Quote from a Gen Y er re: Obama

[Hamlette]

I'll just put that out there. If Obama is done in by this whole Wright thing I am done with politics. I can't invest myself in something that is so sure to disappoint me time and time and time again. If the Democratic party decides that it can not risk nominating a great and decent African American man because his pastor is a scary African American man, it does not deserve power because it will have caved to what is worst about America. Racists on both sides of the divide will rejoice at having taking down the biggest threat to their belief system since Martin Luther King....and young people like myself will burrow deeper into to the holes we were in before Barack Obama dug us out.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/

Sums it up for me this week. I am SO sick of Wright.

Somebody tell me when its safe to watch the news again.

[laststeamtrain]

1. Hey kid. Just think of disappointment as a 'character builder'.

You can pick up your special participation medal around Thanksgiving.

[walldude]

7. Building Character

[tekisui]

2. It will pass.

It is not a fatal blow. Obama is raking in the Superdelegates, and looking good in the polling.

Do not despair, Obama will come out fine.

[Faygo Kid]

3. I'm a 1951 Boomer, and I agree.

I turn to retirement if the haters rule. I've seen enough; a patch of ground, a garden, some music, art, books and plays - good friends, an occasional glass of fine wine, an interesting game on the tube, a nice restaurant meal, donations to charity, PBS and a love of animals.

Let the world go by at that point. The tragedy is that I'm not young, and the Gen Yer is. And probably has to live through more members of the Bush family, and the degradation of the environment, and the destruction of the economy, and the splitting of this country like Karl Rove could only dream of.

Yep, I'm glad I'm a Boomer, but the Gen Yer is right.

[jkshaw]

13. fay, I'm a generation Great Depression, born in 1930,

and for the last 44 years I've lived in a deep red state in which my vote in almost every one of the presidential elections during those years meant absolutely nothing. But I nevertheless went to our local polling station with my family and cast my democratic vote. And I'll continue to stay involved in the campaigns for democratic candidates. I've lived for a candidate like Barack Obama who, to me, most exemplifies the qualities of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Stupid distractions will be tossed out there ad infinitum, but Obama will be our next president -- very likely without Utah's blessing.

And bless you, generation Y-er, you're wrong. Buck up, and hope Rev Wright doesn't have a twin somewhere.

You know fay, I babysat kids from your generation, so you're still a kid to me!

[Leftist Agitator]

15. Then I, born in 1981, must be a "grandkid", no?

:hi:

[jkshaw]

17. You bet, skypuddle!

[Leftist Agitator]

19. Just out of curiosity...

You grew up during the Great Depression, right?

Do you see any similarities between those days and our modern era?

I'm a student of history, and I see parallels a-plenty, but I'd like to hear what someone who lived through those difficult years has to say.

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. Well said. It's fucking sad that Obama is left on his own to say "THIS SHIT DOESN'T MATTER!"

The whole democratic leadership, and Clinton, should have had the balls to tell the media to go screw themselves and talk about something that actually matters; that what Obama's pastor says has as much relevance to an Obama presidency as my ass sweat has on the Nikkei.

[Triana]

18. If the Dem leadership, the lamestream media and most of all CLINTON...

..had ANY integrity at all, that's exactly what they'd do/say, Rabrrrr.

They've got no balls OR brains, apparently. Obama is the ONLY person amongst all of them with his eye on the REAL OBJECTIVES OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE and not just his own. And that is a rarity. It's a rarity that is often DESTROYED by the power-holders of the status-quo because he threatens that.

[sandnsea]

21. Not entirely on his own

McCaskill has been out there, Kerry, and earlier, Caroline Kennedy gave Suzanne Malveaux a little grief too.

[cloudythescribbler]

5. With or without Wright, be ready for endless disappointment, Gen Yer (Hamlette) ...

Politics never fails to disappoint. How the media could have been so craven w/W Bush in 2000, and NO LAWYER IN THE US stand up with a class-action suit on behalf of all the disenfranchised black voters in FL (when there was SO much struggle to get the Voting Rights Act passed), how the whole issue of the Greenhouse Effect, even by "progressives" could be SO catastrophically underestimated, and STILL IS TO THIS DAY & on and on.

But on the other hand, it's not like you can find a better planet at this point. As someone apt to be a real FAVE in these parts, Leon Trotsky, put it, you may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you ....

