2008 Woodie Awards
Election wars: A new hope
Issue date: 2/7/08
I check my pulse. It's still there. Sixty-three beats a minute, fairly normal. I'm alive. I look at my driver's license. Yes, I'm still 21. And here's my J-Card so I'm absolutely still in college. All right, so I'm a 21-year old college student with a working pulse and I'm not really inspired by Barack Obama? What's wrong with me?
Here's what: I think social change in this country originates from powerful popular movements, and I would place myself firmly in the Howard Zinn camp of believing in the power of powerless people. I believe in change, just not the idea that change can start with politics. So I resent the implication that a generation or a person disenchanted with politics simply needs to be shown the way. And I especially resent being told that by someone who is a politician through and through.
All of the candidates currently running in the presidential primaries are beholden to party politics and donors, no exceptions. Obama claims he isn't beholden to major corporations. Well just what is Oprah then?
But more important than being tied to donors, Mr. Obama is tied to the Democratic Party and as such will never convince me that somehow, in some way he's not a "Washington insider." The keynote speaker at the 2004 DNC, a Democratic senator from a solidly Democratic state and a potential Democratic presidential candidate is not on the outside. He's the dead center.
But I'm not hopeless. Beneath the sarcasm and vitriol, there's a living, breathing 21-year-old college student, remember? And there is a (possible) candidate whom I support, about whom I could get really excited for the first time: Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
His policies are pretty revolutionary: He's strongly advocated taxing traffic on major New York City throughways to reduce congestion and fuel emissions. He's visited Europe to explore expanding the use of bikes as an environmentally friendly alternative to motor vehicles and is developing a city-wide bike sharing program to that end.
Here's what: I think social change in this country originates from powerful popular movements, and I would place myself firmly in the Howard Zinn camp of believing in the power of powerless people. I believe in change, just not the idea that change can start with politics. So I resent the implication that a generation or a person disenchanted with politics simply needs to be shown the way. And I especially resent being told that by someone who is a politician through and through.
All of the candidates currently running in the presidential primaries are beholden to party politics and donors, no exceptions. Obama claims he isn't beholden to major corporations. Well just what is Oprah then?
But more important than being tied to donors, Mr. Obama is tied to the Democratic Party and as such will never convince me that somehow, in some way he's not a "Washington insider." The keynote speaker at the 2004 DNC, a Democratic senator from a solidly Democratic state and a potential Democratic presidential candidate is not on the outside. He's the dead center.
But I'm not hopeless. Beneath the sarcasm and vitriol, there's a living, breathing 21-year-old college student, remember? And there is a (possible) candidate whom I support, about whom I could get really excited for the first time: Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
His policies are pretty revolutionary: He's strongly advocated taxing traffic on major New York City throughways to reduce congestion and fuel emissions. He's visited Europe to explore expanding the use of bikes as an environmentally friendly alternative to motor vehicles and is developing a city-wide bike sharing program to that end.
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Bonnie Cohen
posted 2/07/08 @ 11:58 PM EST
Well Jackie, you've got to be kidding!I Or I guess you just have spent too much time in the "big apple." As someone who has actually sat in Professor Zinn's class back in the day, you could not be more wrong! And although you clearly have a right to your opinion, perhaps that is the reason many seem not to care and true corruption flourishes. (Continued…)
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