Vote!

If you are like me, and you struggle to find full throated enthusiasm for any of the Democratic candidates, I want to encourage you vote and to vote for Barack Obama.

In my most cynical moments I fear that there is little difference between Obama and Clinton and that neither will be a progressive President.

I've been saying to people that I like Obama best during his speaches, which have inspired and moved me. I often distrust my positive emotional responses to political candidates, but the presidency is, in fact, a symbolic position. In my book, Obama is the candidate who most clearly stands for meaningful political change and national cohesion based democratic and progressive values. We need the President to stand for these things. The devil will most certainly be in the details. Once Obama is in office, it will be up to us to hold him accountable for what he says he stands for and to make sure those details are not forgotten in excitement over the first Black president or in the resumption of business as usual in Washington.

If you are on the fence about Obama or about voting at all, read this email from Fred Berman to the Progressive Democrats of Somerville email list. It helped me.

Maybe Obama isn't Kucinich, but then Kucinich couldn't be elected.

Obama is willing to meet the challenge of building the tax base by increasing the amount of Social Security taxes paid by higher income earners; Clinton isn't.

Obama was unwilling to support the Congressional resolution labeling Iran a threat; Clinton did.

Neither Obama or Clinton are proposing single payer, but Obama's proposal will move us to single payer more directly, because instead of providing coverage through the commercial insurers (as Clinton proposes to do), Obama proposes the creation of a public insurance alternative.

If you think the soapbox isn't important, look what George Bush has accomplished at the bully pulpit.

If you think that people around the world will see no difference between Goerge Bush and Barack Obama at the helm, will think that a change in leadership is just four years of more of the same.... you're wrong. Electing Obama will be the clearest message that the American voting public can send to the world that we've woken up and we're ready to change course.

If you were fooled by Ralph Nader into believing that Gore and Bush were just two sides of the same Demopublican coin, you must by now have seen the error of that thinking, or you are wearing blinders.

If you think that Gore would have invaded Iraq, would have opened Guantanamo, would have supported extraordinary rendition, would have pushed drilling in Anwar, would have fought stronger fuel economy standards, would have sliced funding for housing subsidies, would have cut back funding for substance abuse treatment, would have linked commitment to abstinence to foreign aid and AIDS treatment, would have supported the intrusion of religion in the public arena..... you're wrong.

And if, after listening to the campaign rhetoric, you think that McCain/Huck/Romney would be no worse than Clinton/Obama then you haven't been paying attention...

Voting DOES make a difference, even if the election doesn't bring corporate power to a grinding halt.

It's NOT worth sitting out the election if you can't get everything you want in a candidate. Life isn't about perfection or nothing. It's about playing the hand you've been dealt, and moving on from there.

The future of war and peace, climate change, health coverage, the right to choose, water and air quality, affordable housing, worker health and safety, an unfettered Internet, human rights, public education, and the Supreme Court are all at stake.

Chances are you're not doing anything so important that you can't spare 15 minutes to go to the poles, even if Buddha isn't on the ballot.