Fear vs Hope

Try as I might, I can’t completely separate myself from the bonfire of inanity that is the Democratic National Convention.  I heard Bill Clinton’s speech yesterday.  And I caught a good portion of Barack Obama’s acceptance speech today.  It’s not that either of them had nothing worthwhile to say.    And, believe me, I am eternally grateful that I can listen to words coming out of an aspiring candidate’s mouth without seething with so much anger and frustration that I’m likely to grab the nearest object and tear it to shreds with my bare hands. 

It’s just that I know everything they say is…just words.  Abstract promises.  It’s an attempt—a noble attempt, I’ll confess—to drag American political rhetoric out of the gutter of hatred, and out from under the bed of quavering fear and paranoia.  But is it having any effect?  Are the idiots who have carried George Bush on their shoulders as if he were the conquering hero, who have worn his ignorance and ineloquence as a badge of honor…are those stupid sheep who have appeared to be in control of the country for the past eight years listening?  Are they getting it?  Or are these earnest men and women in Denver preaching so eloquently to the choir?  The minority choir who will go down to defeat again this November, unable to drag the nation back onto a course toward high ideals, dignity and moral rectitude.   

I’m of two minds about the coming election.  I look at the repulsive mob that has taken over our country—the ones who have prospered under the Bush/Cheney policies of fear, selfishness and dishonesty.  They are huge, and they are strong.  And they are not likely to let go of their hold on power very easily.  And I am afraid to what lengths they will go to keep what they have.  

Things could get very ugly.

But then, I think, what better time for a Barack Obama to sweep to victory?  On the heels of the most disastrous administration to have hit Washington in living memory?  This might be the perfect storm, the cosmic coming together of every possible circumstance to make an historic presidency possible.  Now.  Certainly never before, and possibly never again.  At least in my lifetime.  Perhaps our young people, flexing the muscles of their franchise for the first time, will be the force for change that ultimately unseats the evil oligarchy that has dug in its heels in our nation’s capital. 

There is hope.

But I am afraid to hope.  The events of the last eight years have destroyed any faith I may have had in the ability of the American people to make wise choices when it comes to whom they will hand the reins of power.

So.  We will see.  In approximately 67 days, we will see.         

Tags: Barack Obama, Democratic National Convention