First, Glenn, thanks for doing this. You are in a real sense doing this for all of us who can't be there to be a witness.

Secondly, as a colleague and I at work were discussing today, it is clear that there is really one party with two wings, the corporate party. And it happens that there are differences that seem to matter between the two wings, differences in management style that really seem to matter. Both of us used to regularly vote Green in protest, but the Bush years convinced us that there a little difference in management style at the top can make a huge difference down at the bottom, and that difference is worth voting for. Its like choosing between a good King and a bad King (or what you hope will be a better King than the other one, who knows how it will turn out). Our tiny hope is that Obama will be better corporate king than McCain, and so we will vote for him. But it is clear there is only one party in America, the party of corporate interests.

I certainly understand your point of view. My friend and I at work talked and talked about this today, trying to sort it out. We both, for various reasons, ended up with the Chomsky-Greenwald thesis, as you characterized it: that small decisions on the federal level can have huge impact. And then there is a sort of element of gambling and hope in it: a small sliver of possibility that Obama might do some real good if the chance presents itself. And as derbig mooser said, I think with Obama there is a possibility we have someone who would do some good if he could, whereas with McCain continuing the Bush line, we seem to have folks who will do everything harmful they can if they have the chance.

I am torn though. I understand what adnoto and others are saying about long term structural change. But to monkey wrench our society right now might be just to monkey wrench us all to hell in a handbasket, and the lower classes would not even get to go there in a handbasket like us middle class losers.

You keep on bringing up Nader. I voted for him regularly until I voted for Gore because Bush scared the hell out of me, then I voted for Kerry because all my fears proved true. I think you are telling me to vote my conscience or to make a protest vote, and I understand and respect what you are saying; and yet I think that the difference between Gore/Bush, Kerry/Bush, and now Obama/McCain(Bush) is large enough that it really makes a difference, particularly to those not as well situated as I am in the socio-economic scheme of things. It is truly my conscience telling me, after much thinking and arguing and reading, that I will help more folks, particularly those worse off than me, by working to get Obama in office. I am perfectly willing to admit I may be mistaken, but I think this position which I hold, and others here, is one you can understand and respect.

Ommoex, I found that I had been gritting my teeth reading all this until your comment: "Alright now pull yourself together. A Democratic administration won't be so bad. From your viewpoint at least. And I say that with a very heavy heart." Now that loosened up the clenched teeth, made me smile, a real old internet lol.

Derbig, I too am dissapointed you are not Der Big. And I did a derbig NOT mooser search and could only come up with Derbig as a common last name. Are you sure you are not Der Big Mooser?

Arne, you are a true guide to the flora and fauna of UT. Just after you explained notoribitboy's true affiliations, he posted right after you and confirmed your field identification skills!

Thanks, boys, for the smiles.

= derbig, though I think you ought to consider it.

make you feel so sad and tired? Glenn has helped me to see our political realities more clearly, and that clarity brings a great melancholy. It makes me think of Walter Benjamin and what he said about history:

"There is a painting by Klee called Angelus Novus. An angel is depicted there who looks as though he were about to distance himself from something which he is staring at. His eyes are opened wide, his mouth stands open and his wings are outstretched. The Angel of History must look just so. His face is turned towards the past. Where we see the appearance of a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe, which unceasingly piles rubble on top of rubble and hurls it before his feet. He would like to pause for a moment so fair [verweilen: a reference to Goethe’s Faust], to awaken the dead and to piece together what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise, it has caught itself up in his wings and is so strong that the Angel can no longer close them. The storm drives him irresistibly into the future, to which his back is turned, while the rubble-heap before him grows sky-high. That which we call progress, is this storm."

Batten down the hatches, brothers and sisters. The winds are howling these days.