I’ll start this, for once, honestly.

I’ve been trying to write a post about the Obama candidacy for weeks – maybe longer – and they’ve all been terrible. I now realize why.

The drafts have all been in response to the vociferous attacks upon Obama from guys like this (yeah, I’ll do you the favor of a link, motherfucker)* – frothing, hallucinatory, conspiracy-mongering rants from the angriest – and frequently least productive, no coincidence – people in the world. Myopic, delusional, hyper-romanticized cries from an abyss of political impotence – from those espousing a theory of engagement and exemplifying a praxis of almost catatonic inaction, save what pays. Blogging – ipso facto – denotes impotence, as others of a similar bent have pointed out.

The problem? I agree with them on virtually every point.

Full disclosure: I knocked doors for Obama during the Minnesota primary. My partner ran the fucking caucus, really: got the folks in line, explained the process, demystified what was for most people – given the absolutely insane turnout – a very mysterious thing indeed. Despite several years of rather intense political engagement on behalf of causes I deem worthwhile, I’ve never knocked doors in my life, and the first vote I ever cast was for Ralph Nader. But, guided by two core objectives (which, as I’ll explain, I still think valid), I felt very strongly that the presumptive Republican nominee would be disastrous for the world, and Hillary Clinton would rival him. That’s how I felt then and (to ever-lessening degrees) that’s how I feel now.

So, Obama. I’m not a Democrat: I do not make it my mission to elect “more, and better, Democrats,” as my colleague and nerdosphere-shouting-match comrade would have it. If anything, I guess I would describe my outlook as fundamentally anarchist. Let’s see: I would like

  • An end to global American hegemony, and, for that matter, an end to nation-states as they currently exist;
  • An end to the modes of domination that prevail in all (and not just Western, apoplectic and self-loathing lefties) modern societies – patriarchy, speciesim, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and all other manners of othering and institutional discrimination;
  • An end to hierarchical forms of governance and self-governance, even (or especially, rather) in our daily lives;
  • A full-on defunding of the corporate welfare state;
  • The legalization of marijuana, as a base minimum, with a rollout of harm reduction programs and the abolition of prison industrial complex;
  • And the fostering, nurturing, and blossoming of a new spirit of cooperation that ignores all such divisions and disastrous power structures.

Are the Democrats going to take care of these things? Is Obama going to make these changes? Does the cognitive dissonance of considering such an inane hypothetical make your head hurt?

So, right. Then what?

I supported Obama, and will likely vote for him this November, on the basis of two short-term objectives with very real long-term impacts: (1) Supreme Court nominations, and (2) the election of a Black man to the presidency. I will be told, in short order, how spurious both are – how misguided and naive, how at the mercy of or in service to the most base forms of identity politics. And I’ll accept such critiques, but I can’t see changing my mind on them. Occasionally, anarchist or not (tell me why I’m not, friends), a small difference between candidates is relevant, and a vote makes a small difference.

(1) John McCain’s election to the presidency, and the nominations (perhaps three) to the Supreme Court, would be catastrophic to all those in this country who oppose churchy intrusion into personal lives. Hillary Clinton’s nomination and ascendancy would have assured the same, in my opinion. She would have triangulated her way to nominations not far removed from McCain’s. Obama may or may not: today’s ugly and deplorable capitulation on the FISA “compromise” (jesus motherfucking christ) – and the absolutely unnecessary pandering to the right — may militate against my best hopes. I knew for sure with regard to two, and the third was the brightest of dim possibilities. We’ll see.

(2) The insouciant dismissal of the possibility of a Black president of the united states of amerikkka by those who were shocked – shocked – by the misogyny evinced by anti-Hillary Democrat neanderthals is nothing short of hilarious. And the resolutely myopic refusal to admit that such a thing would be of enormous historic importance – for this racist-ass country, anyway – is just sad. Sorry, fellas: “His mom was white so fuck it,” is not exactly an accurate analytical summation. I understand the “window-dressing” argument, but this is not Condi Rice we’re talking about, and I understand the fact that policy should remain supreme in such considerations (which is why the great white hopes of civil disobedience – provided said disobedience involves only the internet and requires no lifestyle change in any way, shape, or form – were all behind Ron Paul, that great beacon of racial justice and conqueror of tyranny who, incidentally, didn’t even bother to vote on FISA today: These things change nothing. Argue away the historic relevance if you feel like it, but don’t shrug it off like the American people are about to elect a guy with interesting eyes and a tan. Seriously.

The reality, of course, is that Obama is not only not a cure-all, but potentially very scary in a variety of ways. This is where I agree with the breathless agonistes. Stadiums full of first-time voters – tens of thousands, unprecedented in political history – are scary. The elision of one’s personal dreams with some particular figure is scary. This picture is scary.**

How about a Minutemen lyric to liven things up, since it appears the more voracious factions can’t summon the will to quote it?

Don’t preach your structure of society /
Your perverted ideals of reality /
Our words are freedom and common cause /
Their words are hate and war and all is lost /
I can’t follow a man on a white horse /
Whose means of control, they all look to course /
Tyranny is the real word /
Voices and opinions are never heard /
We all work in a working mass /
We all work for the ruling class /
The State relies on the working man /
Who obeys the Party and the Fatherland /
They all kneel to the Party elite /
All enslaved to the fascists.

So a mea culpa, along with the attacks and shouting. Rather than knocking doors, I should’ve really heeded the great Howard Zinn:

When some people ask me about voting, they would say will you support this candidate or that candidate? I say: ‘I will support this candidate for one minute that I am in the voting booth. At that moment I will support A versus B, but before I am going to the voting booth, and after I leave the voting booth, I am going to concentrate on organizing people and not organizing electoral campaigns.’

I’d like to get to work. Anyone else?

* Note: This site has changed a bit, so the links no longer apply. Suffice to say: He didn’t (and doesn’t) care much for Obama.

** Removed: (see comment #1) “– the Latin version of “Yes, we can” seems to translate literally to, “Truly, it’s possible,” which seems to denote a response to the claim, “It can’t happen here.” He sided with the FISA-capitulators. He doesn’t think the crimes of the current administration are particularly unusual. And on, and on, and on.”