Spinning in His Grave

I’ve been sad since about 6:00 PM yesterday. That sorda sucks as I have claimed I’ve been doing good since Monday which was the first time in about 4-6 months I’ve made that claim. It is my mistake for being sad but I’m getting ahead of myself, you all need some background first.

The first thing I remember about politics with any real clarity was the campaign between President Clinton and Senator Dole in 1996. I have vague memories of seeing President Bush on the news during the Gulf War and of Mr. Perot debating with President Bush and Governor Clinton in 1992 but those are only vague memories and I remember literally seconds of content from each of them. Now, I’ve been raised liberal by my mother’s family and raised to be a partisan Democrat by my father and for a while these went hand in hand for me.

This would work for the 1996 Presidential election as well despite not knowing what I was talking about but I would scour the Washington Post for the latest talking points and think I was being very smart adopting them as my own. I especially liked using talking points to demonize Senator Dole despite not understanding what I was saying. I defended the Clinton administration in its second term. I argued that the Clinton administration policy on Iraq was perfect (anything away from the official policy in the slightest was doomed to dismal failure) both when he was allowing the inspectors to work saying that bombs won’t solve anything and when President Clinton removed inspectors and boomed Iraq stating that the action was just and reasonable. I read the Washington Post a lot in middle school and high school and during the 1990’s I would always find those talking points to defend the President.

I continued associating liberalism with the Democratic Party after Clinton. In one moment I am ashamed of to this day, I convinced my mother to vote for Vice President Gore instead of Mr. Nader with an impassioned defense of the two party system. It was a year before I would first start learning about the historical impact of minor parties in AP US History. Mom, if you read this, I apologize for my actions. This was the same year where, in the spring, I declared myself a socialist. In gifted and talented (later changed to honors) world history in my sophomore year in high school, my teacher divided the students into two groups for a debate. One group would argue that Karl Marx was a genius and the other group would argue that Karl Marx was an idiot. At the time I thought it was obvious that he was an idiot and that there could be no defense of anything other than that.

I can’t remember the side I was assigned but at the time I had the habit of preparing both sides of a debate before participating in one. It was a great way to learn the skill of understanding things you don’t agree with which is essential if one ever wants to understand anything remotely approaching truth. Before that day I was passionately outspoken against communism and anything resembling it (and I knew two people in middle school who called themselves communist). When I was preparing for the debate, which never happened by the way, I realized that I had never before learned anything about communism. Seeing how I was woefully ignorant about something I was outspoken about, I need to do the responsible thing and educate myself about communism so I read the communist manifesto. I remember not agreeing with everything in it but thinking that allot of what is said in it is worthwhile, so I wasn’t going to convert to communism and I wasn’t going to stay a capitalist so I became a socialist. I’ve remained one ever since despite my understanding of that term completely changing at-least twice over the past eight in a half years.

But Vice President Gore failed to win the 2000 Presidential election despite my efforts to change one vote in Virginia but early into 2001 the Democrats took over the Senate. That year taught me something valuable: The Democrats aren’t liberal. At this point I was still in support of the Democratic Party because they are further left then the Republican Party but I was angry at the Democrats. In the first election that I voted in, that I could vote in, the 2002 mid-term elections, my choices were simple. For Virginia Senator, Senator Warner was running for the Republicans and there was no Democrat running, but there was a liberal running for a third party or as an independent and all the other races I could vote in only featured a Republican and a Democrat. My choices were simple though I did do terse independent (i.e. not just looked at the one page candidate comparison in the local newspaper the day of the election) research about all of my options. I was still angry at the Democrats.

Then came the 2004 Presidential campaign. I was still upset at the Democrats and was so disenchanted that they had to do something special to keep me supporting them. The Democrats had to demonstrate that they will stand up and fight for liberalism. I set aside the 2004 Democratic National Committee Convention in Boston as their chance to do this. Through all 4 days, the speakers were convincing and succeeding in bringing my back into the fold however wary about it I was then Senator Kerry spoke and I knew that the Democrats would be as spineless as ever. I stopped supporting the Democratic Party that day and the fallowing day I joined the Socialist Party USA and have been becoming slowly more radical ever since.

This sets up the scene for the 2008 Presidential campaign. I am further away from supporting the Democratic Party then I was in 2004 and the Democrats now had to win me back instead of merely avoiding loosing me. On principle, and a good principle, I decided to allow Senator Obama (and yes, Senator McCain) a fair chance to appeal to my vote. I have decided to once again leave it up to the conventions for the parties to argue for my support. So I’ve watched all 72 hours of the Democratic National Committee Convention though, in fairness, I should point out some of it more intensely then others. I suspended my disbelief about Senator Obama and the Democratic Party to, as objectively as I could, judge the Democrats and whether or not I should vote for Senator Obama. This opened me up to get hurt and get hurt I did.

Yesterday, on Thursday, the last day, the day in the football stadium, The Democratic National Committee held a tribute to Reverend Martian Luther King Junior at their convention. During the tribute two of his offspring spoke. The video and the speakers pointed out that an African American receiving a major party nomination to be the President of the United States is a realization of Dr. King’s dream. This was a correct assertion as such a thing would be completely ridiculous sixteen years ago, much less forty-four. It was also claimed, though not directly, that Dr. King would support Senator Obama in his bid to become the President of the United States.

Such a thing could not be further then the truth. Dr. King is someone who called the United States “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today,” and also spoke out against capitalism in public and for democratic socialism in private. These beliefs are certainly still pertinent to today. I can see no possibility of Dr. King supporting Obama who is advocating more war and violence and who is not talking about tackling poverty like Senator Edwards might have or Kucinich would. Claims that Dr. King would support Senator Obama insults both the man himself and the people who try and hold him as a role model.

This is why I am sad. I shouldn’t be. It’s not surprising or noteworthy when politicians misrepresent history for their own gain. It is my fault for diving the Democratic National Committee the power to effect my like they have. I need to figure out a way to suspend my disbelief to listen to their arguments without making myself vulnerable as I apparently have. The tribute did do one important thing for me, however. It reminded me that I cannot overlook the foreign policy of Senator Obama on the off chance his domestic policy may sufficiently appeal to me for if I truly hold Dr. King as a role model in the way I try to, I cannot support war and Senator Obama supports war in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, and elsewhere. If President Johnson was not good enough in 1968 then Senator Obama is defiantly not good enough in 2008.

Senator Kerry’s speech at the 2004 Democratic National Committee Convention lost my vote. The Martian Luther King tribute at the 2008 Democratic National Committee lost my vote. I am not looking forward to how the Democrats will lose my vote in 2012 especially if Senator Obama becomes President Obama.

Meaningless Introductory Post

Good evening. I’ve been thinking about starting a new blog for a few months now ever since I had a dream, which I’ll get to later, especially since I think I can get literally two, maybe three readers. I’ve been putting it off not wanting to throw effort into something that is quite likely not to have any positive effects but after last night, I need an outlet if only for myself. The event which lead to the sadness will be part of my next post but I didn’t want my first post to be about something so trivial so this is really a place holder. If you’re this far back, I’ll have you know that the third post would have made a great first post but this is the real world and things don’t always work out as if somebody is writing a novel about your life and you’re only the protagonist in a work of literature and have no “real” existence ... or does it?