On Barack Obemo

Note: This is a guest post

Since my politics are socialist and I live in the U.S., I’m basically up shit creek when it comes to electing a presidential nominee. My only option seems to be strategically voting for democrats who might be able to pull things leftward (although from where we’re sitting right now, this pull would probably still leave us right of center). I’m confident that a democrat will be in the Oval Office come November (just follow the corporate money). However, I’m not confident that this democrat will come close to doing even a pale impression of FDR if his name is Barack Obama. Lately, the paranoid style of my American politics has me wondering if Obama is even as liberal as John McCain on some issues.

Entertain an analogy with me. You’re probably at least somewhat familiar with the band Dashboard Confessional. I saw Dashboard in 2000 when Chris Carabba screamed infidelities in a tiny venue near the University of Pittsburgh. I remember loving this newcomer to the independent scene. I also remember one perspicacious friend telling me that Carabba would soon be MTV-huge. Two short years later we saw the band again at a festival in Louisville, and returned despising Dashboard Confessional. Why? Because we were surrounded by swarms of tweens and teens singing along to Carabba’s emotastic lyrics.

Which brings me to the tune Barack Obama’s been singing. Obama’s campaign feels like a Dashboard Confessional concert: a man on stage passionately stirring up youthful, romantic, idealistic emotions with insubstantial words. Although by now this is a hackneyed observation about Obambastic Barackstar, I haven’t found any evidence against it. What I have found evidence against is the absurd claim that a Barackracy would look exactly like a Hillacracy because their agendas are, for all intents and purposes, the same. This claim is truly an Obamination.

Case in point: Barack is running an ad in Ohio called “Enough” which many of you have probably seen:

Contrast this ad with one that Hillary is running in Ohio:

I think the quality of these commercials actually reflects the quality of the respective candidates. Where Barack appeals to pathos by talking about the negative effects of globalization in a locally owned restaurant while proposing tax breaks for companies that stay at home, Hillary appeals to logos by raising a series of interconnected socioeconomic issues while her agenda appears in text on the screen. Not only does Hillary’s commercial ask its audience to critically think about the relationship between these issues, its convincing. It tells me not to go all emo on March 4th.

So to all of you Barackatoos, Barackingbirds, Baracknids, Baractopuses, Obamazons, Obamafiosi, and Baracker Spaniels Barrackupied with your Obamage, awake from your Obamatose Obamania, step out of Obamanation, drop the Obamaly, quit falling for the Barackismo, and vote with your Primary mind, not your Obamamatic feelings. Vote Hillary, not bleeding-heart liberal.

Sincerely,

kbama