Holding Out for a Hero

~~By Kenosha Marge

The song “Holding Out For A Hero” sung by Bonnie Tyler was released back in 1984. It resonated with women who were wondering what had happen to their knight on a white horse. And it had a great beat.

Nowhere is this kind of fantasy more apparent to me than in politics. We are all looking for a hero/heroine to rescue us and make our corner of the world a better place. Heroes have to do that. I think it’s in the first chapter of the Heroes Guide To Fixing Everything and Making The World A Better Place and Favorite Recipes Handbook now on sale at Amazon.

I stopped believing in Fantasy a long time ago. Didn’t/don’t believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy or honest politicians.

When your parents try to convince you that some fat dude in a red suit is flying all over the world delivering toys to good little girls and you know that you ain’t been good but you got stuff anyway, it plays hell with your belief system. My mistrust of things told me by others was set. My jaundiced eye was locked and loaded.

For years, as a Democrat, I was able to convince myself that my party, while not perfect, was better than that other party. I was convinced that the folks that voted for Republicans were somehow just not as smart or well informed as I was. I was a liberal and we all know that we’re smarter than those conservative people.

Time went by and I found myself beginning to doubt. Uncomfortable doubts that prodded at what I like to think of as my character. Small niggling doubts that made me uncomfortable with a belief system I had held for most of my life. The belief that Democrats were better than Republicans, that Liberals were better than Conservatives and that by voting a straight Democratic ticket year after dreary year I was doing a good thing.

Those beliefs were tattered and torn by the time the last election cycle rolled around. I had begun to suspect that what I thought was strong conviction might just be mental laziness and a determined effort to not discover that I had been bamboozling myself for most of my life.

With doubts becoming stronger and my whole belief system beginning to come apart at the seams we entered the election cycle of 2008. Reality met fantasy and the result was a newly hatched Independent that no longer believes that one Party is any damn better than the other. Individuals on both sides leave much to be desired in the character and honesty department. Some individuals on both sides are better than certain individuals on either side.

The cynic in me, the one that always knew that many/most/all politicians are liars and thieves was hatched and I knew that I had allowed myself to be duped and that I had been a sucker, a sap, a pigeon and a chump. Not a pleasant awakening but one made bearable by the sight of so many people who continue to be duped and are still suckers, saps, pigeons and chumps. I saw the light. They are still walking around in the dark. Thus I still get to feel superior to someone.

Any residual belief in the Democratic Party died a sad death on May 31^st 2008 when the Democrats proved to my complete satisfaction that they are just as corrupt as the Republicans. Given the Bush/Cheney bunch that took some doing.

I knew what I wanted and expected from elected officials. I had begun my interest in politics with JFK. He was a hero in our divided household. My parents, Democrat Dad and Republican Mom both voted for JFK. That alone would have earned my respect since sniping at each other over politics was just one of many ways in which my parents liked to stick knives into each other. Except for the fact my brother and I would have never been born we both wished that they had never met.

Back to politics. Having cut my political teeth on JFK I was always a bit disappointed in LBJ. But he managed to punch through some legislation that was very important to me and thus I began my career of ignoring things that were less honest than I would like as long as the job got done. I learned pragmatism and hypocrisy at the same time.

Those of us that lived through the days and the deaths of JFK, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to, needed to find heroes to replace the truly exceptional men who had been taken from us so brutally. Perhaps that’s when many of us began to make excuses and began to live with a double standard that made hypocrites of us without us noticing it happening. Or perhaps we just didn’t want to notice.

Then we spent years wandering in the wilderness with the likes of Nixon, Ford and Carter. I believe that both Ford and Carter were good men but neither man seemed, at least to me, to have real leadership qualities.

Ford however earned my undying enmity by pardoning Nixon. I quit honestly believe that George W Bush would not have dared to overreach so far had Nixon been made to face the consequences of his actions.

George Herbert Walker Bush was never a favorite of mine but I never demonized him either. The worst thing he ever did in my mind was father George W.

Bill Clinton was and is an able politician and I believe he did far more good than harm. I voted for him twice and don’t regret either vote. He could have done more had he done less nonsense.

