using the "if everyone did it, is that the world you want to live in" ethical strategy: I want something from the aggregate of people, and I'm part of that aggregate, so I ought to expect that of myself.
le_bebna_kamni was going to go because she wanted to hear Obama. She was extremely skeptical of the concept of attending a speech as a form of sacrifice with a very dubious benefit to anyone.
Eight to twelve hours of an otherwise productive day
getting sunburned,
tired on my feet,
scrutinized by security,
eating a crap sack lunch,
bored out of my skull,
listening to the bread-and-circuses platitudes that every politician has to say to get elected.
Out of duty to abstractions with only a vague connection to benefiting someone somewhere in some unmeasurable way. I stopped sacrificing my Sundays to that form of nebulous guilt long ago.
There is a serious problem with civics as we know it. I am going to write a much longer post on the topic, with my proposed solutions, when I blog about my plans for Superstruct.
le_bebna_kamni said she couldn't go with me to the Obama speech due to sickness, it took a long time for me to decide whether to go. My plan had been to read stories to her and maybe play a pocket game, and I would be bored out of my mind without her.That led to a good conversation about why I was going. I have no interest in what Barack Obama will say today. We are at that point in the political process where a candidate must make pre-processed soundbites to win the election.
If it was his speech on religion, that would be different. After this election, maybe he'll go back to giving speeches like that. Speeches of substance, the kind in which I feel I am hearing an actual human and not an electable political costume designed by committee to match what the population wants to hear. Honestly though, even the good speeches I can get on the internet, and being there in person adds no value to me.
The reason I wanted to attend was that I felt like it was something I could do to help save the world, in a small way. I consider it a demonstration, a rally. I want large crowds to turn out to his speeches so that he'll be perceived as more popular, which seems to be working in his favor so far. My contribution is equally insignifigant in voting or showing moral support at a rally. But I'm using the "if everyone did it, is that the world you want to live in" ethical strategy: I want something from the aggregate of people, and I'm part of that aggregate, so I ought to expect that of myself.
le_bebna_kamni was going to go because she wanted to hear Obama. She was extremely skeptical of the concept of attending a speech as a form of sacrifice with a very dubious benefit to anyone.Eight to twelve hours of an otherwise productive day
getting sunburned,
tired on my feet,
scrutinized by security,
eating a crap sack lunch,
bored out of my skull,
listening to the bread-and-circuses platitudes that every politician has to say to get elected.
Out of duty to abstractions with only a vague connection to benefiting someone somewhere in some unmeasurable way. I stopped sacrificing my Sundays to that form of nebulous guilt long ago.
There is a serious problem with civics as we know it. I am going to write a much longer post on the topic, with my proposed solutions, when I blog about my plans for Superstruct.
no subject
I'm completely with you on that one. What's the point?
no subject
Why wold anyone want that? The only thing the left has right is Gay Rights, Gay Marriage, Abortion and a few other personal decision issues. There is a lot more to running this country then that.
As for the security (which had a great deal to do with all the waiting you did), there is no way you are going to get rid of that. Especially with this candidate.
Politics aside, Sen. Obama is a very high risk candidate. (Sad that, I used to think we were past that in this country.) There is no way the Secret Service is going to loosen anything to do with him.
Think of it like the coyote and road runner. The road runner has to win every time. The coyote only has to win once.
I do not fault any security measures the Secret Service takes. I go out of my way to accommodate them each and every time I work with them. They are not only protecting the candidate, but they are quite possibly protecting everyone attending the event and even me outside in the satellite truck.
no subject
I want him to win because Obama is right on my main issues. Intellectual property reform and open technologies in government. Separation of church and state. Civil rights.
Any choice in a presidential election is a tradeoff that is never perfect, so you have to decide which issues outweigh others. John McCain's policies on the issues that matter to me are so consistently different from the America I want to live in, that it is a complete deal-breaker. I'm not in a panic over terror threats, so McCain's emphasis on anti-terror hysteria is failing to reach me.
Finally, the GOP needs to be collectively slapped in the voting booth as punishment for what that group did for the last eight years, and taught to turn themselves into a real party again. This cannot serve as the only reason, but on top of everything else it's a slam-dunk. I will not exhaustively catalogue the overwhelming list of reasons to vote for Barack Obama.
As to security measures at political speeches: I don't disagree with the measures or want them removed. They simply are one of many disincentives that I don't want to sit through.
no subject
As for the intellectual property reform and open technologies in government platform, that sounds as good as anything I've ever read on the subject. But even if Sen. Obama wins, the President does not make laws. Congress makes laws. How he plans to get those things by all those bought and paid for congress critters is beyond me.
But there are far more pressing issues that cannot be ignored. Being a one issue voter is worse then an ignorant voter casting his or her ballot for a pretty smile.
There are issues of national security, the economy, taxes, Iraq and Afghanistan, That whack job in Iran (Did you catch his speech at the UN?), etc. All of these things require someone that is has some backbone and is willing to go every inch of the way it takes to protect US interests anywhere in the world.
These things require someone that realizes that throwing money at a problem is not always the answer. These things require someone that has their eyes open wide enough to realize that these terrorists want us Muslim or dead and they are not really particular as to which way that goes.
Obama has too many pie in the sky ideals, none of which will serve us well in the current world we live in. Obama wants to be president of the world. I'd like to have someone that puts the United States' interests first.
If you are not a liberal by the time you are 25, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative by the time you are 45, you have no brain.
- Oscar Wild