The quality of intent: What is really at stake in the 2008 Presidential Election
By Heidi Li Feldman on October 6, 2008 at 6:15 PM in Barack Obama, DNC, Democracy, Democratic Party, Democrats
“What is the quality of your intent?
Certain people have a way of saying things that shake us at the core. Even when the words do not seem harsh or offensive, the impact is shattering. What we could be experiencing is the intent behind the words. When we intend to do good, we do. When we intend to do harm, it happens. What each of us must come to realize is that our intent always comes through. We cannot sugarcoat the feelings in our heart of hearts. The emotion is the energy that motivates. We cannot ignore what we really want to create. We should be honest and do it the way we feel it. What we owe to ourselves and everyone around is to examine the reasons of our true intent.”
(emphasis mine)
Indeed, now more than ever we cannot ignore what we really want to create. The upcoming Presidential election is regarded by many people as a pivotal for our country. I agree. But I think it is pivotal less for the impact it will have on the issues that press to the forefront of our minds, partly driven there by politicians and the mainstream media: bailout bills, vice-presidential picks, whatever.
I think this election matters most because it poses a question to all Americans, but especially to Democrats, about the ways we find it acceptable to practice politics in our country.
Many of my Democratic friends acknowledge that Senator Obama's campaign relied on less-than-savory, even dishonest, measures to secure his spot as the Democratic candidate; they will admit, when asked pointedly, that they are disturbed by Senator Obama's truth squads and training camps, by his manipulation of young children when he urges their parent to have them tell their grandparents to vote for him; by his refusal to denounce sexism or take concrete measures to affirmatively demonstrate that he understands the pervasiveness of that social ill; by his tepid stands on reproductive rights and equal rights for gays and lesbians; by his commitment to tying Church and state closer together.
But these friends excuse Senator Obama's methods by saying that he has done and is just doing what it takes to win, and after all, isn't that what Republicans have done for years?
I refer those with that point of view to the quotation above from Thurgood Marshall, an often overlooked hero not just of the civil rights movement on behalf of black Americans but a hero for all progressive Americans, because while he naturally enough, given his circumstances, began his career with great concern for black Americans, he ended it by fighting for the rights of all Americans who did not enjoy the equality of opportunity that has been the hallmark of U.S. democracy since the country's founding, and which was renewed by the programs that Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated.
Apparently, many Americans have found Senator Barack Obama's words to have a shattering impact. But what is the quality of the intent of a candidate who resorts to dishonest, manipulative, authoritarian methods to gain office?
And what is the quality of the intent of those who hurl accusations of racism against those who do not want this sort of candidate representing them as Democrats?
As the quality of Senator Obama's intent has become clearer to me over time - a will to power including the power to completely silence any diversity of expression within the Democratic Party itself - I find his words ever more grating, and certainly not inspiring.
I do not believe this country is well served by authoritarian political parties or politicians - consider for example George W. Bush and the Rovian Republican style. But Republicans do not have a monopoly on authoritarian attitudes and tactics, and neither do conservatives in general. The French Revolution - meant to end authoritarian rule in France - ended in The Terror - tyranny by mob rule.
The glory of the United States of America lies in its ability to encompass really difference and real diversity while at the same time creating an environment for equal opportunity, the protection of individual dignity, and the generation of prosperity that can be shared by all. Authoritarians try to make difference and diversity go away, first by pretending it does not exist and then silencing dissenters so it seems as if it does not exist. We cannot ignore what authoritarians really intend to create.
At the same time, we have to reflect on what we really intend. I intend my country to have at least one political party that does not cram unity down my throat, that realizes that women's rights are human rights, that will not aim to put in office candidates whose vision of the presidency is an imperial one.
The emotions that I see and feel in my heart when I examine it closely: hope that Democrats will be the ones to keep our country democratic and determination to see the Democratic Party restored to its traditional principles and methods and returned to being a democratic institution.
These emotions undergird the reasons of my true intent when I argue that the only way to fix the Democratic Party is to refuse to support its Presidential candidate this year.
I do not want my Party, the Democratic Party, to be defined by an intent to win elections by any means necessary; I want my Party to be able to win elections on the basis of truly democratic and historically Democratic intent.
……………………………………………….
From my blog, Heidi Li’s Potpourri.
