In the overall scheme of things it is hard to describe just how very little politics matters in my life.
And I think it all stems back to a political science class I took at St. Clair Community College in the late sixties.
Located in Port Huron, Michigan, SC Four was a feeder school for the state college system in Michigan and taken at that level was not a bad place to hang your hat, so to speak.
I entered community college after returning from Europe and getting my high school diploma at night school. I joined the pregnant girls and the guys that married them in night school because the principal of the high school I attended before I split to discover myself would not let me back in the regular day school regimen. Something about me being more mature and all that, he said. And while I never quite forgave him for that decision, it didn’t take me long to figure out he had made the right one.
So I got my High School diploma at night school and moved on to community college as a way to eventually get into Michigan State University, the very same school that Magic Johnson attended.
This was an interesting period of my life. Against my better judgment I moved back into my parents house after being in Europe for several months and got my diploma. Then I went to community college for 2 years in order to get my life back to some sort of normal. I even became the student government president during that time period and reveled in all the doors that position opened to me. My pony tail hair had become short and for all practical purposes I was as straight as a string.
But other things were working inside of me and it wasn’t long before my mind began to wander and I moved on from there to Lansing, Michigan where MSU was located.
However, I am getting way ahead of myself.
While at community college, one of my very first classes was Poly Sci 101 taught by a teacher named Stephen Rubel. The very first class I remember him stating with all the authority vested upon a community college teacher that political parties would very soon become a misnomer as each candidate would eventually have to do what was demanded of them by whatever circumstance the US found itself in. That it really wasn’t a democrat or republican thing at all but that the candidate that looked best on TV would be the one who would win and so forth.
Bear in mind that this was before everything about a campaign and running for any public office would become all about consultants, media analysts and focus groups. Not to mention political action committees, the silent majority, the religious right and liberal left.
What brought this all home to me was an e-mail link I received the other day from Denny Hatch who is an internet target marketing guru. The link said:
Electile Dysfunction: The inability to become aroused over any of the choices for president put forth by either party in the 2008 election year. —Ed Zuckerman, Proprietor of “Government Policy Newslinks” to Denny Hatch, e-mail, January 23, 2008
And in light of all the “E D” commercials we have to put up with on television, I thought this was hilarious. So much so I got a good belly laugh and then realized I couldn’t agree with it more. There is no Camelot candidate for us to choose this year and hasn’t been one for some time. Maybe they got caught in the last trickle down wave from Washington and are still trying to find their way back into mainstream America.
While thinking about all this I stumbled across a Bill Kinnon post on his Achievable Ends blog which features the Barak Obama “Yes We Can” speech from the New Hampshire primary. “Yes We Can” is a music video by Will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas incorporating this speech. It features a host of celebrity cameos, including Scarlett Johansson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Nick Cannon and Herbie Hancock.
Suffice it to say I was intrigued by the concept and have to believe that a lot of votes are being directed his way due to this video. Little did my Poly Sci professor know how much his idea of the “television” candidate would be realized in 2008 when he made his remarks to that class of 1970.
At this point I have no idea who will get my vote. On my way to work I saw a pickup truck with a big poster on the back about Ron Paul who I guess is a grass roots presidential candidate. And knowing what the press does with anyone who runs for public office, I wonder why anyone would want the job.
I don’t know what else to say other than the Obama video link is below. Let me know what you think about all this.
Looking For The Long Ride 
I am definitely apolitical. The system is more than corrupt; the blind are leading the blind for profit.I voted in protest last time by writing a candidate that was not on the ballot in NC. Though he was running, he didn’t “qualify” in NC. I knew I was voting emotionally, as a reactionary, and with no impact whatsoever. That didn’t matter, because I don’t believe my vote matters. The system will have its way no matter who is elected. That way is not Christ’s way, and it never could be or will be until He returns.I smile nonetheless and still desire to be a good citizen. I pick up litter and vote.
His optimism is almost irresistable. Maybe if I was 30 years younger…Certainly more inspiring than Goerge McGovern… Wonder what a meeting between him and Putin would be like, or Kim Jong Il?… I guess that a choice between him and McCain would be a heart vs. head dilemma. Since I’m 56, I suppose I’d go with the head, because the heart is for personal decisions, not political ones involving a commander in chief. These are perilous times. But of course human experience has always been perilous, it’s just that now we are so much more capable of annihilating ourselves.{?}
Obama appears to be one of those 20 year candidates. The 40’s had Rosevelt, the 60’s had Kennedy, the 80’s had Regan. Now Obama is on the scene for the “00” decade. It seems that about every 20 years we get someone eloquent and inspirational. For better or worse they change the trajectory of the American political machine. Change is at least a possibility under such circumstances. We certainly are due a bit of motivation after the last 16 years of “bubba” and “w”. I find politics to be fascinating – the human experiment still running on…more interconnected now than we have been since the Tower of Babel..