You know, this is sort of funny. Reminds me of a pointless rambling anecdote.
Most Canadians are sort of kneejerk in their anti-Americanism. It's a hobby, a security blanket, a national pasttime, and gives us something to do in the long cold winters besides fuck endlessly and hunt baby harp seal. But I'd like to think that I came by mine a little more honestly.
I follow US politics regularly and fairly closely, for all the usual self-preservational reasons, and there was a primary campaign way back when in the days of yore that I was paying very close attention to.
I remember one candidate was a smart fightin' man, who seemed mostly honest and was definitely unafraid to take troublemakers head-on. I remember another candidate (I hesitate to use the term 'man'), a figurehead as dumb as a fencepost, chasing office half for its own sake, half out of inertia, and half out of a need to prove himself to his family*. But the most important thing I remember was that the fighter was far, far, FAR more electable. He consistently polled way ahead with the electorate as compared to the dunce.
I remember reading all that and thinking to myself "If the Party chooses the idiot, simply because he'll play ball, I think that's finally it. I think they'll have finally reached the point where the nation is just screwed. That will be the point at which the political machine has simply lost any real meaningful connection (however nominal and tenuous) with the people it serves, after which it's all downhill from there". In the privacy of my own thoughts, I made that primary my own personal referendum on the U.S. - a bit harsh perhaps, but hey, I've never claimed to be that astute.
As is probably obvious, that was the '99-'00 primary season.
Now, I'm not saying the parallels are all the same at all, because let's get one thing damn straight - they're not. But there is a sort of a sense of haunting familiarity that I'm getting.
I guess, to me it doesn't matter of O-Dawg turns out to be another Hoover-esque Wonder Boy, swept away by events and failing miserably. I think that that chance has to be taken. I think that his message can actually be taken at face value: that he represents hope, that he honestly wants to lead rather than manage. That for a change someone is trying so damn hard to be legitimately positive. That maybe the citizens of the US could honestly feel good about being American again. And that your longtime friends wouldn't feel guilty every time they found themselves on your side of the fence.
And for a cynical jerk pragmatist like me to prefer a pretty face to a proven manager**, well it counts for something (to me anyway) when I realize I feel that way.
Maybe the economy has doomed Obama already, maybe he'll have feet of clay, who the hell knows. But I do know what the chances are for those wonderful hopeful feelings, under a Hillary or McCain administration: Fuckin' dead zero.
If he's frozen out, I really have no idea how I'll feel, but it won't be good.
*Hey, he ain't no mathemagician.
**well, it's not too hard to look good compared to a blatant sellout and a rapacious opportunist.
