I had a long conversation with the Man from GM last night. They’ve moved him over to work on electric cars, but he’s very worried that he’ll lose his job. He thinks he’s got some stuff lined up, but I think it’s the uncertainty that’s doing him in.
Anyway, we were talking politics. It’s funny because he considers himself to be libertarian, except that he thinks libertarians are crazy and so he votes Democrat. Most other libertarians I know who think libertarians are crazy vote Republican, but the world is a weird place and it takes all kinds.
The main reason, though, that he’s not a Republican is that he believes that Republicans are opposed to science and innovation and he, as an engineer, is excited by science and innovation. He wants the government to throw ridiculous amounts of money at some seemingly impossible thing so that America can rally around and see if we can do it.
He also sees two strains of America, but where I see it being between… I don’t know, the outsiders and the insiders, I guess I’d call it… he sees it as being between the superstitiously afraid and the intellectually curious. And he wants to cast his lot with the curious.
Anyway, here’s his fear. He believes Obama and he believes in Obama. He thinks that Obama has a vision for America and how we can be a great and thriving place again.
He doesn’t believe the rest of the Democrats will go along with it. He thinks that they’ll get into power in Congress and spend the next two, maybe four, years playing political payback and “now’s our chance to get stuff.”
His point, which I believe is completely valid and it scares the shit out of me, is that an Obama victory and a Democratic Congress doesn’t mean much if Congress doesn’t turn away from the “politics of the past” as well.
How do you argue with that, my friends? It’s my fear, too.
Filed under: America how can I write a holy litany in your silly moo, Politics and Other Nonsense
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well, that’s pretty much what the Republicans did from 2000 to 2006. they abandoned their message pretty damn fast when they had power. Same shit, different party.
Political parties are about getting power and holding onto power for as long as possible. Since the wealth that controls power flows through the institutions of concentrated wealth, don’t expect that having two branches of the federal gov’t. dominated by Dems will make any substantial difference.
I went and voted today. I’m glad it’s over with and I chose to the best of my ability the person I feel that represents my position on things. I didn’t really groove on either candidate. And I guess you spelled out why, to a certain extent.
Our country and our people are capable of so much, but as long as the people in a position of power are playing to up their egos, nothing will ever be solved, sadly.
Well, see, I think there will be a lot — a lot of new Democrats in Congress in January. And most of them, I think, will perceive that their political fortunes are tied to Obama, at least in the short term. And a number of more senior Congresspersons will have been chomping at the bit for the past few years trying to get some changes made, and will see working with Obama as their chance. So I think there’s reasonable hope that some changes will happen, maybe even the kind of challenge the Man from GM is concerned about. And, in fact, his type of science is the easiest type to sell to people, so a lot of his specific concerns are likely to be dealt with. After all, it’s hard to insinuate that automotive technology is just an overhead projector.
Maybe Obama can pull it off, maybe he can’t. But there’s zero chance of it if he doesn’t win and at least a distant one if he does. Those aren’t great odds, but they’re the best we’ve got.
I think that’s how I’d like to identify myself politically: “…he considers himself to be libertarian, except that he thinks libertarians are crazy and so he votes Democrat.”
I’m not getting too cocky about the election as a whole. We are still in the “going to the mattresses” part of the campaign. I have looked up from my phone banking long enough to reflect on his answer to Good Housekeeping’s question: what keeps you up at night?
It wasn’t the campaign, it was worrying about his ability to get it right if he got in office. He strikes me as someone who knows that he’s made a lot of promises and raised a lot of hopes in people who can’t afford to be wrong any more. I think the deliberate scaling back of the rhetoric and the subdued “hey, things are tough and I know that” tone of the last couple of months has been him realizing that he both has to win and then (the harder part) has to govern.