Election year. Election year. Here we are again... but I have to confess, the Democratic primaries have been fun. I'm going to kick off with a couple of confessions...

#1
I was a Bill Clinton supporter, and, as such, I rooted for Hillary's senate run... that was up until she made a few unsavory statements and one statement, in particular, when John Walker Lind was being brought up on charges of treason. I'll talk more on that later if you like...
#2
(-and this one is going to be a hard one to admit...)
I was a John McCain supporter at one time... early on... before I really knew enough about him and way before he started joking about camel jockeys and bombing Iran.
I was raised in a military family and to see this guy who emerged from the POW camps was impressive. Don't get me wrong: my hat goes off to the guy for surviving and for being a war hero, but he's become such a little ball of anger and vengence that I worry about the prospects of him becoming our next president. I am very worried about it, to be honest.
#3
I was an early Colin Powell supporter, hoping he would run for president, even though I was critical of his involvments in the Vietnam war (Mai Li in particular), I looked at the whole Vietnam thing as a terrible mess that had many Americans doing fucked up things. Unfortunately, we found him in a comparable situation with the war in Iraq. His misguided, misinformed "Weapons of Mass Destruction" speech to the pentagon was one of the most horrible things I've seen in American politics. Not only because of the blatant deception on the part of the Bush Administration, but also seeing Colin Powell being so completely duped by his Commander In Chief. To say it was heartbreaking might make me sound like a wuss, but I will say it. It was heartbreaking.
#4
Despite all those former leanings (-of which I've kept private) I maintain that I am economically Socialist, governmentally Democratic ("Its not the best form of government, but its the best we have"), environmentally Green, and ontologically Anarchist (-who has the right to interceed or cohearse in anyones relationship or concept of the Divine?). On many points I can be regarded as liberal. On some, I am definitely conservative. I don't do bandwagon politics. I try to pay attention to the issue over the personalities.

I know that putting any of this out there will alienate some of you, as we, the people, have very strong feelings about these things. At the same time I also know many of you are apolitical for valid reasons. My apolitical friends ask me why do I still concern myself with policy? I can explain it in one image...

Seeing Nelson Mandela walking out of prison.

In my last blog entry here I pointed out the first awakening of political activism when I was a teen. It was the boycott of South African products. The oppression of Apartheid was so strongly present in my mind as a youth that it deeply affected my outlook. I saw it as an international manifestation of the same kind of racism I was facing here in the United States. I also payed heed to Dr. Martin Luther Kings words "Oppression anywhere is oppression everywhere". I was literally unable to buy or wear anything from South Africa once I understood what was going on over there. After all the years knowing about Nelson Mandela's imprisonment the day he was released from prison was one of the most joyous events I had seen!
I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by many like-minded and like-hearted people in San Francisco. We had the sweetest celebration!

Where am I now? Well, without going too much into it, I will simply say this: I now support Obama and I feel more than fine doing it. On almost all the issues I'm with him, and the ones that I don't agree with he simply won't have much say in the matter as much of our laws are decided on local and state levels. I am also very impressed with how he has kept up a very decent campain despite all the mud that's been slung his way.

Obama has my passionate support for president of the United States.

Hope is no joke (you hear that, Hillary?)
Change is our only sane choice.
Both are absolutely what we need.

(On another note:
As I was so joyful seeing Mandela walking out of prison
I hope to live to see Cheney walking into it.
Then, I will die with the satisfaction of seeing the scales of justice so beautifully balanced.)