Saturday, September 20, 2008

A PERSONAL COMMENTARY

The other day I received an email from a Republican's Voting Registration Panel asking me the following question: "Tell us! Is America ready for a black president?"

I was more than taken aback, both literally and in actual years. And I responded the same way I did when they sent it regarding Hillary Clinton, as a woman. To even consider this a proper question to ask anyone in the year 2008 is unacceptable! We have learned absolutely nothing from the history that led us here; nor the people who gave their lives to teach us equality.

This is not an election of black vs. white or male vs. female or even Democrats vs. Republicans. It’s a case of RIGHT vs. WRONG and NEW vs. OLD and CHANGE vs. the same old back-stabbing, global damaging administration that we have had for far too long! I know my fellow Americans are not so blind as to vote for political party, rather than political reason. Personally, I am sick and tired of being Bush-whacked by an egotistical administration that has done nothing to bring forth peace and prosperity; but has instead ruined our reputation and encouraged a war, for the sake of money and power.

The Law of Attraction of this universe dictates, factually, that if you keep on attracting the same administration, the same war mongers, the same brainless conservatives with no knowledge of politics or connection (Miss There’s No Global Warming Sarah Palin springs to mind), then you will certainly get what you deserve. I mean, it's not strange to have full grown ripe mature pumpkins in August in my backyard, right? (It just reinforces to me that she is a far better comedian than Tina Fey; and I am shuddering at the thought.)

For anyone who has the mistaken impression that because they are wealthy or Republican that they should vote that way in order to keep their own money and have it grow in their pockets, they are in for the rudest awakening of all: financial loss.

You know, my family always called my abilities “ a gift.” I call it "a knowing.” The gift is only received when the knowing becomes awareness through proper action. Action is the only way to promote change.

Change is Correcting How A Nation Gets Even
I’m with Deepak Chopra who shared his opinion and is repeated below.

God bless, Linda

DEEPAK CHOPRA - "OBAMA AND THE PALIN EFFECT"

Deepak Chopra


Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running o ne-tenth of New York City . By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin's pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.

She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other."

Obama is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that
Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin's message.

In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision. Look at what she stands for:

--Small town values -- a denial of America 's global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism. --Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair America 's image abroad. --Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded. Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree. --Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war. --"Reform" -- an italicized term, since in
addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your ideology. Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from "us" pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of
"I'm all right, Jack," and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is."

The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress.

The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.

Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a
contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict.

The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized
state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.

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