final thoughts on the importance of this election

Unlike many out there, I am not buying into the "Most important Election of Our Lifetime" hype on most fronts. For one thing, I am 40. 1968 was probably the most important election of my lifetime, even though I was barely 3 months old when it happened. That election and its impact still resonate. 1972 was also terribly important, as were most of the others. In hindsight, 2000 was probably a more important election that 2008. However, we just had no idea that the "lesser of 2 evils" selection of George W Bush would take the nation on such a roller coaster ride the past 8 years. If we had known then, what we know now, maybe Al Gore would have been preferable (and who knows we may have had the choice of McCain in 2000 if we had been smarter).

That said, yes I think this is an important election. Now, I am not as frightened of McCain as many of my friends are. I have been disappointed in his campaign and think his selection of Palin made him toxic as a candidate. But, I don't actually think he would be be as bad as Bush. i could go on, but others have stated everything very well. 

Indeed, my vote is about the positive implications of one candidate's election over the other, not misplaced fear. That said, I think this is an unbelievably important election because of what it says about us and where we are as a nation. Below is what one of my favorite writers has to say about the true importance of this election.

Matt Taibbi on why Obama’s candidacy and probably victory are so important;

“He is a living referendum on the civil rights movement- one might even say he is calling the bluff of the civil rights movement. He has been everything white America said it wanted from black America: Stay positive, work hard, go to Harvard, be more Martin and less Malcom, and all obstacles will be cleared.

It’s happening because on college campuses like the University of Northern Colorado and ever other place where progress has been allowed to penetrate, there now lives a whole generation who have been raised to believe implicitly in the virtue of a multicultural society. The election of Obama will prove once and for all the futility of using racism, camouflaged or not, to win elections. If Obama pulls this thing off, it might be a long time before you see a white candidate making transparent, panic-stricken appeals to “you and I” in the weeks before Election Day."

We will see tomorrow.

no, I don't believe racism will change much after Obama takes office. I just think it will change as a useful tactic in anything but parochial elections.