Ask Me Anything (Part Trois)

Dear TQA,

As Obama starts to look like Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. rolled into one, I worry that 2008 will resemble 1968 in too many ways:

If he gets close to the nomination, will someone bump him off?

Sick With Concern


Dear Sicko,

Given that Hillary is poised to be the Hubert H. Humphrey of 2008--the obvious choice no one really wants to vote for because we're sick to death of him/her already--there is great reason for worry. At this stage, hours after Obama's victory in Iowa, the only most likely route to the nomination for Hillary is as the default candidate following an Obama assassination.

Am I being lighthearted about a potential tragedy that would shake the nation and the world?

Yes!

But not because of indifference to Sen. Obama. He's the most hopeful sign in US politics since I've been alive, and I remember well the assassinations of 1968.

But 1968, and the recent fascist takeover of our government by the Cheney/Bush crime syndicate, prove that this country plays at electoral democracy more than it lives it.

The United States is a nation at war, and not with terrorists: we're perpetually at war with ourselves. Take the murder rate in this country and overlay it on any other nation, and that nation would be said to be in a civil war.

So we're at war. The race war. The class war. The war of men against women. The war of junkies on those with cash in their pockets. But mostly a war of the rich against anyone else who seeks significant power.

I hope Obama lives at least till January 20, 2009. I even hope he's inaugurated as President of the United States of America that day.

Not that I think he'd govern very well. I want him to win because the disenfranchised need hope, a rallying cry to find the courage for taking back the power that is theirs for the asking.

If only they can turn down the bad music and TV, put down the tasteless beer, and realize that even the most heinous Karl Roves have no recourse against blowout electoral victories, if only Our Side shows up.

But I also believe the game is rigged, and that violence is the ultimate power shaper in this sick old nation of ours. So if Obama gains any more ground toward the nomination or presidency, I think he'd be crazy to think he's any safer than Benazir Bhutto was.

Benazir Bhutto. Baracko Bama. The names are a little too similar for my comfort.

Live, Barry live, please!

But I wouldn't bet my mortgage on the angels' keeping him safe if the war machine has decided he's its number-one target.

TQA