mofembot rides again

And the band plays on

Posted by mofembot Tue, 05 Feb 2008 12:10:00 GMT

Here it is, Super Tuesday and all, and I am… waiting. Since a medical emergency called me out of the country when my absentee ballot arrived, and since I didn’t get back in time to ensure its arrival at the town clerk’s office in Massachusetts today, I will be voting in the Democratic Global Primary instead. (I can vote in the Global Primary anytime between today and February 12th.)

Decisions are not very easy for me, and never have been, really. It took me a long time to become reasonably decisive. People would ask, “One egg or two?” and/or “Scrambled or fried?” – and my response would be “Whatever is easiest for you.” While it is true that that response may well have reflected genuine indifference toward the outcome, there is an element of people-pleasing within it that goes hand-in-glove with the rife abdication of responsibility … well. Let’s just say that regardless of psychological underpinnings and personality traits that such wishy-washiness indicates, I finally got better about asserting some kind of preference, feigned or no, so as not to drive other people quite so crazy.

But here I am today, unsure about which candidate will get my vote. I was going to vote for Edwards, and I may still “on principle,” hoping that my tiny voice will join with those of other Edwards supporters, thereby creating enough volume to ensure that the poor and disempowered will be included at Barack’s or Hillary’s table.

But part of me is thinking ahead to the November general election, however, and so I am trying to figure out if I think Hillary or Barack is the better candidate–in the sense that I would want to vote for someone who will beat McCain in November. Quite honestly, I think/thought Edwards could, but I’m not sure about either Obama or Clinton: The attractiveness of their diversity, if you will, may prove a liability when viewed through the prism of the GOP slime machine. I am enchanted at the thought of a woman president. (In fact, when I was a kid I rather expected that I would be the first woman president.) I am encouraged at the thought of a black president: encouraged that maybe, just maybe America has come far enough for such an idea to become reality.

But the GOP-driven Clinton-hating knuckle-draggers and the anti-Obama lying bigots and the Big Money and the Swiftboaters … all of these antithetical-to-everything-that-is-truly-American thugs scare me. As hopeless as it should be for any Republican presidential candidate to get elected, we’re talking about a machine here that successfully stole the two previous elections, and which, even if it loses, will spend huge sums to bloody and belittle and damage as much as possible the Democratic president-elect. The GOP is very experienced at playing to the worst that can be found in the shadows and cesspools of the American psyche, and this will indeed be an ugly campaign season.

Such are my fears, and so I ponder my choices on this day. I will support the Democratic nominee in any event. How I wish that the upcoming general election would magically turn into a genuine contest of ideas and aspirations! – And while I’m at it, I’d like a billion dollars and a pony.