Senator Barack Obama of Illinois is the next president of the United States. While at the polls today I made a decision to leave the section for the office of president blank on my ballot, I am nonetheless excited to see what this man will bring to the country as president.

On the immediate level Obama represents a victory for equal rights around the world. Not only is he the first black president, but he courageously made a point to recognize gays in the third paragraph of his historical speech.

He is a politician who distinctly lacks the machismo that has so long plagued the men of politics. He went out of his way to downplay the wealth of our nation and the most amazing military force in the world praising instead four particular ideals: “democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.”

Now, I have certain objections to the ideals he listed: Democracy is just an imperfect route to institutionalizing ideals. Liberty often actually engenders a general freedom from responsibility or ideals. Opportunity, as an ideal, engenders the idea of upward mobility, which essentially supports the paradigm of the class state. And hope is not an ideal by itself until it is attached to something particularly vital to a healthy society. While I wouldn’t praise these ideals myself, I’m glad to see a man concerning himself with the spirit of the nation, rather than the power of a nation.

Most of all, I was impressed by Obama’s speech, and even struck with a smidgen of regret that I did not vote for him, when he made a very simple confession: “…and we know that government can’t solve every problem.” I observed a glimmer of something more in this man than a stark politician.

He went on to say, “So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other.”

We all know that Presidents cannot enact a spirit of patriotism or service and responsibility like a legal mandate, but, like he said, government can’t solve everything. It really does give me hope to see the President Elect of the United States of American take a step up,l not only as the nation’s next president, but as an inspirational leader who sees beyond politics and reaches out to the heart of his country’s people.

Perhaps, this really is the dawning of a new age, but only time will tell.

Today is the day proceeding Election Day and there is no time where patriotic sentiment runs higher. A competition arises between presidential candidates as to their nationalist pride. And a great argument is engendered among citizens as to what vote will be most benefit the country.

Senator John McCain’s nationalist slogan “Country First” implies invidiously that Senator Barack Obama won’t put the country first–as if Obama’s proposed “Change” will be a strike against the country. Obama claims otherwise, that his “Change” will strengthen the country.

But I’m rather put off by all the pageantry and this contest for Mr. Patriarch of America. I tired of listening to these unctuous politicians and their meretricious monologues about “this great country.” How can any man look out earnestly upon this society and be proud?

How could you overlook the fact that over 2.25 million Americans are incarcerated (2006)? How could you overlook the fact that 63% percent of American children do not grow up with both biological parents How could you not realize what this statistic indicates about the health of families? How could you miss the fact that 9.5% U.S. adults–that’s about 18.8 million people, suffer from a depressive illness , where millions and millions more self-medicate themselves with illicit drugs or alcohol? How could you dismiss the fact that over 32,000 Americans commit suicide in a single year , even where many suicides go unreported due the stigma our culture attaches to it.

Photo by qwrrty

Is it really rational to get so worked up with anger and hate over this presidential election?

We’re fast approaching Election Day, but I’m not rallied behind one candidate or the other. I’m not struck with anticipation for Nov. 4. Would it be a crime to say I’m rather ambivalent?

Presidential Candidate John McCain even visited my home town, Durango, Colorado, just a week ago. It was the first time a presidential candidate had visited Durango in 48 years, but I really didn’t feel the need to hear him speak. What was he going to say that I hadn’t already heard before?

I could have marched outside the gates in protest with an Obama sticker on my forehead. I could have made myself a fancy McCain sign and cheered in the crowd. But I just can’t buy into that nonsense. How absolutely foolish all these folks look in their big white McCain/Palin sweaters and in their SUVs with “Obama/Biden ‘08″ bumper stickers. What kind of persuasive tactic is that anyway? It’s not an appeal to reason, that’s for sure.

Politics is this big absurdity. We all recognize it. We all know how dirty and unsavory it is. It’s about men with money and connections soliciting the vote. They’re not appealing to any noble standard of truth or harmony or righteousness. We don’t vote for a politicians because they are honest, or because we trust them. Its a big game–a tantalizing theatrical performance–where each player appeals to as many people as possible while revealing the least about what they really think. The candidates hand out promises in the form of tax-cuts and energy policies, like handing out candy to children and asking for their favor. In return, American’s vote for the man who promises them the most sugar and the actual direction of the nation as a whole is an afterthought.

