Zo Blogs for Obama

Ralph Who

Zo — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:01:27 EDT

" ...Nader added, ' ... first of all, the number one thing that a black American politician aspiring to the presidency should be [doing] is to candidly describe the plight of the poor, especially in the inner cities and the rural areas ... Haven't heard a thing.'"

Get the crap out of your ears, Ralph. Or is it just old age.

"He wants to show that he is not ... another politically threatening African-American politician ... He wants to appeal to white guilt ... Basically he's coming on as someone who is not going to threaten the white power structure, whether it's corporate or whether it's simply oligarchic. And they love it. Whites just eat it up.'"

Let this be the last we hear of the man. Whose "political" message no one ever, ever "ate up." Because he doesn't have one.

But Ralph? Thanks for the seatbelts. Really.

reblogged from humorlessbitch.com

Sweetest Things Turn Sour

Zo — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:31:37 EDT

Title via Glenn Greenwald in Salon, surprise. Yes, I think he's going a bit overboard about Obama's present actions as Senator ... which were to be expected, and if you didn't expect them, if you didn't see Obama as a quintessentially political creature, you either haven't been paying attention or joined MoveOn at too early an age.

Greenwald is a purist, not in the MoveOn sense at all, but something far more interesting. He is one of the few writers today capable of intellectually drawing out a point. Exploring its corners, filling in its history, and an intellect like that (intellect? on the web? my we have some adjusting to do) has such such an abundance of knowledge at hand. This is why it is so marvellous to read Noam Chomsky, or watch his lectures on YouTube, even if they do make me go lie down.

This intellectual capacity allows Greeenwald to think in all directions, to write in critique of a standard, things as they should be ... and more power to him. But a standard is something perfect, meant to be used as a guide. Else one risks using the ideal as an authoritarian stick with which to beat over the head those who vary, or fail--a stick held, as we have seen, by he who is without flaw or qualm.

Obama made deeply political decisions, just in order to run. Do you imagine that is Barack Obama the person, that we see? Or that, in a man of his intelligence, he is not operating on the basis of political ideas?

In a very fine piece in the Atlantic last year, "Goodbye To All That, "Andrew Sullivan wrote

"Obama is deeply aware of how he comes across to whites.
In a revealing passage in his first book, he recounts how, in adolescence,
he defused his white mother's fears that he was drifting into delinquency.
She had marched into his room and demanded to know what was going on.
He flashed her 'a reassuring smile and patted her hand and told her
not to worry.' This, he tells us, was 'usually an effective tactic,' because
people were satisfied as long as you were courteous and smiled and made no
sudden moves. They were more than satisfied; they were relieved ... "

How manipulative--or how astute. No, the issue is not whether the candidate, especially one who stands so much for change, votes the most radical senatorial vote right now. He isn't there to fulfill your idea of kick-ass--and anyway, you just might be wrong.

Sullivan also wrote ...

"And so you have Obama's campaign for white America: courteous
and smiling and with no sudden moves."

Genius. No sudden moves. Really genius. And what could be smarter than his decision to not enter the fray, ensuring that when he does speak, it's not as just another dirtied figher.

Politics, a candidacy, is also about trust. This is a two-way street, people. Could the man get himself elected first?

" ... same old story
same old act
One step up
and two steps back."

Are You Down With This

Zo — Sat, 17 May 2008 20:07:58 EDT

Has this been the longest five weeks of your life or what. Looking at my first post here, I can't believe the tests—test after test after test—faith has been through. Least my shreds of. I don't know about you, but I wobbled, I withdrew, I detached—I did all the things people do when they fear. When they care about something so deeply, have allowed themselves to dream—and watch that dream get shoved around. Dragged real low. Sullied, even, by some of the shabbiest human behaviors, when that is not where a dream is supposed to go.

Dreams are genuinely precious. Dreams are pure hope—pure child. And who, really, can bear to carry anything so vulnerable into this world. I don't suppose anyone can, or does … without some kind of faith.

And what if the dream remains unanswered? Hopes go unfulfilled?

I begin to see, I would have made a terrible black person, like around the time of the Civil Rights marches. I begin to see the ways in which, as a white woman, I get to stay home.

Maybe this is what happens when someone inspired grabs hold of your heart and your hopes, especially after such a long time of national despair—I mean, torture, can America sink any lower—and says, “I'm asking you to believe in you.”

Someone like Barack, who—despite all the crap politicians go through, despite the crap Black Americans go through—somehow both Obamas manage to exemplify faith. Somehow Barack has managed to stay on-path through some truly cringe-worthy trashings—times that make me wonder if the Republicans can possibly do worse—without giving up, without trashing back. Okay, he tried trashing back a time or two, but his heart wasn't in it, it was pretty damn feeble, as trash-backs go.

Here's the hard thing: he may lose. And of course, that's what it looked like, during this agonizing … has it really only been a month?

I still don't have any answers. I can see what the Obamas have that I do not, and that is a working faith. One that carries hopes and dreams past the idea of wins and losses—and apparently, at the same time sustains your ability to go for it, in the present, as if it's a done deal.

Why, as a white woman, am I so invested. Why do I want to see a black President in the White House so much it scares me. Why is this the most exciting thing to come down the road since the Sixties …

In April, I had pure Obama-bliss. Looking back, boy, was that easy. Now we get down to it. To the ugliness. Racism, in all its profound discouragement. The swift-boat thinking that has so gripped the American mind. To hope anyway. To find one's way of working for Obama, towards the dream. Perhaps that's the key. Perhaps faith is the working-towards.

And of course, working-towards never stops.

People Get Ready

Zo — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:50:07 EDT

That Michelle. I was going to say, What a firecracker ... But she's so much more than that. Michelle is Authentic. And authenticity is so to be prized in this media-soaked day and age—I'm a writer, yet I find myself so in awe of this woman's qualities, I just fumble.

Who ever thought, in these cynical times, we'd have the privilege of seeing our own authentic concerns—the ones that speak to the genuine needs of the nation—not only represented in the public arena but embodied so beautifully, so well.

I'm watching the video I love most. Her hair is slicked back, her head wrapped in a striking, shining black ribbon, she wears a black top and no apparent makeup. "The girls are looking forward to the Fair," she's saying. "We're going to buy ... stuff on a stick!" Laughter. And audience and viewer alike are drawn in by this pure face, so full of character. We've never seen anyone like her.

Her speeches are miraculous. They speak to the hearts and minds of people who, I imagine, sometimes find themselves surprised to embrace this new kind of woman. Powerful, genuine, who, because she tells the truth, cannot fumble. There is no pose. There is only the person, Michelle.

Secretly, it's Michelle I really want to see in the White House. First Lady. Can you imagine! It's hard, it would mean so many kinds of historic dreams come true. But I think we'd better prepare ourselves. Michelle and the girls, the First Family—and oh, yeah, that Obama guy she married, too.