Embarrassed for my demographic group

With hopes that the folks at BuzzFeed won't be mad at me for incorporating their graphic, here's their take on how this week's election would have gone if only Caucasian males had voted.

Click on the image to see a larger version.  For the full analysis and BuzzFeed story, go here.

Considering that I voted for and donated to and am a staunch supporter of President Obama, I definitely do not belong in my demographic group.

Further, given the sheer number of stupid, offensive, homophobic, and anti-woman positions that are key parts of the Republican platform, I'm legitimately embarrassed for my demographic group.

Having said all that, my more considerate self, the one that has always stopped me from being a truly successful columnist, the one that knows the world is not black and white but rather far more complex, insists I note that I know many good Caucasian men who voted for Romney after considering a wide range of issues.  I don't agree with their choice, but I know them to be good people.  I find their decision as puzzling as they, no doubt, find mine.

Obama's speech tonight

provided a good demonstration of many of the reasons I will be voting for him in November. That he's intelligent and can speak well go without saying, and though both things are very, very important to me, neither is enough of a reason to elect someone to be the President of the United States.

What is enough reason is that I genuinely feel that he believes in roughly the same vision of America as I do: an America where hard work and sacrifice can give you a good chance at your dreams, an America that takes care of all of its citizens, an America that is the best country humanity has yet managed, an America that is willing to tackle and overcome the big, hard problems that face us today.

I also think that there's a small chance that at least part of Obama's soul remains; getting elected will fix that political deficiency, of course, but for now he hasn't been in the system long enough to have lost it all.

It's fun to talk about the historical nature of Obama's candidacy, and I've certainly done it, but you know what? I don't give a rat's ass what color he is. I don't care about his age or the size of his bank account. I don't care about any of those aspects of McCain either.

Bruce Springsteen once remarked about Ronald Reagan that it seemed to him that a whole lot of people's dreams didn't mean much to Reagan. I believe that's the case with most politicians. I genuinely believe that's not true of Obama. I think the dreams of Americans do matter to him, and that's the final reason I'll mention tonight that Barack Obama is my candidate for President of the United States.

I'll do my best not to use this blog to beat the political drum very often, but earlier this evening Obama inspired me, and I had to write a little something about it.

Tomorrow night, I'll ease the brain strain by telling you how I felt about the Vin Diesel flick, Babylon A.D.

A damn fine speech

WARNING: I generally avoid politics in public forums and even at parties where I don't know the guests well. Stop reading now if you don't want a glimpse of my political feelings.

If you read on, you've been warned.

Yesterday, Barack Obama delivered an amazing speech in Philadelphia. Even if you saw it, I encourage you to read it, which you can do here. As a writer, someone who loves words, I am incredibly impressed. In this address, Obama confronted multiple serious issues, he refused to back down from facing the problems and conflicts some see in his relationship with his former pastor, and he treated us like adults. At the end, he even managed to be genuinely inspirational.

I consider Lincoln's writings to be the best of all I've read of the works of American presidents--a reading I must hasten to add is nowhere near complete. Lincoln was simply a superb writer.

Obama, who from the few reports I've seen did the first and final drafts of this speech, is positively Lincolnesque in this work.

On a more personal note, when the father who gave me my last name--not my birth father, but still the man I knew as my father--died when I was ten years old, I went to work mowing lawns so I could help out my family. It took me five hours to mow, rake, and edge a lawn. My clients paid me $2.50. Minimum wage at the time was $1.60 per hour. I've worked ever since. I've been broke, not anywhere near as poor as many but certainly not well off, and now I live well, better than I had any right ever to expect. America gave me the chance to create this better life.

I teared up at the end of Obama's speech, because I want my America to be one in which hard work gets you ahead; in which none of the stupid, superficial stuff--the color of your skin or the way you worship or the gender of your sexual partners--affects your chances; in which we strive together to lift up all of us; in which we use the might and the greatness of this most powerful of nations to confront the huge, frightening problems facing us--and overcome them.

God, how much I want that country.

I don't believe Obama--or any single candidate--can deliver it. I believe we can be that country only if the vast majority of us decide we want to be it and are willing to work long and hard to create it.

I am, though, coming to believe, against all my cynicism about political candidates, against the wisdom of my experience of repeated disappointment at the behavior of our country's leaders, that maybe, just maybe, Obama genuinely shares my desire and can inspire others to do the same. Wouldn't that be wonderful?