Hand,
I don't think you've read much of what I've written. I not mad because Obama didn't disown Wright harshly enough. I'm mad that he disowned him *at all*! Wright was one of the only people the media was focusing on that made any fucking sense at all, and when Obama promised to not disown him I literally praised God. Then he disowned him as his pastor and spiritual mentor. He also flipped on decriminalization. And he flipped on public campaign financing. He started showing his true colors. He is a fucking liar... have some self-respect and don't make excuses for him.
I was hoping this could be a collegial discussion, you should calm down a bit.
First, on the Reverend Wright issue, I don't think it should've even been made a campaign issue. I'm tired of people cherry picking into someone's past for dirt; every elected official has some kind of skeleton in the closet. But his association with Reverend Wright
was made an issue, and the most damning soundbites from his sermons were thrust into the limelight. You may agree with Wright's opinions, and maybe even Obama agrees, but the vast majority of Americans don't. You do understand that the goal of a presidential campaign is to appeal to the largest number of people right?
He obviously didn't want to disown Wright, listen to his speech:
Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way
But the truth is, that isnt all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing Gods work here on Earth by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
Unfortunately, Wright wouldn't stop soaking up the media spotlight, and continued to release inflammatory statements over the next 3 months, prompting Obama to leave the church and choose another minister. Why should Obama have thrown himself on the cross for this guy with so much at stake for the country? There's millions of people out there losing their jobs, and thousands in Iraq fighting who don't give a flying fuck about Reverend Wright and what he has to say. Continuing to press Wright as an issue would be doing a disservice to everyone suffering right now.
Look, I'm a stone cold atheist, and I'd love to have a president who would just admit he's not religious. I get the feeling that Obama isn't that religious, but guess what, I sure as hell wanted Obama to say he's religious so he can get elected and reverse the fundamentalist direction this country is taking.
You said, "if he maintained his (supporting decriminalization) position, he'd never be elected, just like Ralph Nader and Ron Paul." That is just not true. Half if not more of the people in this country support decriminalization. The reason Ron Paul didn't get elected is not because of his positions. It is because the media and the two party monopoly that basically is in control of all major media did as much as they could to keep him out of the public eye. Most old people who aren't into youtube or whatever don't even know who the fuck Ron Paul is. Ask Ron why he didn't get elected, and he will share story after story of how the system is set up to keep people like him (even if they have popular ideas) from getting known and elected.
You're saying decrimalization is "what (Obama) would like to do." Bro... quit putting words in his mouth and listen to the man, will you? He said he is *against* decriminalization. He is already elected... he is not struggling for votes now. Still, his current position is that decriminalization is *not* something he wants to do. But you're saying he does want to. How can you jump on me for calling Obama a liar when apparently you don't even trust what he is currently saying about his being against decriminalization?!
He's a liar. He lies to you and me and he'll continue to. He's not going to do things much differently then Bush. What? Is my saying that heresy to you or something?
First, half of the nation does NOT support decriminalization. Who released that figure, NORML? Just look at the difference in gun death figures from the NRA and the Brady Campaign. Find an independent study.
Second, the two-party system does suck, but it's all we've got. I wish it could change, but it's been the same for a long time, and that's a lot of momentum to overcome. Voting for some far-leaning third-party candidate doesn't change the system. I just keep thinking back to 2000, when everyone was lambasting "compromise" and "choosing the lesser of two evils"--"Oh yeah, Gore and Bush are pretty much the same, I'm gonna vote for someone else!" The 2000 election proved above all else that not voting for the lesser of two evils means you're voting for the greater of two evils.
What you don't understand is that all these corrupt, lying fuckers have the same bosses... the banks and the corporations (which is why they're handing them cash hand over foot right now when the majority of Americans have said DON"T DO IT). More then half the "debate" between the major leaders of the Dems and Repubs are staged bro. I'm not even kidding. You have no fucking clue. Sure, Obama may close Guantanamo... but he's just going to put those prisoners somewhere else. Sure, he may give them some more rights to a hearing then Bush did... but he's not going to give them anything close to the trial all humans deserve... trust me. Just watch and see. He's not going to end the war in Iraq, he's just going to call "combat" troops by another name. Just watch. It's all about "producing" and "manufacturing" change without really having to change much. Just open your eyes, man.
Someone once said, "Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive." On the issue of campaign financing, I agree, it sucks that special interests carry so much sway. But unless there's someone who can step in with a bill that levels the playing field for everyone, there's not a whole lot you can do. If you want to win, you have to get as much money as possible, playing by the rules as they've been laid out, because that's exactly what the other guy is gonna do. Remember when Ron Paul was getting all that flack for getting campaign contributions from Neo Nazi organizations and white supremacists? He made the argument that even though he didn't agree with their positions, he shouldn't have to return the contributions. I strongly agree. Does that put a dent in your love for Ron Paul?
Anyway, you asked, "... if you loved everything Ron Paul stood for, and you could guarantee his election to the presidency if he backed off on his legalization stance--at least during the campaign--would you do it?"
Answer: No... anyone who sacrifices his principles to get elected is corrupt. That would mean he has to lie to people in order to get their votes. Listen to what your fucking saying!!! Man, if you think that is the right thing to do your just as fucking corrupt as the rest of them. Neither McCain nor Obama is one of them, but there *are* candidates that don't lie for votes. And its only when people like you will find them and gather the balls to vote for them that real change will come.
I could read you a laundry list of things that Ron Paul, and every other elected official has flip flopped on. For example, Ron Paul is for free trade, but he's against the NAFTA superhighway. In his 1988 presidential bid, as a Libertarian Party candidate, he favored the elimination of the border patrol - a stand from which he now runs away!
All politicians lie, flip-flip and obfuscate. Get over it. We don't live in a fantasy gumdrop world where everyone does what they say, and says what they're going to do. The most we can hope for is that Obama will have the political capital to make good on what he's said he's going to do, and to push less popular issues that he didn't have the luxury of supporting during the campaign.