POLITICS AND NATURE

Everywhere you look or listen these days, the talk is of race and gender. The questions surrounding personal motivation and issue command are taking a back seat to whether black women are torn between the first black or the first woman president, and women in general are struck by feelings over Hillary.

One thing can be assured....the more people get caught up in these side issues the greater the opportunity opens for the Republican Party to gain the White House for another four or, gasp, eight years of diabolical anti-diplomacy, environmental destruction, and fiscal impropriety. What is at stake is the future path of the United States of America and this is no small endeavor.

All of this side garbage demeans politics. The question at issue is really who calls the shots at the head of the dominant military and economic social order in the world. Who will deal diplomatically abroad and fairly with the emerging minority at home. It's a tough decision and both would be commanders in chief exhibit positive attributes. It is not because she is a woman or he is black that these two individuals dominate the landscape. It is because they are both effective organizers with strong resumes and passion about their own abilities to take on the challenges awaiting the next occupant of the Oval Office. Why anyone would want to clean up W's messes is a completely different mystery.

Be that as it may, the current race is showing how compelling the opportunity to gain the ultimate job is and how all candidates will falter along the way when they think they can eliminate the opposition. The super bowl is just a game, the presidential race is open to all participants and the future is at stake. Come November, 2008, at least one side will lose the greatest competition on the planet which contains more drama and effort than lesser contests. A loss of such magnitude destroys egos and leaves the loser feeling degraded and hated. Al Gore grew a beard and went into hiding until he emerged as an Oscar winning producer and a Nobel Laureate. Jimmy Carter spent the rest of his life trying to justify his horrible four years in the White House and to recuperate from the thrashing Ronald Reagan made of the 1980 campaign. George the First marched off into history with dignity and grace, like the good soldier, but it is hard not to imagine...in the back of his mind... he knew he was only a historic anomaly elected thanks to a disheveled Democratic Party and the candidacy of Michael Dukakis.  

In reality, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton are the only ones since Ike left office to exit the White House relatively unscarred, both popular, with approval ratings in the mid-60s. George W. Bush will go back to Crawford to cut brush and make some speeches about the importance of corporate control of everything and he'll probably be quite content with his 30% approval rating. He likes polls less than I do. The only people he's listened to in eight years living on Pennsylvania are the Nixonian inner circle of Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and Donald Rumsfeld. It's hard to know how low his approval ratings could have gone had he not kicked Rummy to the curb.

But now, everyone is concerned not about possibility but gender and race. Maybe it is quixotic to believe the country should move beyond these concerns and people should think who they imagine in the West Wing for the next four or eight years but a healthy respect for a concerned citizenry could prove all the pundits wrong.....which would be funny. There were 120 million people voting in 2004 and over 100 million in 2000. I suppose if it takes some discussion about race and gender to motivate voters to participate, this is a good thing.