Sorry if I get worked up about this, but from over there maybe none of this has the urgency that it does here, you know? This isn't some academic argument we're talking about, it's a really critical juncture in my country's history with real consequences riding on the outcome.
When someone's about to clomp you over the head for the third time running, most people don't stop to ponder what the correct response will be... they act to stop the attack. Later, they can ponder the virtues of nonviolence, but the first priority is not allowing the beating to continue.
If you've got a known defense, you use it. Obama is the only viable political weapon the left has in the USA RIGHT NOW to stop the right wing. All efforts to unseat those cretins are appreciated, but votes are a currency that has to be channeled to the Democratic front runner at a much more decisive margin than they've managed to in the last decade, or else it's four more years of progressives being shut out. (and yeah, I know the Dems have been cool to Nader since 2000, but Nader is actively loathed by the Republicans).
I'm well aware that what goes on here has effects there, and believe me, this is WHY I am so adamant that this election isn't botched like the last two were. It's appalling that both our countries were at the forefront of an unprovoked attack on Iraq, and I put my country first in line for blame on that. Whatever Blair thought he was doing by joining in, it's gotten blood on everyone.
Don't hate me because I'm not as confident in the virtues of uncompromising idealism as some. America is not Britain... it's decidedly not as mature. It doesn't have a legacy of socialist thought. It hasn't seen war on it's own soil since the mid 1800s. It's just now seeing it's empire falling... the UK has been there, done that, and moved on.
Obama is the best shot we, the American left, have at the moment, and we have to take it.
Allowing the Republicans four more years to fuck up the planet is not an option.
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