Heidi, beautifully expressed.
If the Democratic Party surrenders its principles, it is worthless. If the Democratic Party is willing to turn a blind eye to Senator Obama’s tactics and lack of qualifications or honesty, then they have forever abandoned the moral high ground.
Considering the complicity of a number of powerful Democrats in the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac scandal, it doesn’t look like morality is high on the list any longer.
His “accomplishment lack of” is huge and gaping!
Hillary made it so apparent in the primaries.. In comparison,O has nothing to offer.
When I experienced the inflamed rhetoric of the O supporter to be win at all cost with all the claims that he won the most states, the most caucus states, and he won this and that…
As if winning was all that mattered. Be damned the voice of the democratic voter.
Many an evening in late May 08, I looked into the eyes of Madame Pelosi or Howard Dean and listened to their words that “it will be decided fairly soon”… and it is all “being worked out”
I then witnessed the May 31 hijacking.
That was an ugly blow!
O and his enablers were truly fearsome.
I heard words of betrayal. I knew then, that real democracy where each one has a voice and a vote, well, this was too much for this crew.
Too Much Democracy.
I knew then, they were taking me for granted and MY VOTE DID NOT COUNT.Sure enough, in the fraud they called the Convention Roll Call, I saw my vote of Calif delegates fly right out the window.
History will record a real sham. Not the truth…but the “decision”.
MY Democratic party believes in one person-one vote.
This in NOT my Democratic party.
I see a cadre of smart, accomplished women emerging as a new voice for equal rights in this heart breaking election.
That’s something.
Time to face reality….The democratic party no longer exists. Period.
You are sadly correct. My former party of 32 years has abandoned everything it once stood for. It is only a shell of its former self–the obamacrat party of one.
The same Democrats are in Congress before Obama announced his campaign. How is it the party no longer exists?
Well, obtuse keyboard warrior in name only, it was taken over by ignorant, sexist morons like you. How does that work for you obamlobotobot.
ignorant, sexist morons only?
You forgot ageist, misogynist, delusional and homophobic.
Oops. Mea culpa. I’ll remember those next time and also add illiterate and whining.
WILLFULLY illeterate and STUPID.
so sorry to model behavior that I critique … WILLFULLY illilterate and STUPID.
Agreed, I’ll add those, too.
You do have a way with words Ferd!!! LOL!
Thanks. I am after these morons now. Months of this nonsense is quite sufficient. I believe it is time to call them on their bs.
Ferd the Impaler! When he is through with the trolls they will all need colostomy bags for certain!
Yeah, Ferdie is always on point and fun.
Just wait till the OBushOBots figure out how badly they were played.
Course the dim ones won’t get it until their late thirties.
The smart 20 somethings I know are all voting straight R this year - they already get it. I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised by some of the converations I have had with kids in college and in their later twenties. They see the situation pretty clearly and are voting for America first.
What area of the country are you in?
I don’t give out information like that but in my volunteer work I interface with college students across the country.
The kids are allright, except for the ones who are scared stinkless.
Forgive me. I meant it only in the most general way — as in Southwest, Northeast, etc.
I know how important privacy is, believe me.
Thanks for responding.
No prob, I appreciate it.
I’m in the Northwest, but as I said I interface with students all over the country; Seattle to Boston, Ann Arbor to Tuscon.
Look at Survey USA polls.SUSA
According to them Mc is up a point nationwide.
They seemed to be the most realistic in the primaries.
Anyway, They show the 18-30yr old going for McCain. So you are correct there.However, the women are going more for Obambi in the over 30 range! WTH ?
Do not reply to “Freedom Fighter” — he is a waste of time.
Wow he is off the deep end in serious need of cult deprogramming!
A team of psychiatrists would go looney themselves trying to peel away all the bs from free-dumb. It is a hopeless case.
Yes, but now we see how corrupt they are. The same democrats who caved into Bush every time. The same Democrats who refused to impeach Bush. Those are Barack’s surrogates=same old, same old.
same old, same old.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Because the ones in Congress are led by Pelosi who only thinks about her Speaker post and whose intent is to glorify herself.
Hyperbole. It not longer exist to take your needs and wants to task. In other words what he means is that you no longer exist to them. Capisce. Exactly what Hillary warned about Bush. She used to say that people didn’t exist for Bush. And now paradoxically and ironically her entire party is just a picture of Bush. How come, you ask?
