living in portland is feeling lately like living in a sea of optimistic, idealistic obama-supporters. their enthusiasm for his rhetoric can make a person second-guess herself. thank goodness that not everyone in the media is infatuated with obama or a clinton-hater (maureen dowd, i loved you, but we're over). more and more, i am finding paul krugman to be the voice of reason among all the demonization and idolization being thrown around.let's talk policy. read paul's latest column.
i prefer a president who has progressive yet actionable policy plans, no matter how entrenched in politics-as-usual she might seem on the outside. many of clinton's policies are a return to the idea of a government responsible for taking care of its citizens (à la new deal policies) and in our present economic situation, that might not be such a bad thing. i find this to be a compelling position. re-tooling the system to serve a greater purpose is change, and i'd like to think it is at least somewhat realistic.
(and, yes, i secretly hope that a return to new-deal style government during economic gloominess might again lead to the creation of governmental support for arts outreach like the federal theatre project. art is critical to keeping us in touch with what is human, particularly when times get tight and, as a whole society, we start switching out of "thrive" mode into "survive" mode.)
2 comments:
I'm glad you brought this to light, because I hadn't thought of those aspects. I am a supporter of Senator Obama's, mainly because I have been since he opened his mouth at the Democratic convention in '04. I have reservations about Senator Clinton in that she's a bit too tied up in corporate interests and also seems to float far too close to the middle ground, even conservatively at times. Of course, when it comes down to November, whoever is on the ticket repping the Democrats is getting my vote.
i think obama hasn't been around on the national scene long enough for us to know how he'd really hold up against corporate interests if he actually served a whole term in the senate without spending most of his time campaigning for president. looking at policies, i think obama is often as or more moderate than clinton. and, to be honest, something about the way he couches his family values rhetoric makes me quite nervous that he's actually the more socially conservative of the democratic candidate -- which is a huge concern of mine since i am not in a man+woman+kids household. that said, i too will support whomever is on the democratic ticket come fall. :)
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