Monday, October 20, 2008

America: Vote with your eyes shut!

In the forthcoming election in the USA there remains the nagging doubt that the colour of a man's skin will be the deciding issue. Unbelievable.
Obama is manifestly the better candidate. His speeches are redolent of the best of Lincoln and King. He is clearly unafraid to face America's future, whatever that might be. McCain should cash in his chips now. He is not even close.
And yet.
America may still discard the best hope for a generation based on nothing other than the amount of melanin in a man's epidermis. The same chemical compound that gives a lot of us brown eyes, incidentally.
The turnout in American elections is always low. About half of the electorate can't be bothered to cast their vote, although every American seems to have the right to bellyache afterwards. It is interesting that the world's only superpower will cross the globe to defend someone else's democracy but won't cross the street for its own. Let's hope that bigotry and apathy are mutually inclusive.
Perhaps America should just take the next two weeks to simply listen to Obama and McCain. If so, Obama has a good chance.

2 comments:

GC said...

America...

Err... ''melanin in a man's epidermis'' sounds painful. Redolent is a great word though! Obama has a bit of a Tony Blair whiff about him if you ask me (you didn't).
But surely you must be tempted to see Sarah Palin on the screen for the next four years! She may be right-wing but...

I suspect this email will now be flashing up on some sort of CIA database. Especially if I say - Lenin. Ha.

Fiona said...

This has the potential to be a very exciting election. I love that it so closely mirrors the last two seasons of The West Wing! Completely agree with you, by the way.