A heartfelt plea to the Far Left

We can never really know how others perceive us, but in todays political spectrum, I consider myself to be Far Left. Certainly some folks on Dkos and elsewhere would agree, and certainly folks elsewhere would not. Probably because I try to mix what I perceive as political reality or pragmatism into my principled politics. I have been called a Dirty Fucking Hippie Radical, a Purity Troll AND a sell out to the Corporate Fascist Insects in my time, both on the web and in “Real Life.” And this post may get me more of the same. But fuck it, this needs to be said. From the bottom of my  40 years on the Far Left heart….

PLEASE………stick a clothespin on your nose and Vote For Obama.

Yes, yes I know all of the objections. He is a tool of the Corporate warmongers. A Neo-con/Neo-liberal in Progressive clothing. Another empty suited con man for The System that is destroying Freedom and the Planet. The figurehead of a cult of personality whose intention is to bluff his way into office as a Populist Democrat and then continue all of the horrible agendas of the Ruling Class and the Military Industrial Complex. And a litany of other complaints to numerous to mention. And picking the tool of the Bankers and a leader of the insane War on Drugs just makes it worse. A vote for Obama is a vote for the continuation of The Same Old Shit.

To which I say ….so fucking what.

Obama is FAR from perfect. Obama is far from a true LEFT Progressive. Obama has yet to meet a principle that he is not willing to compromise on. Obama IS in bed with Corporate interests, the very people who have made this world the screwed up place it is today.Obama most likely will NOT fight hard for the things we hold dear. There is a veritable laundry list of things that are wrong with Obama. There are a lot of reasons not to vote for him, he is not a savior or the solution to all of the problems that beset the world. But there is one other thing he is not.

He is not a fucking Republican. He is not George Bush and he is NOT John McCain.

In this election, at this time in history that is good enough for me. Just the thought of the consequences of McCraaazy becoming President makes me wretch. If somehow some way he manages to get close enough for the Repubs to steal this election, we….and the generations to come…. are in deep deep shit. This is THE turning point election, not for just the US, but for the planet. Incrementalism sucks, compromising the values that we KNOW are right sucks, and if we are going to change the way things work we need a hell of a lot more than Obama to do it. But he is all we have. All we on the Far Left can hope for at this point in history is to stop the slide towards fascism and the end of freedom and the destruction of the planet. We are so far down the rabbit hole that getting OUT of it is a distant dream. The best we can hope for now is to stop the free fall we are currently in. At this point there is only a binary choice. More of the same…or less of the same.

There is only one politician out there who represents the reality that we see. One politician that ‘gets it.’ Dennis. So what does Dennis have to say? You probably have heard it or seen it already, but here is the transcript of his speech at the convention last night.

It’s Election Day, 2008.

We Democrats are giving America a wake up call.

Wake up America.In 2001, the oil companies, the war contractors and the neo-con artists seized the economy, and have added four trillion dollars of unproductive spending to the national debt. We now pay four times more for defense, three times more for gasoline and home heating oil, and twice what we paid for health care.

Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, their homes, their health care, their pensions. Trillions of dollars for an unnecessary war paid with borrowed money. Tens of billions of dollars in cash and weapons disappeared into thin air, at the cost of the lives of our troops and innocent Iraqis, while all the President’s oilmen are maneuvering to grab Iraq’s oil.

Borrowed money to bomb bridges in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. No money to rebuild bridges in America.

Money to start a hot war with Iran. Now we have another cold war with Russia while the American economy has become a game of Russian roulette.

If there was an Olympics for misleading, mismanaging and misappropriating this Administration would take the gold. World records for violations of national and international laws. They want another four year term to continue to alienate our allies, spend our children’s inheritance and hollow out our economy. We can’t afford it America.

Wake up America, the insurance companies took over health care.

Wake up America, the pharmaceutical companies took over drug pricing.

Wake up America, the speculators took over Wall Street.

Wake up America, they want to take your Social Security.

Wake up America, multinational corporations took over our trade policies, factories are closing, good paying jobs lost.

Wake up, America. We went into Iraq for oil.

The oil companies want more. War against Iran will mean $10 a gallon gasoline.

The Oil Administration wants to drill more –into your wallet.

Wake up, America. Weapons contractors want more. An Iran war will cost five to ten trillion dollars. This Administration can tap our phones. They can’t tap our creative spirit.

They can open our mail. They can’t open economic opportunities.

They can track our every move. They lost track of the economy while the cost of food, gasoline, and electricity skyrockets.

They skillfully played our post-911 fears and allowed the few to profit at the expense of the many.

Everyday we get the color orange, while the oil companies, the insurance companies, the speculators, the war contractors get the color green.

Wake up America.

This is not a call for you to take a new direction from right to left. This is call for you to go from down to up.

Up with the rights of workers.

Up with wages.

Up with fair trade.

Up with creating millions of good paying jobs rebuilding our bridges, ports and water systems.

Up with creating millions of sustainable energy jobs to lower the cost of energy, lower carbon emissions and protect the environment.

Up with health care for all. Up with education for all.

Up with home ownership. Up with guaranteed retirement benefits.

Up with Peace.

Up with Prosperity.

Up with the Democratic Party

Up with Obama -Biden

Wake up, America!

Wake up, America!

You will notice that he devotes lots of time to bashing the Repubs….and one line to supporting the actual Dem ticket. And that is what I am trying to do as well. The Dems have been, to put it kindly,  failures since they took over Congress. But the Repubs have been like unto Cthulu jacked up on meth…on a bad hair day. Obama will not give us what we want, he will merely give us less of what we don’t want. But comparatively, that is good enough…for now. Obama is all we realistically have to fight back against the Republican Reign of Terror. We have to stop them, We have to win this election. And we have to win it by a big enough margin to prevent them from stealing it.

So go ahead and cast a protest vote if you MUST, I can’t blame you TOO much. But for Goddesses sake make sure you DO vote, so your protest is at least registered.

Obama is not my dream candidate either. But he is NOT a Republican, and this time around that is good enough for me. There is another real plus on his side of the ledger too. The fact that he is getting young people involved in politics is a bonus and about the only real hope we have for the future of democracy. THEY might be the ones who are able to make a difference.

On the bright side, he has indUbitably had to say a ton of shit to get elected (as would anybody this cycle) that he MIGHT not actually believe in. It is barely possible that he may surprise us when he gets into office…..and we know for sure that the only way McCain will surprise us is being even batshit crazier than we already know he is. George Bush’s regime has revealed just how nasty, vile and evil The Republicans are, defeating them is, in my opinion, the firsat step to ANY kind of change or reform. Crushing them into the dirt and discrediting their party is even better. For that….we need every vote we can get. Including yours.

NOTE: I am in no way discouraging criticism of Obama and the Dems, I am just asking you to, at the end of the day, vote for him.