OBAMA TO McCAIN: Hyperion to a Satyr

I have been searching for a metaphor that would describe the choice between John McCain and Barack Obama in a plain and understandable manner. I have arrived at this:

Imagine we are stranded in a desert with only two canteens of water. A man steps forward to suggest that we drink as much as we want and hope for the best. Another steps forward to propose that we ration the water so that we can reach the next source.

Some of us would follow the drinking man: I like his spirit. I like his faith.

The rest of us would follow the smart guy.

Another way of phrasing it was coined by Shakespeare when young Hamlet compared his murdered father to his adulterous uncle with a reference to Greek mythology: Hyperion to a Satyr.

Hyperion: A Titan, the son of Earth and Sky.

Satyr: The male companions of Pan and Dionysus that roamed the woods and mountains.

One may have ambiguous feelings toward Titans and roaming male companions but the weight and direction of the comparison is clear.

So it is with Barack Obama to John McCain.

Whether he conforms to your ideology on the left or on the right, Obama is the best and the brightest we have seen in our lifetimes.

McCain is yesterday’s news.

I know it seems mean spirited to defame the elder Republican with such a comparison but with the nation facing a series of crises that could throw us into the pit of a new depression and an age of endless war, it would be mean spirited to refrain.

Barack Obama is a great speaker with a brilliant mind and neither are handicaps in a contest of leadership. With compassion and common sense he laid out his vision in clear and concise language for all to understand.

In that vision and the policies to enact it, there is much to embrace, much to take issue with and little to outright oppose.

In Afghanistan (the forgotten war) he takes aim at Al Qaeda with the ultimate mission of closing it down while clearing the way to diplomacy and negotiated peace.

In Iraq he will not give the promise of rapid and complete withdrawal but he offers a path to that end.

In America, his indictment of Bush-McCain economics is comprehensive if not penetrating. Obama is pro labor, pro union and an advocate of at least some form of fair trade policy. He addresses poverty without apology. He has signed the pledge to remember Katrina (and by implication Gustav) and rebuild New Orleans. He will use the tax code to favor the working class and inspire investment in renewable energies, fuel efficiency, conservation and new clean-energy development.

He has pledged energy independence by 2018 and plotted a course that will dramatically reduce the greenhouse gasses that contribute to global climate change with its extreme weather patterns and natural catastrophes.

He has made unfortunate concessions to offshore drilling, nuclear expansion and signed on to what I believe is the myth of clean-coal technology but at least he is aware of the limitations and liabilities of these measures. He knows that solar, wind and efficiency are the essential paths to an energy independent and environmentally conscious future.

He rightly attacks Republican proposals on energy and climate change as stopgap gimmicks and lip service.

Mindful that some of the electorate have doubts concerning Obama’s experience and liberal reputation, his vice presidential pick of Senator Joe Biden reflected sound political judgment. By contrast, after spending months attacking Obama for lacking the experience required to be commander-in-chief, McCain selected a first-term governor from Alaska whom by her own admission has not given much thought to the Iraq War.

Since the first requirement of a vice president is that she be ready to assume the presidency at a moment’s notice, McCain has demonstrated a breathtaking absence of sound judgment, betraying his own admonitions and sacrificing what has been his primary argument against his younger Democratic opponent.

Given the ominous economic climate and the chain of catastrophes that has been the Bush-McCain foreign policy (the surge not withstanding), this should not be a close election. Obama is not a candidate that should frighten anyone. He is not a candidate that will bring sudden and dramatic change. He is simply a candidate who would point us in the right direction.

Obama’s fundamental assertion that "change does not come from Washington; it comes to Washington" is as much a caution as it is a promise. He is warning us that the change we need cannot happen unless we all get behind it and push.

Someday we may have a leader who not only "gets it" but also possesses the power to change course without the shadow of corporate wealth monitoring every move and policy initiative.

Until that day – a day that will only come when the corporate stranglehold on the two-party system is broken – Obama is as good as it gets.

McCain and Palin have a vision of America that would take us back to the fifties, with gun rights, religion in the schools, backroom abortions and blind patriotism, but the momentum of that shift might well slide us back to the 1930s.

Mark it, post and save: If we allow our fear of unseen enemies and/or race and/or intelligence (under the label of "elitism") to sway us once again, if we elect John McCain to a third Bush term despite all we know and all we have experienced, there will be another Great Depression.

That is a gamble we should not take.

Jazz.

Random Jack
Jack's Blog, Random Voices