I still didn’t believe in fantasy yet I was convinced that sometime there would come to prominence in this country a person of the stature of the founding fathers. There would come a person of depth and breadth, a person of honesty and integrity. There would come a person who saw what was needed for the short term and could still plan for the long. There would come a person who cared first and foremost for his/her country and its people and not for a political party. There would come a person that would tell the people the truths that they needed to hear and then let them decide if they wanted honest government or empty promises.

Still waiting for that kind of person to come along. All we seem to get any more are politicians, which means all we get anymore are liars.

I’m still holding out for a hero. I might be willing to settle for a good, decent, honest patriot who wants what’s best for this country and it’s people.

Or should I continue to hold out for a hero? I expect him/her about the same time as my white knight on a fiery steed. Both horse and knight are undoubtedly over the hill by now; but then so am I. And the fire in my blood? Probably just hearturn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f_HsjpSVaI

Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where’s the street-wise Hercules
To fight the rising odds?
Isn’t there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
Late at night I toss and turn and dream
of what I need
[Chorus]
I need a hero
I’m holding out for a hero ’til the end of the night
He’s gotta be strong
And he’s gotta be fast
And he’s gotta be fresh from the fight
I need a hero
I’m holding out for a hero ’til the morning light
He’s gotta be sure
And it’s gotta be soon
And he’s gotta be larger than life
Somewhere after midnight
In my wildest fantasy
Somewhere just beyond my reach
There’s someone reaching back for me
Racing on the thunder end rising with the heat
It’s gonna take a superman to sweep me off my feet
[Chorus]
Up where the mountains meet the heavens above
Out where the lightning splits the sea
I would swear that there’s someone somewhere
Watching me
Through the wind end the chill and the rain
And the storm and the flood
I can feel his approach
Like the fire in my blood

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holding_Out_for_a_Hero

Flashback to January 2008–The “Not Invested” Weasel Obama on the 60’s (and More)

Yesterday over at No Quarter, a post referred to Barack Obama as “the front man for radicals.”  With the Ayers’ connection now part of the McCain ad roster, my memory brought me back to Obama’s interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal in Nevada around the time of the primary.

At the time, the Washington Post published a story on January 17 which focused on Obama’s comments about the legacy of Ronald Reagan (Obama’s Reagan Comparison Sparks Debate).

By some fluke, the video is still available.

Now Playing

Afternoon with Barack Obama

Video by James Ball

Presidential candidate Barack Obama took time between campaign stops Monday to drop by the Reno Gazette-Journal’s office. In an hour-long chat, he discussed issues like potential running mates, the war in Iraq, Nevada’s mortgage crisis and the back-and-forth with Hillary Clinton’s campaign over race remarks.

The section which has never left my mind and which is interesting now that Ayers is on the national radar starts at Minute 20:49 and ends at about Minute 22:00. Here’s a transcript of the relevant part of the video:

There’s maybe a generational element to this partly, in the sense that I didn’t come of age in the battles of the ’60’s; I’m not as invested in them. And, so I think I talk differently about issues, and I think I talk differently about values, and that’s why, I think, we’ve been resonating with the American people. What I’m saying is that, I think, the average baby boomer has moved beyond a lot of the arguments of the 60’s but our politicians haven’t. We’re still having the same arguments. You know, it’s all around culture wars, even when you discuss war, the frame of reference is all Vietnam. Well, that’s not my frame of reference…my frame of reference is “what works?”  Even when I first opposed the war in Iraq, my first line was that was I don’t oppose all wars. Specifcally to make clear that this is not just a anti-military, you, know, 70’s, love-in kind of approach…

Ironic, isn’t it? That Obama’s friend Ayers himself hasn’t moved “beyond the 60’s” and yet Obama criticizes politicians for still arguing as if they’re still in the 60’s?

But the media doesn’t catch ANY of this…

There are a couple of other parts of the interview that also relate to the current hot topics in the presidential race at the moment–racism and the mortgage problem.

Listen to the slimy S.O.B wiggle around the Martin Luther King/LBJ controversy he laid on Hillary Clinton, as he laughs about how he ‘never made a statement about it” and then launches into his desire for a “tone” that is focused on the American people.  You’ll also love the part where he opines about the “danger of being dragged into the muck” and his ideas about “correcting” the record (Minute 22:28 to 25:49)

As for the mortgage problems, listen to how he cites the lack of oversight by the agencies in charge, the Fed, the Comptroller of the Currency, and a “lack of political will” as the chief culprits in the then-brewing mess…but leaves out any mention of the lack of Congressional oversight by the Democrats in charge, of course…(Minute 2:40-3:20 and 20:50 forward).