As much as the big two candidates stress their differences, really, for all practical intents and purposes, they’re leading American in the same direction–the way it’s been headed for a long time. They only have trivial differences about the best manner to get to the same destination. Obama might offer government health insurance to citizens, which is just one additional step in many taken in the past toward a more socialist government. But McCain wants to establish a New New Deal, but this time instead of socializing the highway construction like Roosevelt did in the 1930s, we’ll be socializing the construction of nuclear power plants. In addition, both candidates backed the final draft of the bailout plan to spend $700 billion in tax payer dollars to rescue the financial industry, which gave the U.S. government partial ownership of many major banks.

McCain and Obama are both behind the continuing expansion of government. When I first heard Obama speak of “Change” I fantasized for a moment that he really meant to challenge the current paradigm of growing government. But I’ve found he represents the same paradigm with a new face and some unoriginal ideas. He’s just a politician. His message and his campaign are not revolutionizing politics. The supposed “fundamental change” he says he is going to bring this country, just isn’t fundamental enough. It’s not fundamental at all! But at least he is straight-forward about his intent to increase government spending.

McCain still speaks of the dying ideals of conservatism, and if I felt he really meant them, perhaps I would even vote for him. I like the “I’m-not-going-to-continue-to-throw-money-at-a-problem” McCain. I like the “freeze-government-spending” and the “I’m-a-Federalist” McCain. But Republicans like McCain will hail free markets, small government and power to the states when everything is fine, and when there’s a predicament like 9/11 or the housing crisis they swipe up unwarranted power and abuse it without a second thought and we end up with the Bailout Plan and the PATRIOT Act.

Whichever way you vote, this country heads down the same path. This is no revolution! Despite this, tensions run especially high between opposing parties. The streets are loose with blue and red zealots. Neighborhoods are split apart, marked overtly by yard signs that might as well read, “We don’t serve blacks.” Idiots from each faction hurl stupid insults at each other. What madness it is to believe so whole-heatedly in any politician! These people look and act like buffoons.

Photo by Bob Bobster

A family divided.

I’m not likely to vote for president in 2008. I’m sure there are folks out their who will hear this and gasp as if it’s an utter sacrilege, but I really think that abstention is the only respectable decision. It’s undignified to cast a vote for the lesser of two evils, especially when they are practically one in the same. And I’m definitely not going take part in this ridiculous political warfare, that divides families and communities.

When it comes down to it, politics is a very limited realm. Only so much can be accomplished with money and power. There is so much more that we can accomplish outside of political systems. It’s time to forgo the presidential rallies; let’s reunite with our neighbors and forget our party affiliations. Let’s take a personal investment in our communities. Let’s have an affect on the people in our lives. This is where real tangible progress is made. In the smiles and the warm embraces of those we love. Let’s have faith in our own power to bring good into the lives of the people nearest us. Whatever we do, we cannot place our faith in politics.

A month or so ago I received a call to action email warning against the governments ever- increasing interference with the “American ideal” of the free market economy. The author warned that the United States government is ever approaching an “anti-thesis to freedom” in the form of communist socialism. The email was specifically criticizing the government’s recent rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a subject appropriate for the author–an ambitious capitalist who operates a Down Payment Assistant program. He drew an illusion to each act of government interference to the loss of a star on the flag. I made the following reply:

Photo by fauxto_digit

The fist of power so-commonly represented on the hands of monuments to our forefathers.

Dear Sir,

Perhaps, you’ve yet to realize that government does not exist separate from economic systems. It is in the state’s best interest to maximize, or at least stabilize, the economy, in order to secure a position as a world power. The government must interfere with laissez-faire capitalism (as you can see by the recent failure of several high-profile financial institutions) otherwise it collapses in upon itself in due time. A free market economy is volatile on a large scale and can only survive with a government entity to manipulate and regulate it. As markets grow, the government will have to interfere more often, and there is a necessary decrease in freedoms.

But what would you prefer? Would you prefer to live in a powerful nation or a free nation? Do you see what happens to free nations, which are not powerful? Take Tibet for an example, a country whose government is in exile and has been occupied by a powerful country, China. Now, I imagine you would rather lose all of the stars on the American flag, than loose the benefits of being an American and live in Tibet. I on the other hand, would prefer to live in a free nation because this is the only right way to live.

The pursuit of power requires the sacrifice or freedoms. Often, it is justified with the intent to garner more freedoms over the long-term,but over the long-term it is obvious that this pursuit of power among nations becomes a perpetual course with no end in sight. You see, when one nation has claimed superiority over others, other nations strive to meet or surpass that superiority. The superior state must then protect and improve its economic status, lest it loose power. And even those countries that have relatively little power, are forced to pursue power in order to protect themselves to some degree. The struggle for power is an unending process, and the freedoms sacrificed along the way are not likely to be returned to the people.

