Primary Predicament and Election Addiction

Disclaimer: If you don't want to read about politics don't read this. These are simply my opinions and thoughts about the state of POLITICS in the U.S. right now.

Lately I have become a political junky once again. A year ago when it seemed that fifty different politicians was starting their presidential campaigns way too early I felt a bit disillusioned about the political race this year. However now that the primaries are actually occurring, the field has narrowed and the race is on, I've become genuinely excited about how the primaries are turning out.

After 8 years of somewhat unexciting political options I'm pleased with some of the possibilities this year. The top of the list for me is Barack Obama. From the second I heard him speak at the Democratic Convention in 2004 I knew that Barack Obama was the future of the Democratic Party. I think a lot of other people who saw him speak then felt the same way. After watching boring speech after boring speech he was a speaker who was actually charismatic, interesting,and passionate. Honestly I think he's the kind of candidate this country needs and can provide CHANGE to a country which I believe is faltering in major ways. Caroline Kennedy who normally stays out of the political limelight endorsed Obama last week, and her op-ed in the NY Times compared Obama to her father JFK. I didn't live through the JFK years but honestly this cynical 26 year old wants a politican to believe in the way people believed JFK and Robert Kennedy could transform this country. I believe that Obama can provide the kind of change and inspiration I think this country needs. Hillary Clinton can go on and on about experience all she wants but she'll never be inspirational to me... you can gain experience, you can surround yourself with advisors and experts but inspiration is hard to create. Does anyone know who the last President from Illinois was who had only 2 years experience in the Senate? That's right one of our greatest Presidents Abraham Lincoln.

Obama's top three priorities are getting us out of the War in Iraq and improving out status in the world, combatting global warming and gaining energy independence and providing all Americans with health care. He's one of the only candidates to oppose the war in Iraq before it actually began and for that I have a great deal of respect for him.

I believe that I am among a generation of voters that is 10% idealistic and 90% cynical. Most people in my generation are highly cynical about politics and really don't believe that their voice is being heard. Personally, I have become very cynical watching national politics over the past 8 years. Two election cycles in a row I was faced with Democratic party candidates that I wasn't overly enthused about (Al Gore and John Kerry). I was faced with having to vote for which candidate was slightly better than the other rather than vote for someone I was genuinely excited about. The only alternative to either one was George Bush whose 2 wins and various policy decision over the past 8 years (the ill fated war in Iraq among many others) has made me believe that there aren't any politicians on the presidential level that really speak for me. However through these 8 years there was always that 10% of me that was idealistic, patriotic and believed in our system of government. Some part of me continued to be hopeful and believe that someday there would be a candidate who represented my beliefs.

Separate from just Obama, I'm excited by just the general tone of POSSIBILITY this year. The possibility that an African American man could be president of the United States (Obama), a woman (Clinton), a Morman man (Romney), a Hispanic (Richardson), etc. We have had many great presidents who were white anglo saxon males, and I have nothing against any current candidates who are white anglo saxon males, however it seems time that this country have a leader who is symbolically represents some of the other subsets of America. We are a huge melting pot... and while women, African Americans, Latinos, Asians and people of non-Christian religious beliefs, have risen to the ranks of Senators, Representatives, Governors etc we have never had a president that has fallen outside the particular WASP mold other then JFK(as a Catholic).

I am also excited that John McCain seems to be gaining momentum in the Republican primaries. I like John McCain and more importantly I respect him. There are few Republicans on the national scene that I like and respect more. John McCain has impressed me by being one of the few Republicans to take Global Warming seriously (he and Joe Liebermann have had a bipartisan bill in the Senate for years trying to take action on Global warming), and one of the few Senators of either party to try to take on campaign finance reform. While I disagree with many of his positions including the War in Iraq and some of his social positions, I still respect him. I probably wouldn't vote for him, unless the Democrats come up with a candidate I absolutely can't stand but if he did end up winning the presidency I wouldn't be disappointed and I would at least be able to know that we had a president I could respect.

Why do I care about all this and why do I think its important? Over the past year I have become highly concerned with the state of the United States and increasingly fearful about the future. I'm scared about the state of our healthcare systems, retirement-Social Security, the decreasing worth of our currency, our ENORMOUS debt, the worldwide threat of Global warming and our decreasing status as a world power. Living in France these past 5 months has only made these worries all the more clear. The U.S. dollar is no longer the dominant world currency. It is slipping and slipping fast. The Euro and Pound have both gained a great deal of strength versus the dollar. The U.S. is getting itself into major major trouble as our national debt grows and grows (9 TRILLION and counting). None of us would run our households this way (continually borrowing unending money from the rest of the world) and yet our government continues to run this way. Someday the bottom with fall out. The U.S. is no longer the worlds economic superpower and increasingly in the next 10 years China will become that superpower. I can't count the number of news reports I've heard about China this year and the 2008 Olympics is their coming out party. And guess who owns 44% of our debt? Foreigners, that largest percentage being China and Japan. All of these things scare me. Trying to count on a government that is not willing to be fiscally responsible or right the social programs that our citizens need scares me.

We need a president who can set a new course, maybe inspire us to believe in our government again. That maybe be Obama, McCain or someone else in 4 years 8 years or 12 years but I hope for my sake and the sake of everyone growing up in my generation today that someone comes along who can right the ship. The U.S. now is like a ship with many holes. We may be plugging the holes and bailing out the water... but at some point soon we need permanent solutions to very real problems.

The 10% of me that is still an idealist believes that the American political system can and will solve its problems and create an America that lives up to its ideals. I really hope that idealism will win out over cynicism.