Oh, and in case you’re interested…the subject of talking directly to Iran comes in at Minute 34:49.

There are so many more moments of policy assumptions, arrogant statements, facial expressions (gee, he purses his lips just like George Bush!) and other nails-scratching-a-blackboard moments that the entire 49 minute interview could make the viewer scream from frustration–to name a few, his talk about accountability, his belief that he’s a “fiscal conservative,” his management style, making government “cool,” etc.

By the way, the Las Vegas Gazette-Journal was charmed by his presence…they endorsed Obama in the Nevada primary.

***

NOTES

*No “preacher-street thug” voice in this interview, only serious, “elite” Obama here…

*Previous post on Ayers,I Found This Tidbit When I Wasn’t Watching the Debate….RE: Ayers/Obama Early Relationship

*Commenter “thetowncrier” posted some interesting links specifically on Tom Brokaw’s handling of Ayers here...

Obama Hides Behind Rev. Joseph Lowery–Literally

I got a fundraising letter from Barack Obama yesterday and it really threw me. The return address read “Chicago, IL 60680.” This move that was “rumored” and then accomplished over the last few days obviously was planned very far in advance, and is the “cherry on top” of the RBC meeting on May 31. The FIX was in way before then, long enough to print up all those lovely gray envelopes with Chicago, IL as the return address.

Upon opening the envelope, I saw two names: “Barack Obama” was on the bigger, gray sheet, behind a smaller white sheet with the name of “Reverend Joseph Lowery” across the top and, in smaller print, “President, Souther Christian Leadership Conference (1977-1997).

I’m not sure what impact this was supposed to have on me. Although I consider myself well-educated politically, the name didn’t immediately ring a bell.

The letter was a pitch which carried on the emphasis on race and the refrain that it was “time” that has dominated this campaign.

I have walked this earth now for many a mile and many a year, and there are times when it seems like every step of the way, I’ve been told to wait.

I walked from Selma to Montgomery and beyond with Martin Luther King Jr.–with whom I co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)–and even the sincerest of people often greeted our struggle for civil rights with a plea of patience.

(snip)

Today, I am proud to march alongside one of the most inspiring leaders our country has seenin a generation. His name is Barack Obama, and he holds out the promisew of a new politics steeped in possibility. And once more, we’re hearing that tired old refrain.

“Yes, the skeptics say of Barack, “he surely is an extraordinary leader. And yes, he most certainly was right to oppose the war in Iraq when other politicians were backing it blindly. And, why of course, he’s rightabout all those aching and unmet needs here at home. But he hasn’t spent enough time in Washington, D.C. Why doesn’t he wait?

It turns out thay Lowery has been called “the dean of the civil rights movement” by the NAACP (bio here). He challenged the premise of the Iraq War at Coretta Scott King’s funeral in 2006:

“We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there, that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance, poverty abounds, for war billions more, but no more for the poor.” (Source is from the video of the comments which was cited along with a transcript of a very interesting interview of Lowery and Ron Christie on February 12, 2006 conducted by Chris Wallace. )

In the interview, he also makes comments he’s critical of the Democrats as well as Republicans and calls for “more programs.” He calls Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton the “shakedown cruise” element of black America. Finding discrimination and trouble behind every corner, these folks were extremely successful in extorting ridiculous sums of money from government and corporations that would oddly find their way into the leaders’ pockets rather than the constituencies they claimed to represent.”

Does he believe Obama is any better??

Also noted in Lowery’s resume are “Lowery’s efforts to combat injustice and promote equal opportunities” which have “led to the extension of provisions to the Voting Rights Act to 2007″ and how he continues to work “to encourage African Americans to vote, and recorded a rap with artist NATE the Great to help spread this message.”

It’s rather to ironic to read about Lowery’s commitment to voting in light of how Obama has toyed with primary voters this year and has had the Democratic Party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee back up the disenfranchisement of Florida and Michigan to ensure his coronation. (Of course, it pales to Gore’s amnesia about the latter’s run-in with a corrupted vote.)

