Political Prognostication Gone Wild

Having little else to do today, I've been going through some old blog posts from January and ran across this quote from Huffington Post:

[I]f you want a break from the Washington dynasties, support John Edwards (with Obama as VP?) If you want someone that will be able to trample the Republicans back with their own artillery, vote for Hillary. And if you want to live in a world where the only thing that matters is the quality of a man or woman and not their color, religious beliefs, hell, even their name, then vote for Barack Hussein Obama. You'll feel better, but you'll be run by Republicans for another four to eight years.

What I find somewhat amusing is how I often found myself having to defend the American people against charges that they were all a bunch of racist retards who'd vote Republican just 'cause Obama has an unusual name and his skin tone is a few shades darker than my own.

In 2004 Democrats coalesced around John Kerry because we believed his military service would insulate him from attacks over foreign policy...we were wrong. Picking a candidate because we think they'll do better against the Republicans is simply foolish. Yes, I happen to believe Obama is more electable than Clinton, and to a lesser extent Edwards, but that isn't why I'm supporting him...I simply think he is more electable because he inspires people by his words and actions, something which has become rare in American politics.

The fact of the matter is, the majority of pundits and news media really are elitist assholes. Now, I'm not some great defender of the American majority, but I do think they tend to look at people who aren't exactly like them, and treat them as some separate entity. Granted, I've done the same thing from time to time, but we aren't, in the end, all that different. Human nature is not as complex as we'd like to believe. And the difference between an poverty stricken Southerner and a wealthy urbanite with a master's degree isn't all that great in the end. Hopefully the media folks will stop speaking condescendingly of "workin' class whites" and idealizing small town values as if anyone who lives and works outside of eyesight of a skyscraper is somehow more simplistic in how they chose the candidates they'll support.

I also hope we'd apply the same practice towards foreigners as well. The ability to empathyze with our fellow human beings, whether they have Anglo-Saxon heritage or they are Palestinian Muslims, is going to be key in moving forward on the diplomatic front. My hope is that Obama's multi-cultural background will lend to positive results on this front, but time will tell on that, and I think how he reacts to future aggressions by the Israeli and Palestinian militaries will be a key indicator on that front.