Show me (after typing this, it became clear I wasn't responding to you at all; just getting ready for my work),

I look at the political landscape as a "picture" of what I'm not willing to admit about myself. I see it as an accurate account of my unwillingness to "own up" to those aspect of myself that I'd rather see in Bush or whoever (or at least blame on him).

So while I am excited about an Obama presidency, I have no notion that he "should" or is "supposed" to be president. That is a magical type thinking that- in my opinion- expresses exactly the kind of mentally that is responsible for the intense pain and suffering we see proliferating inside and around us in our communities, the nation and the world.

I see the argument that Obama or Hillary "should" be president as silly and unsubstantiated as the argument that Nader or my daughter "should" be president.

We get so disappointed and angry at each other (friends, families, politicians, bosses, kids). We expect there to be a solution that the other guy is suppose to offer, and if he or she doesn't "get us there", we are quick to know what is wrong with him or her.

I don't disagree with you that Barack has problems or that we see his personal problems reflected in all sorts of ways. Same with Hillary and McCain. Depending on your tendencies (and massive conditionings) you will lean towards shadowizing Barack or Hillary. Hillary fans can admit she might have flaws, but in the light of their hope for what she can offer...those flaws aren't all that serious. And because they know that we would be in better hands with her, the image of Barack's flaws looms large. This is where our mental distortions take root. If I am believing that I "know" our country needs Barack, is "supposed" to be in his hands, then Hillary's flaws become symbols of so much more than her simple humanity.

If this political drama was taking place in the context of our local library system, we might take it seriously but without this religious, salvanic zeal. The zeal is the problem, not the politicians. They are just filling in a slot. And we make, hold and sustain this zealous slot; we keep a fire lit here and it blazes with our dissociated fears, blames, hates, anxieties....

I see the intensity of the division between serious Hillary and Barack supporters as a simple reflection of that division in myself that I constantly produce. And the reason this division will basically seal up soon is not due to any type of health within the democratic party; it will "heal" only because most democrats "know" that McCain is not "supposed" to be the president. We will soon begin using him to project our days away. I'm just typing out loud before work, getting myself ready to hear 6 or 7 people tell me what has "caused" their particular pains and sufferings.

I think it is fine not to vote for Barack. Yesterday I was trying to explain to a group of people who conflate my excitement for Barack with the notion that he "should" win...I was trying to explain to them why I can easily get behind somebody voting for Nader or McCain and why I think it is a sign of delusion to think that another person should be voting for somebody they are not voting for....

Anyway, it seems you wanted Hillary and had good reason to think she could help us in special ways. I know that many Barack folks expect him to be the difference. I doubt it. Big time, doubt. But that's because I see no reason to believe that any great politician will do much more than slightly slow down our collision course into catastrophe (as if we aren't already there). My hunch is that the next 20 years are probably going to stun us utterly. All of us have lived in such denial, projecting the enemy onto terrorists, corporations, liberals, Bush's, Clintons, Christians, atheists....that the true cause of our sad, tired and angry living escapes us completely. This is already reflected in any social metric we look at (violence towards women, economic disparity, incarcerations, racism, rage, increased anxiety...), but we continue to blame it on the other and each new election serves as another opportunity to measure the degree of our denial. How certain to Barack's people appear? How certain to Hillary's appear? What about Coulter’s, Limbaugh's, McCains...?

My friends often don't believe me when I voice my opinion that it must get much worse before it gets better...They see that I live happily and I'm silly and I love meeting people and helping them (I'm a therapist). They ask where my hope comes from. I don't know, but it has something to do with the fact that our solution is always right under each of our gorgeous noses; if we were only willing to sniff around a bit more.

Show me, I only wrote to you because you had the last post and you were upset about Barack winning. By the time I post this, who knows where your words will be. I just needed to write.

Joan, thanks for the update on your hardball appearances! I wouldn't get too sad about the worst representations of our species that you'll find here. This is the perfect place to project images of the "the other" and blame those. You are our screen! We each take a somewhat sick consolation from each other's projections. As long as Joan gets to be the dumb one, I'm relatively ok. I'm not calling you dumb, Joan!