Simple, they absorbed, appropriated and mimic their nemesis. They did that by obsessing on him. They obsessed until the transformed into him.
No problem, he also transformed into a Democrat. How about that? I bet if Bush would run again you would vote for him.
Heidi — Thank you for this. You are right to put the squabbles over fault, policies, VP picks, etc., aside, and focus on what really matters. None of us should feel that we are less important than any other member of the body politic. That’s where the concept of equality came from in the first place, and surely that is what it was meant to mean.
Your head-in-the-sand-ignorance is baffling. The Democratic Party has been overtaken by the likes of Soros and his billions; money can do a lot of persuading. Don’t believe me? Check out the many quotes attributed to MoveOn president Eli Pariser about finally *taking over the Democratic Party.* This is a group I used to be a part of…but I saw what was happening…what the new agenda was…and got out.
People were used by these new Democrats: I was one of them and I feel stupid that I did not understand what they were doing earlier on…
Elected officials only do not the Party make. Your commentary is stunning in its naivete.
The aim of Obama, Sanders and other socialist in our country is to destroy our economy to fool the weak minded into thinking the “free market” does not work. Then the political parasites promise to continue nurturing the “do nothings” from cradle to grave with billions of working American’s money. ALL of these people will always vote for the New Democrat (socialist) who always take home the “pork.”
This study was first proposed in 1966 and named after Columbia University sociologists Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, the “Cloward-Piven Strategy” seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.
Sounds liked ‘Atlas Shrugged’
A Reichstag fire a day - keeps democracy at bay.
Since they took people’s representative votes in the form of delegates and gave them to obama. Simple as that. You may still be part of the Obama party but I am not.
In the end, this is what the democrats will have. They will have those that loved Obama and nothing else. These people are for the most part, not loyal to the democrats, they are loyal to a man. After obama is gone, they will have nothing.
That is a good prediction to which I will subscribe.
the democratic party has been going in a very bad direction ever since congressional dems refused to back al gore in the 2000 election crisis. the ’selection’ of obama is merely the final nail in the coffin.
Exactly. The D Party is now The Party Of Soros. I call them SorosCrats, SortOfCrats or SorryCrats.
I think you hit the nail on the head.
Soros is an evil man and has a habit of destroying countries by messing with their economies (England, for instance).
He’s got all the money he could ever want.
What could his motive be, speaking of motives — lust for power, plain and simple.
He reminds me of Lex Luther on Superman.
An evil man who just loves messing with the world and killing humans way beneath him.
Obama is a “useful idiot” to Soros.
Evil exists and we are seeing it unfold now.
We saw it with Stalin and Hitler and many others — now we’re seeing it in Soros and Obama and others who want to use the U.S.A. as their evil sandbox.
But we,the people, with God’s help, can stop Obama.
Obama is a “useful idiot” to Soros.
The kids don’t get that.
You’d think they would understand after the FISA thing, the NAFTA thing, the Faith Based Initiative thing, that OBushie will do what he is told to do.
I think that’s why the DNC did what they did to Hillary - because they knew she’d be a lot harder to control. Why, she may even have been a success on her own merits if they let her in!
Can’t have that.
The kids seem to have no clue the guy is an empty suit.
Speaking of which - The SNL skit that mentions him is no longer on NBC website….. hmmmm.
No, the D party is now the party of O., relocated to Chicago remember.
They left me at the RBC cheat and I cannot move on from that.
Heidi,
“A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious, but it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is formidable, for he is known and carries his banners openly against the city, but the traitor moves among those within the gates freely, his sly whispers rustling through the alley and heard in the very halls of government itself. He rots the soul of a nation; he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist.”
Cicero
All good nicknames, but I like “SorryCrats” best.
Hehehehehe.
We’d all be SorryCrats if they had anything to say about it.
Have at.
When the excuse for bad behavior is that the means justify the ends–and the means are dismissed as just what the other party did–what is the difference between the parties? Only the candidate. There is no other point of choice. The people who think there is a party difference are deluding themselves.
