Yes, I think we can all agree it was a brilliant speech.  Yes, I agree with Jon Stewart that it was perhaps the first time a politician spoke about racial issues to the American people as if we are all adults.  And, if you didn’t see it last night, you should also watch this brilliant exchange (Kenny G is evil).  And yes, I’ll be happy to vote for the man in November, and I’m sure he’ll be better in the job than the current occupant.  And yes, I’ll take him handily over Hillary any day.

But I still don’t have Obama-mania.  Sorry, America.  The one thing that G.W. Bush has accomplished in eight years is to lower the bar even lower than it already was for our acceptance of not only politicians, but of the entire political system as well.  This last President has been so bad, and so stupid, and so incompetent, and so inarticulate, that anyone who can string together a sentence seems like a blessed savior in comparison (go back to the Messiah podcast for further discussion on this subject).

Whenever I happen to accidentally stumble upon one of these canned campaign public appearances (I certainly wouldn’t watch a ‘town hall’ meeting on purpose), I can’t help but ask myself, “what are all those people cheering for?”  Does the American public have no collective memory whatsoever?  Does no one remember how much Bill Clinton was hailed in the same way as being the savior that would lead us out of the first Bush wilderness?  Does no one listen to every single person who has ever run for public office promise to “change” things, to “restore” honor or dignity or whatever, or to work for “the people,” etc.?   How many times has this been promised, and how many times has it happened?

Approximately zillions, and exactly zero.  There is no collective memory at all, apparently.  Refer back to the podcast about education reform for further discussion on the separation of learning from action.

Candidate Obama is coming to Portland this Friday morning, and I am tempted to go see him, if only as a purely sociological study.  The excitement over who is going to be the next President is an interesting phenomenon to me, because it is the entire system which is the problem, not those who run it.  How many of these corporate-driven elections are we going to have to suffer through before the masses realize this?

Most of the people of the world, including those here in America, allow themselves to be lied to; they allow themselves to become part of the hype machines for the various candidates, as well as the entire system, and they allow the moral turpitude of the current republican system to continue.

Why?  Because cheering for a candidate at a rally is much easier than actually thinking about your role in the system.

We all ought to be paying close attention to the very arcane and anti-democratic practices highlighted in this election cycle; the caucuses, the “super delegates,” the order of the various state primaries, the massive amounts of money being raised and spent (on what, exactly?) and the entire electoral college, as well.  All of these things work in conjunction to thwart true democracy.  All of these things work in conjunction to keep the most interesting and worthwhile candidates from even considering a run.  All of these things work in conjunction to give the more rural, and hence the more conservative, areas more electoral weight than those areas where most people actually live.

We need no more than three months for the entire election campaign.  One month for the primaries and two months for the general election.  And the primaries should all be held on the same day (no more vying to be the first, no more special treatment for Iowa and New Hampshire), and they ought to all be ballot votes; no more caucases or delegates or whatever.  You choose the candidate you want, they go on to be in the general election.  No delegates, no conventions, no electoral college, no more crap.

Obama will make a far better President than any other of the current candidates, no doubt.  But really, is it that impossible to imagine a country without a President?  Is it that difficult to imagine a country where the democracy is much more direct, where we don’t go off to fight foolish wars without serious, national debate, where torture and illegal wiretaps are high crimes against the people, or where money is forced to serve us, not vice versa?  Is it really that hard to imagine a better way?

Why?

And is it really that easy to get excited about over-hyped half-measures, like “campaign finance reform,” or over-hyped corporate candidates, like Barack Obama?

Why?

My main argument in life is this: change happens because of you, not to you.  Barack Obama will, indeed, represent change of many different kinds when or if he is elected to be the 44th President of the United States.  But will he alone change anything about the underlying nature of American democracy?  No.  Will he alone end the corruption of the current system, or fix Social Security, or give us national healthcare, or insure that stupid and meaningless invasions are no longer waged?  No.  Will he alone be able to adequately atone for the atrocity that we allowed to occur in Iraq?  No.

President Obama can, indeed, represent us.  But he cannot change us, and he cannot save us from our own apathy or stupidity.  And he can’t do anything about our feckless love of trite hype while there are real issues of great importance to care about.

One good speech does not a revolution make.