Iowa gives us hope, which something we haven’t felt in quite a while: hope for America’s political future.
Our pick won, handily, as an underdog — with record-setting turnout, and in a state whose demographics (older, very white) do not favor his natural constituency (younger, more diverse).
The GOP, on the other hand, picked a raving nutbird fundamentalist who is unabashedly anti-gay, anti-evolution, and anti-choice, and frankly we couldn’t be happier about that, either. By pushing the party to the right and picking those hotbutton issues, they’ll drive more centrist nominal Republicans to cross the aisle in November.
And just maybe, wouldn’t it be nice to have a president who can speak again, who can actually lead without smirking, and who embodies not a life borne of generation upon generation of inherited privilege, but one of uniquely American opportunity? From Obama’s victory speech:
Hope! Hope is what led me here today, with a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas and a story that could only happen in the United States of America. Hope is the bedrock of this nation; the belief that our destiny will not be written FOR us, but BY us, by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be. That is what we started here in Iowa, and that is the message we can now carry to New Hampshire and beyond.
But go listen (YouTube link in the “won” link above); this starts at about 12:20 into the video. And then consider donating to the cause; I believe 2008 will be the most important election for some time to come, and that Obama represents the best choice of the available candidates. No Republican need apply at all (unless you like the idea of anti-evolution, anti-gay and anti-choice positions; the status-quo in Iraq; the escalation of the “wars” on drugs and obscenity, more regressive taxation, no health care solution, and immigration policies that make Bush look smart), and the only viable Democrats are Obama, Clinton, and Edwards. I do not believe Clinton can win in November, and I am not comfortable with her lapdog behavior during her Senate career anyway. Edwards feels thin to me, but he’d do in a pinch. Obama, however, feels like the real deal, and he needs support to power past Clinton and the rest in the remaining primary states.
So give. It needn’t be much, since it DOES add up quickly. But do it. We did, and for the first time ever. Go here. Forgo a night’s bar tab, or a good dinner out, or a bottle of fine wine. You won’t notice, but the campaign will, and it just might help the right guy get to 1600 Pennsylvania.