I have decided to separate my Madness from my Business. Therefore, the original contents of this post may now be found at Badsah 2.0: A Blog About Social Media. More specifically: http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/badsah2.0/2008/11/13/online-communities-and-company-policies .
Commentary heard on “Fresh Air” on National Public Radio
Many conservatives are disillusioned with the Republican Party. Yesterday, on the NPR program “Fresh Air,” the subject was as follows:
“During the election season, David Kirkpatrick profiled Republican presidential contender John McCain in a series of articles in The New York Times. He shares his thoughts on the McCain campaign, and on the future of the Republican Party.”
You can listen to the broadcast at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96811878 . But I just want to mention one point that struck a chord with me, since I share the same viewpoint.
Mr. Kirkpatrick described two factions in the GOP today: “high conservatives” and “low conservatives.” “High conservatism” is committed to intellectual thinking, and fundamental principles regarding the role of government. Subscribers of this philosophy don’t whine endlessly about the “liberal, intellectual elite from Ivy League school” or the “media elite.” The Republican base today and since the time Newt Gingrich led the conservative sweep into Congress, on the other hand, has been talking “low conservatism.” This is more of a populist and more divisive approach to politics. In this case, the party tries to appeal to what Sarah Palin called “real America,” i.e. rural & small-town America and its largely blue-collar population. I don’t think there is anything wrong with populism per se. However, when the populists claim a monopoly on social/moral values (”Good Christians”) and on patriotism, and scare the electorate about those intellectual elites and their supposed inability to protect our country from our enemies, we have a problem. Initially, it helped the party win elections. But after so many years of the conservative wave, there seems to be a backlash.
Let’s see how long the new, Democratic wave lasts. The White House and both houses of Congress are under their control, and all our worst nightmares theirs to solve — or royally screw up. How they do, under the leadership of Obama, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, will determine the outcome of the next election. Americans appear to be sick of incompetent leadership. It’s time we saw some positive results coming out of Washington D.C.!
Finally…
The only way to start a blog is to - er, start blogging. I’ve owned this domain for a while, and implemented WordPress on my own server, and did so many things. Yet I never got my blog off the ground. Well, here it is. Now I need topics to write about, and what better subject to lead off than the election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States of America!
I must say that I have never been prouder to be an American. This is for several reasons: the historic election of a bi-racial candidate who is partly a descendant of Africans; the end of eight years of idiocy and abuse of power that led me to believe that we were a nation of morons who deserved self-destruction; and above all, to be able to look up and see a man who was born to be a great leader, one who I respect and admire.
I first saw President-Elect Obama (sends shivers down my spine just to write that!) speak years ago, when he was a new U.S. Senator, in Chicago, at the American Library Association (ALA) Convention. (At the time, I was the product manager for a small software-as-a-service company that served the academic market.) As an orator, he obviously has a commanding presence. However, no one could have imagined that this man would rise so quickly through the political ranks and go straight to the White House.
I have to say that Obama’s acceptance speech was the most sincere & inspirational that I have ever heard. Even Republican analysts and strategists were impressed, and they hope that his term in office will be defined by the same attitudes he presents today. I thought Sen. McCain’s concession speech was also most gracious and honorable. I liked McCain before he became the GOP nominee, and I like him now that he has returned to his own self, with nothing to prove to his nasty, hateful, vicious party.
Yes, I am an independent voter - one of those people who everyone was talking about in this election - but I am now hesitant to even consider voting for a Republican. The base of this party have shown themselves to be a disgrace to our nation. At a time when their candidate reminded us of the struggles people have fought to get to this historic day, and genuinely offered his congratulations and respect, his supporters booed his opponent. During previous campaign rallies, these people did not hesitate to chant “kill him” or connect him to terrorists or call him unpatriotic. Moreover, as we saw with the whole Joe the Plumber nonsense, the GOP seems to be interested only in catering to blue collar Americans. As if electing intelligent, educated individuals with degrees from top universities is bad for our country.
I think back to what our founding fathers said. They wanted educated, capable individuals who were enlightened with respect to the interests of all citizens, rich or poor, schooled or not, to govern the country. Sure, that is an ideal. But who would you rather have running our country? Karl the car mechanic or the man who will be inaugurated on January 20? George W. Bush sold himself as “everyman,” a “real American,” and a good Christian. That’s great, he’s a nice guy, with a lovely wife. But he made a HORRIBLE president. Well, at least Obama’s election has restored my hope in my fellow citizens, and has demonstrated the unique nature of our democracy. Now let’s see how he leads us into the future!
MukhMan
