Rising Star, Impending Doom
Barack Obama is getting a lot of traction lately. I’ve seen his name in print on election 2008 projections eight times already. His speeches are gathering crowds, and he make a lot of sense. People are liking what they hear from him.
I’m not the only one noticing. Twice this week CNN has linked the junior senator from Illinois with Middle Eastern baddies du jour Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Some people don’t like the growing noise about the young senator. Now, the assassins are coming to the Obama party. His charisma and the rhetoric surrounding him are making people nervous, it seems.
As I continue to watch (with trepidation) the media circus we call politics in this country, I can’t help wondering if there really is a nefarious force hell-bent on the destruction of America from within. It sure looks that way. There are people in this country who will do anything to gain or remain in power. We’ve seen quite a lot of unscrupulous behavior from the Hill lately. After the resounding defeat of the Republicans last month, I can only guess that their tactics will get worse. Desperate tines and all that.
Regarding Obama, I am starting to get worried. I foresee a repeat of Bobby Kennedy in this Barack dude. I see a man whose relaxed style, charisma and message electrify a populace desperate for a hero, a media who’ll spin the whole thing out of control, and a resentful minority who will produce an assassin.
I’m too young to remember any details in the death of Bobby Kennedy, but I’m not too naive to think America has learned anything by that distant tragedy. I am jaded enough to anticipate a Southern Caucasian Christian taking down a black man every newspaper in the nation is linking with the presidency. I believe that racism in parts of this nation still represents attitudes fashionable one hundred years ago. Indeed, they’ve gotten worse lately.
I hope I’m wrong. I would like to believe in the transcendence of past ills and a progression of society that reflects an evolution of thought. Coming from a born-again Buddhist perspective, I hold out fervent hope that humanity will abandon its collective insanity someday soon, and begin to heal the myriad hurts afflicted upon itself. But I’m American enough to acknowledge that I’m not banking on it.