With All Eyes on Colorado, I'm in Minnesota

It's fun to live in a swing state.

Make room, Ohio. Colorado's electoral votes are hotly contested and could be pivotal in this year's presidential election. As a result, the candidates visit often. Disrupted traffic is a regular event as motorcades transport President Obama to and from Air Force One which is usually parked out at the local air force base.

The first debate between the President and that other guy will be at the University of Denver this Wednesday. The national press will descend upon the Mile High City like they haven't since the Democratic National Convention in 2008, which nominated Mr. Obama for his first term.

When you watch the focus groups and pundits and analysts and news anchors in Denver on October 3, just 10 minutes away from my home, don't worry about me being stuck on I-25 - which will be closed in the middle of town at rush hour. 

I'm 900 miles away in Minnesota. Can I time my trips or what?

I haven’t been here for several years, but Minneapolis is still a progressive, beautiful, northern city. Is Michele Bachmann really from around here? No, I am told. This is not her district.  

Minnesota is a blue state, radical right-wing congresswomen notwithstanding. It’s not a swing state so things are a little quieter here, though a hotly contested anti-gay marriage amendment and an anti-immigrant voter ID amendment are on the ballot. So I am reminded that you don’t have to live in a swing state to have a contestable, divisive election.

I’ll be watching the debate on TV with Minnesota friends, who like me, are cheering for the President and hoping the challenger will really blow it. In addition to the usual comments and zingers from the candidates, I’ll be listening closely to what the national media are saying about my home town.

Meanwhile, though far from I-25, I suppose I could still get caught in a Minneapolis-St. Paul traffic jam.

Denying Reality – Revering Falsehood

So is President Obama a Muslim or not? I don’t know who to believe. Glenn Beck, or everyone else?

Of course the President is not a Muslim. It is a proven, indisputable fact. It’s been demonstrated over and over again that he is a practicing Christian and has been for a very long time. Yet, new polls this week show an increasing number of Americans believe he’s Muslim.

Let’s quickly brush over the question of whether it would be such a bad thing if he were. He isn’t.

What is wrong with people in this country? Are we that stupid or do we just believe what’s convenient to believe?

Selective knowledge is convenient. How easy it is to forget the First Amendment when a house of worship is being built in a location that makes us uncomfortable.

No matter how we harangue Supreme Court nominees about following the Constitution to the letter, it’s very easy to switch gears and casually suggest changing that hallowed document when it inconveniently challenges our prejudices about who should be a citizen.

We are the most information saturated people of all time, but so many of us believe incredible lies in spite of overwhelming evidence:

• Global warming is a hoax
• The holocaust never happened
• The earth is flat
• Evolution is just a theory
• Barack Obama was not born an American citizen
• FOX News is fair and balanced

Perhaps I’m overly preoccupied with the truth. I seem to dwell on scientifically viable fears that most people just ignore.

While most other American viewers were watching America’s Got Talent the other night, I watched a two hour program about the seven top ways the human species might be wiped out. Why I opt for this type of programming for my evening entertainment, I can't say. But that list included:

• Gamma rays from outer space
• Passing black holes
• Killer asteroids
• Viral pandemics
• Nuclear weapons
• The super volcano in Yellowstone
• And of course, climate change, which was number one on the list

The fact that I remember all seven off the top of my head tells you something about where my head is (I don’t even remember my own work phone number). But I will tell you this: that program was legitimate science and the evidence was presented by real scientists; not talk show drama queens (Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh) who never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

With all the information at our fingertips, why is it so hard for a technological population such as our own to separate the fact from the fiction?

Frankly, the facts are much more sensational. I lose a lot more sleep worrying about that super volcano than about the mosque in my neighborhood.

Postblog from Illinois: The More Things Change the More They Remain the Same

After just over a year in office his presidency seems doomed. No one is happy with him. He doesn’t go far enough. He goes too far. He compromises too easily. He’s cold and distant. The country has polarized to a point where reaching out to both sides seems an impossible and thankless task. The President lacks the necessary experience and worldliness to get the job done. He actually appointed rivals to his cabinet. Many citizens unrealistically look to him to solve all of the big problems. Others deeply hate him. Many fear for his safety.

I’m sure that it isn’t easy to be President Obama. He has a huge job. I myself get frustrated that he seems to drag his feet on, say, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” the policy which prohibits gays and lesbians from serving their country in the armed forces. I wanted to throttle him when he kept compromising on health care reform. And the news this week reports criticism that he seems restrained in his reaction to the Gulf Coast disaster. His practiced and tempered language doesn’t reflect the outrage of the nation.

I hope President Obama takes some comfort in knowing that all of the statements above were also bestowed upon another President, Abraham Lincoln. As I wandered through the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield today, I kept seeing Obama as a similar recipient of the vitriol heaped upon Lincoln. For example, discussion of allowing African Americans to serve in the army alongside whites mirrors “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”: there was intense fear that the morale and discipline of the troops would erode so much that national security would be threatened.

The museum does a terrific job of presenting Lincoln in the context of the politics, events, and even technology of the time.

Often, the flesh and blood part of Lincoln’s life is overwhelmed by myth. It behooves us to remember that while he was indeed a very great President, he was also a human being. He suffered nightmares and the deaths of his children. He was regularly exasperated with his wife. He had a wicked, even lewd, sense of humor. He was a brilliant politician who could spin the truth in order to appease rivals. We conveniently forget that some of his views were uncomfortably different from our own. For example, while he advocated the abolition of slavery, he didn’t view African Americans as truly equal. His thought was that after emancipation, it would be best if they all returned to Africa.

Abe Lincoln is a little like Jesus Christ in that everyone wants to remake him in their own image. Just take your predetermined beliefs and justify them by telling everyone how Lincoln would agree with you. 21st Century discussion of Lincoln reflects our current concerns rather than anything he would have thought about. Anti-abortionists claim him as an emancipator of the unborn. Lincoln is said to have suffered from depression or bipolar disease (clinical terms which weren’t in use at that time). I’m amused at the vehement discussion about whether he had sexual relations with other men. Why is it so important to assure ourselves either way? In fact, though he did share a bed with his friend Joshua Speed, we will never know for sure what, if anything, happened between those sheets and frankly, what difference does it make?

Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, and the rest of us are reflections of our own times and cultures. But while the issues change from decade to century, we continue to struggle with how to be a nation of free people.