Give Me Good Old Canadian Apathy Over This, Anytime
“The people here, liberal people, will not vote for Obama because of his attitude towards Israel,”
“They’ll pick on the minister thing, they’ll pick on the wife, but the major issue is color,”
In Canadian parliamentary politics, we don’t have primaries. We don’t look deep into our candidates’ past lives to scrounge for dirt, and we don’t give much thought to who their daddies are. We look at the lawn signs, read the brochures that come to our doors, then vote for the person who is either aligned with our party of choice, or the person we think is less likely to screw up. If their party wins the majority of votes, they form the government, and their leader becomes Prime Minister. If the count is a little off, we end up with what they call a minority government, which is essentially a coalition that could be defeated on just about anything. That’s about as complicated as we get.
South of the border, it seems to be less about what you want to do for your country and all about your identity, be it real or imagined. Nominations can be won or lost on a dalliance with a secretary (Gary Hart), a toke of marijuana (Bill Clinton), or the fact that you’ve sought treatment for mental illness (Tom Eagleton).
These days, all the distrust seems to be aimed at Barack Obama, the brilliant young Senator who grew up in Hawaii, worked in Chicago and made something of himself. To some, that’s a good thing. To others, it’s not good enough. People have called him not black enough. Some say that, because he’s black, he doesn’t appeal to whites like Hillary does. The Jewish community mentioned in the NY Times story thinks he might not be a keen supporter of Israel, because, after all, “His father was a Muslim and you can’t take that out of him.”
Because the minister at the church Obama attended is a loudmouth, boorish nutcase, this reflects badly on the candidate. If that was the case here, I could never run for public office. Every priest at every church that I’ve attended has had several shingles missing, but I still listened politely every Sunday.
The character assasinations and constant emphasis on identity seem to be less in the Hillary Clinton camp. One can’t help but wonder if this is so because a) It is her spin doctors orchestrating the attack on Obama or b) She has a big enough liability in her husband, so people feel sorry for her. Either way, the American people really should stop all of this nonsense and look at the big picture.
Never mind that Hillary is a White Woman and Barack is a Black Man. Forget about their views on Israel and concentrate on your own home turf as a Voter, first and foremost. Forget about your identity as a White Voter, Hispanic Voter or Jewish Voter or any other group that you might be part of, and think about this: Eight years of the Bush administration have left your country in tatters, and you need a leader and a government that will fix it. Israel is 60 years old and bombing the hell out of anyone who opposes their existence. In the grand scheme of things, they don’t give a damn what you or anyone you elect to office thinks.
Concentrate on the issues: Think about the mess that the economy is in; about the number of houses in your neighbourhood that aren’t selling or that have been repossessed. Think about health care and inflation, and the fact that we can no longer afford to buy corn for dinner because it’s being used for fuel in our SUVs. Think about the future and never mind the past. Listen to what the candidates want to do to get your country back on track, and disregard their little trips off the rails.
Vote, America. Vote once, and vote well. Your country deserves it.
*Update: I had previously referred to Senator Obama as having grown up in the projects in Chicago. A regular reader was nice enough to remind me that The Good Senator grew up largely in Hawaii, and came to Chicago later in life. Hat tip to Aaron for the correction.
Thursday May 22, 2008 | 04:40 PM in Canadiana | The World From My Window