And the whole bit about communism is so out-dated. I certainly am no communist sympathizer, but if you think that the United States government is going to think twice about a decision to abridge freedoms in the name of ensuring economic power, you’re wrong. The state only exists to perpetuate itself. Concerns for rights and freedoms of the people are always secondary. It’s just that the Communists were more upfront about it.

Sincerely,

Preston Benson

Photo by Barack Obama

Here's an energetic group of young change-makers in Arkansas registering voters to benefit democracy--no bias whatsoever.

The front page of USA Today reported today on a record-breaking season for voter registration as we approach the 2008 presidential election. It was reported that the Democrats gained 800,000 voters, while the Republicans lost 300,000 voters. Some would call it a victory for Democracy.

The leagues of folks with their clipboards and their registration forms stand just outside the door to your favorite bakery. They stand proud and upright as if they are doing a service for democracy, but this is no philanthropist’s mission. These people are strategically targeting you. They pose behind kindly smiles, but they aren’t just aiming to get you registered, they’re not pining for true democracy, they’re aiming to sell their party.

Expectedly, the article in USA Today specifically focused on numbers in terms of party affiliation. There was no report on the number of independent voters registered. Who the bleep cares about the independents, that disloyal backstabbing bunch, right? The ones who actually think for themselves and don’t subscribe to any political dogma. The ones who will not sell their soul and will not sell their vote.

The racket of the dual party system invaded the mainstream media long ago. They’ve long succeeded in delegitimizing independent voices. Let’s be honest with ourselves and recognize that this isn’t a democracy, this is a mob war. Let’s not fool ourselves. These men and women with their clipboards want their respective mob bosses to win. They carouse about friendly neighborhoods searching for a few unwary chaps to join the gang. The Democrats set up base camp on liberal college campuses, and the Republicans conduct voter registration in their church parking lots. They’re not interested in encouraging a more educated vote. They just want you to take a blood oath and declare your party affiliation.

Before I go on, I must admit there are a few folks who actually mean well. In fact, I have a good friend who took a clipboard and registration forms down to Main Avenue, and I know he’s not rooting for one party or the other. He explained to me that he just wanted to provide people the opportunity to vote. I do believe his intentions were noble, but I must still respectfully object to any campaign for voter registration on principle.

Here’s what I think: If a person doesn’t have the time or motivation to register to vote, they most definitely don’t have time to know what’s going on in politics. Isn’t that logical? God knows, some of us have wonderful lives outside of the political mob scene. Thank goodness for that. And thank goodness there are folks out there who don’t feel the need to impose their reckless opinions upon others.

Here’s to all of you unregistered folks out there. Thank you for standing strong. There’s no shame in abstaining from business that you have no interest in. It would certainly be a shame if you were just filling in the ovals because someone told you to. Thank you for fending off the mob and their incessant racket. We’d have a far more democratic country if more people minded their own business like you.

What is truly shameful, is the man or woman who has never given careful thought to life or liberty and out of weakness has submitted his or her independent mind to the will of one mob or the other. These people, in compromising themselves, have effectively disrespected and spit in the face of every individual who thinks for himself. What is more contemptible, though, is the arrogant man or woman who uses his vote ignorantly to impose his moral opinion upon others. This type of voter is an oppressor.

''...and damn the rest!'' as it would be logically concluded.

Today was Patriot Day. It was the seventh memorial of September 11th when thousands of Americans perished in the World Trade Center attacks. It is a day when teacher’s tell their children to where red white and blue. It is a day when the pledge of allegiance is made a specifically important part of the daily events and is, perhaps, followed by a moment of silence.

It is a day designed to unite American citizens, despite our diversity, in a blind celebration of nationalism. Together we celebrate the terrorist acts that the American government has committed with impunity. We celebrate our privilege as a powerful nation and our ability to force our will upon other sovereign nations. We celebrate our ability to force our corrupt paradigm of government upon other nations so we may have power over them. We celebrate our power to force “liberty” and “freedom” along with our valueless culture and our ailing society upon other nations. We celebrate as we dismantle vibrant and independent societies so they are open to be exploited by the global economy.

And all the while we wonder how anyone in the world could hate us. How could anyone hate us? We are the United States of America! Every other nation envies us. Every other nations just wishes to live up to our greatness!