The Door Into Possibility

Well. I had hoped that I would be able to make more frequent posts than this. It is now July 20th as I write this and Barack Obama is now the presumptive nominee for President of the Democratic Party. I have to confess that I was overjoyed to see him win. I had initially supported someone else, John Edwards, but Obama gradually won me over. I voted for him in the primary and I believe that he is an extremely gifted political leader and potential President of the United States, although he is not perfect by any means. No mere human could be.
If any who is too upset by Obama’s flaws and imperfections carefully thinks about it she or he will realize that it is not so much Obama as the circumstances in which we find our society and our democracy that are far from perfect. It the belief systems that hold sway over millions that stand in need of improvement and in need of being brought closer to reality.
Some of the most important things that Obama has been emphasizing in his campaign have been things that we have needed to have our leaders remind us of for many years. He has reminded us that we are all Americans despite our many important differences and that we all still have much more in common than we have realized or thought about for many years. We can still hope to accomplish a great deal by working together and believing in our country and by having the courage to work hard for real change although it is bound to be imperfect by some criteria.
Obama at least had the good judgment to see the dangers of a war against Iraq before many other members of the Democratic Party did. And he has shown a great deal of knowledge of and understand our many serious problems including our environmental problems and our economic problems. And he has put forth policy proposals to deal with them that show great promise.
If Obama wins the Presidency, and his prospects for doing so seem excellent, we will all still have a great deal of work to do to make sure that real changes in government policy that will secure our country’s future actually take place. However, we will have a much more hope than if his main opponent somehow wins. This is not to say that John Mc Cain is a bad man. He means well. But we need to realize as Americans , that in politics, having good intentions will just not cut it.
Just imagine what the future of our country will be like if McCain wins rather than Obama. Our troops may continue to be in Iraq for many more years. Many more of our soldiers will be killed. And when will there ever be and end to our military involvement there? By what rational criteria will McCain ever be willing to withdraw them other than the vague premise that chaos will ensue if our troops are not there in perpetuity to maintain a mere semblance of order. ?
And what will happen to our economy without leadership operating from a fundamentally different perspective than what we have had for the last eight years ? How high will the price of gas and other fossil fuel based energy go? And what will we do if we do not have vigorous leadership helping us develop renewable sources of energy like solar and wind just as fast as we can possibly go?
What will happen if Obama by some terrible tragedy does not win is almost too terrible to contemplate.