[Hamlette]

9. don't want to be misunderstood, the quote is not from me, I'm no Gen Y er

I'm a 58 year old boomer. Every four years I say I'm done. I stop watching the news on TV and say never again.

But, I'm one of those people who say while I can't bear the thought of my heart being broken again, what the hell. That's what hearts are for.

And the biggest sin in my family is not voting.

I'll be at the polls and I'll probably even contribute money to Clinton but I don't think there is any way in hell she can win.

Which is why I support Obama.

(On Wright, I'm totally lost. All pastors tell stupid, destructive lies. Like there is a god. So I don't see how Wright is any crazier than any believer.)

[xchrom]

6. lol -- THIS disappoints?

:eyes:

[vixengrl]

8. For the Gen Y-er--it's always been like that, but it's what we've got.

This alone shouldn't do him in--a stupid peripheral meaningless sideshow shouldn't be the issue--but politics is often superficial. The mission is, if you're willing to accept it, to care. Deeply. Let it hurt you. Let it matter. Read about things, think about them, and focus on issues yourself--because by not caring, you can't help it. We need every aware, awake and sane person we can get to make democracy work, and it won't if people who've been turned on and tuned in, just drop out. The job is to participate until you know you are participating not for your own sake, but everybody's. The story is: right now, it's politics TMZ-style, and it's been gossipy and dumb for so long because people haven't figured out how to silence the noise machine.

But there's a way out, and up. It isn't politics itself--it's the cheaters and bush-leaguers calling the shots that need taking down. Call "shame". Call "bullshit". Cast a light on the stupidity. Call a Congressperson on something you care about, sign a petition, support a candidate and stare down haters. It takes a little willingness to get hurt--but in terms of policies that affect people's lives--

It's worth it. It's *our* system, and we have to *own* it to fix it. We can't let disappointment take away what's ours--and it's irresponsible to give it away to the haters, players, and shitheads. Yes--we can. We just need to recognize "We" need to be a majority--a people, united. No backing out. No "burrowing".

(I don't really know when it's ever been totally safe to watch the news. I find there's always something that steams me--Wright, wrong or otherwise.)

[Nedsdag]

10. I stopped watching the news.

Now they're lauding Madame Hillary for going to a gas station, something she hasn't done since she left Arkansas.

I'm sick of this shit.

[thevoiceofreason]

11. There is but one cure.

Get up and start shoving whoever is in front of you! Get the line moving! Work until you are exhausted, then work 15 more minutes. Every day. Recharge 1/2 day on Sunday - no more. Never ever quit.

[Bensthename]

12. America may not be ready for a smart truthful President..

He will not lie just to make a story better
He will not swiftboat his opponent
He will not pander over a bad bill or policy just for votes.

He is a brilliant great man.. Maybe too good for us..
We may have to again settle for a warmonger or a liar. It is the American way nowa days I guess..

[Maddy McCall]

14. Poor babies...they'll have to deal with the same thing we all deal with sometimes.

Disappointment.

[scheming daemons]

20. Piss away the next generation of Democrats Maddy.... good tactic.....

:eyes:


You'll lose them for a generation.

[barack the house]

16. Don't despair a party for its future must invest in the youth vote and its loyal base. cheer up...

Always listen to novamradio.com and headonradionetwork.com you life will be great there. Wiser to Turn of TV news.

[alcibiades_mystery]

22. He's just learning what everyone in our society has to learn

Our politics is a monumental joke, and pretty much everything he's been taught about founding precepts of this country is simply smoke and mirrors for a vicious class struggle. And we ain't winning.

At the end of the day, Obama is just another politician. He's an interesting politician because various groups can invest his (black) body with a political desire (class struggle), whatever form it takes. But Obama is just Obama.

What we see from Clinton is the same old stupid game, the one we all have to get used to, the despicable game of loving a particular version of power above all other things. Where Obama serves as a kind of sounding board, the Clinton program is more traditional: it exudes its own power and eats everything that comes near it.

That's our range of choice in this "democracy," and this piddling and semi-fascist "Party" entity (nobody with a lick of sense or decency belongs to a political Party in late capitalist states). And certainly, the adjustment to reality must be harsh for all these young kids, who thought that because they reflected their own desires off a sounding board, things would actually change. The only change is through exit, exodus: absolute exit from the state system. Indeed, the utterly apathetic are far more political - in the true sense of the term - than the most dedicated and "informed" partisans.