Channeling history

It's easy to get caught up in the politics, positions and attacks of this Presidential election. Lately I've found myself skipping over to Ben Smith's blog for his little stories.

He goes for the splashy big picture, but I visit daily for the impressionistic snippets he collects. My current favorite:

For me the most moving moment came when the family in front of me, comprising probably 4 generations of voters (including an 18 year old girl voting for her first time and a 90-something hunched-over grandmother), got their turn to vote. When the old woman left the voting booth she made it about halfway to the door before collapsing in a nearby chair, where she began weeping uncontrollably. When we rushed over to help we realized that she wasn't in trouble at all but she had not truly believed, until she left the booth, that she would ever live long enough to cast a vote for an African-American for president. Anyone who doesn't think that African-American turnout will absolutely SHATTER every existing record is in for a very rude surprise.

Powerful stuff, whoever you favor. Truthfully, I would have said not in my lifetime until this year. Strangely, I forget. Often. (Without even mentioning that a guy named Barack Hussein Obama could get so far in this murky, malevolent and paranoid post-911 milieu.)

My previous favorite, probably apocryphal, was about some redneck stereotype watching a game whose wife called out from the door 'Who are we voting for?' and answered 'We're voting for the n***er'.

Oh, and points for John McCain (Are you trying to cost us this election?):




Irrelevant, but I got an email from John McCain! It turns out I won 50,000 pounds in their campaign's London lottery!

Settle down, kids

This kind of nonsense is all over the internet, but most people don't get too upset unless it's pushed in front of their face.

Can't we give it a break? Media mavens have been hunting high and low for the next outrage to pontificate about. People (like me) who pass it on only make things worse.

No, I don't think this is the worst negative campaign ever, but everything's got to be a superlative in our culture. There are some losers out there who get off on tweaking our noses. There always have been. Deal with it.

What are we supposed to do about it? Too many of the knee-jerks backing both candidates prattle about what it "proves" about their counterparts.

The Barack Hussein Obama billboard is standing outside of West Plains, Missouri, author unknown. The t-shirt is being hawked at the Crucial Brutal website. Neither appears to have any connection with the campaigns.

These are examples of free speech on the edges. We may not like it, but what are our options?

Personally, I'm willing to put up with almost anything short of inciting violence-- and it wouldn't be smart to wear that shirt in a lot of places.

I thought about bowdlerizing the Sarah Palin insult like some other sites. But what's the point? The word itself is still obvious.

Interesting sidelight: the discussion on a lot of sites got sidetracked to the topless women Crucial Brutal uses in some posts.