It’s also ironic to see Lowery accepting a guy who dissed the lessons of the 60’s and the Viet Nam War, isn’t it?

Of course, Hillary Clinton actually lived through the era with Lowery. But, ironically, she is now a racist, according to the Obama campaign. Apparently, she “marginalized” civil rights leaders of the era by mentioning the FACT that it took a President, namely LBJ, to sign legislation to actually codify many of the goals of the civil rights movement. As a young student laywer working one summer for a firm which defended the Black Panthers (Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein which was based in Oakland, California), her job was to organize shifts of Yale student monitors to watch the proceedings to ensure that there was no government misconduct or civil rights abuses during the prosecuting of those accused of murder. I guess now that the Black Panthers support Obama this negates anything Clinton did in the 60’s when things were really hot and mainstream law firms shied away from taking this sort of case.

Obama’s gray letter neatly follows along the lines of Lowery’s and then goes on to state that “this time will be different” and urges the reader to “join a movement–“a calling” to “change politics itself.”

He goes on to say that “change is required–the NEW SPIRIT we need, a spirit of responsibility and honesty, of seriousness and sacrifice–starts with you.

Who writes this crap? He talks about “responsibility.” How many times has he gone to the “not the person I knew” excuse for his relationships? How many of his group has he thrown under the bus? How many times has he flip-flopped. Honesty? OH, PLEASE!! Seriousness?? Oh, like giving Hillary the “street finger” and the “brush off?” Sacrifice? Oh, yeah, he and MIchelle want “youth” to sacrifice and eschew the big bucks as they get help from shady characters to buy a house they can’t afford. And there are other “favors” that have come down in Chicagoland that have resulted in Michelle’s nifty raise at the public hospital…

He throws in a line about “shuttered mills” as a sop to John Edwards and blabs about how “We can accept a politics that breed division and conflict and cynicism. That is one option. Or, at this moment,…we can come together and say: “Not this time.” (The letter’s bolding, not mine).

Enough to make you gag, isn’t it?? Talk about IRONY! After this guy has painted the Clintons as racists and has split the Democratic Party into two camps…the thinking crowd versus the robot crowd and his own operatives who act like thugs?

His letter ends with a flourish, a P.S. that explains:

I’m in this race for the same reason that I fought for jobs for the jobless and hope for the hopeless in the streets of Chicago; for the same reason I fought for justice and equality as a civil rights lawyer, for the same reason I fought for Illinois families for over a decade; because I believe that Americans who care about our country can work together to change it. We can–but first we must prevail in this campaign. Please join our movement today.

I guess hope for the hopeless in the Rezko slums aren’t part of the story and that decade of fighting for families consisted of about 50 days a year, voting present a bunch of times, and then going to DC and playing footsies with Exelon and nuclear waste to the tune of over $227,000 in contributions (his 4th largest contributor..another figure I found was $249,000.) See “Nuclear Leaks, Response Tested Obama in Senate, NT Times, February 2, 2008. (What does Al Gore think of that?)

Rev. Lowery states that he is “…too old, in short, to wait for Barack Obama to be President of the United States.”

It strikes me as rather sad that Rev. Lowery thinks that waiting for Obama will result in the fulfillment of a dream he must have. Because as I said to an acquaintance months ago, “Barack Obama is no Martin Luther King, Jr.” I guess because Obama calls his campaign a “movement” that equates with the “movement” which Lowery ascribes to King in the NPR interview below.

In April, Obama skipped the commemeration of the 40th anniversary of King’s assassination which were held in Memphis. But Hillary, along with John McCain, was there.

From the BBC:

Mrs Clinton, who is competing with Mr Obama to be the Democratic Party’s choice to run for president, spoke at the church where King gave a sermon the day before he died.

She described meeting him when she was 14 and, with tears in her eyes, recalled her despair a few years later on hearing the news of his murder.

In an interview on NPR conducted on the day of the anniversary, Lowery commented on how King and his colleagues how “fought with, with truth and with love…and I think we need to know more about that Martin than the Martin we always picture saying ‘I’m dreaming.'” The segment ends with a clip of King talking about how he wanted to “leave a committed life behind.”

Does Rev. Lowery think Obama fights the same way and with the same commItment? Really?

****

JUST SAY NO DEAL