Heidi,
Your own passion and goodness emanate from the beauty of your words. The sentiments expressed not only uplift, but inspire to coninue the fight, Yet the fight, it is clearly seen, must not be resorting to gutter level tactics, but by honest discourse coupled with a strong sense of moral clarity and rightness.
Thank you for the true serenity of your words. Your voice echos what so many of us are unable to express with such clarity.
Welcome to NQ! Susan and Larry are both people whose integrity and ideals are of the very highest quality. Hope you enjoy your visit here.
Thanks Heidi. I love Thurgood Marshall.
Heidi, when will you have your own blog talk radio show? I could listen to you forever!
You are in the exact place Obama wants you: in fear and despair and not fighting mad working hard to elect McCain. The feeling so many people want Obama is false. The MSM and polls are rigged.
Keep a stiff upper lip and carry on!
Volunteer. Call. Canvass. Talk to your neighbors. Send links…send articles.
I have encountered some people who listen to reason and are now not voting for O.
I will put my country, USA first, I have always loved her and will continued to do so, love the USA.
I will be voting for MacCain/Palin ticket this time.
I do not know what Sen. Obama stands for, tell me if you know.
I own my Vote.
Re-distribution of wealth……which will leave the country and help some other nation prosper. After that, his socialist party will have no one to tax.
Can you say banana republic?
Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction.
Thomas Jefferson
I read somewhere that when Obama was little, he drew in the sand or cement, “Obama is King.”
The seeds of the lust for pure power started early with him.
He is not the puppet for others more powerful and more evil than he is.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
You and I probably can’t relate to a lust for power — most of us just want to be able to work, live a good life and enjoy our friends and family, but there are human beings that are not satisfied until they hold tremendous power over mankind.
Obama is one of those people. His friends are also humans filled with power-lust.
Beautifully stated! Thanks for expressing so eloquently the ethical sentiments that inform our rejection of the kind of politics and politicians who have dominated—and wish to dominate—this country.
The fight for democracy has never been easy.
great post…I think the problem w Obama supporters is they are lacking in the importance and belief of integrity and character. Obama is doing what he needs to win?? That is truly pathetic. The fact that millions have that attitude, that it is ok to lie, cheat and steal, is astounding. The rest of us will just have to show them IT ISN’T OK.
I think the problem w Obama supporters is they are lacking in the importance and belief of integrity and character.
I don’t think that. I think the majority of his supporters are clueless…either adults who have been followers all their lives, or clueless kids who are scared out of their wits by fear of a draft (as if.)
I don’t think the majority of them are bad people at all. Simply scared, uninformed, and vulnerable to manipulation.
Rottenfish,
I worried that the truly clueless people like you will put Obama in power and Obama will change this country to
The People’s Republic of America.
If you want to know what the radical left has in store, you should read Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. It is spot on especially the ends justifies the means. Obama is more communist than anything else. His calling is more towards getting his own kingdom as Alinsky teaches. All of this thinking has warped some of our young since most of the college professors live by Alinsky rules as does the Media, I believe they all went to the same college didn’t they.
Rules for Radicals:
Men don’t like to step abruptly out of the security of familiar experince, they need a bridge to cross from their own experience to a New Way. A revolutionary organizer must shake up the prevailing patterns of their lives, agitate, create disenchantment and discontent with the current values, to produce, if not a passion for Change, at least a passive, affirmative, non-challenging climate.
I spoke Friday with a college junior in NO, who is also black. He told me exactly what you just said. He said he could never vote for a D for that reason.
Maybe Nancy,Harry, Donna and Howard should listen.
I don’t think it helps to demonize politically naive college kids, myself.
Much better to speak reasonably with them, adult to adult, imo.
When I say supporters, I am talking about voters, not partisans.
I think one of the main reasons this is happening because people have lost their faith in a Higher Power and Good and Evil.
Everything has become relative.
This is dangerous because it’s a lie.
There is good and there is evil.
If you don’t believe it, just imagine how you would feel if an intruder came into your home and killed one of your loved ones — and then got away with it, to boot.
Alinsky’s God was the devil, so far I believe Obama’s is too.
I agree with you.
Heidi, thank you for the thoughtful post. I agree, that whatever their intent; i.e, wanting to promote a Black candidate for President, their methodology is wrong, wrong, wrong. I cannot support this new Democratic Party that allows fraud in their caucus, convetion roll call, and illegal voter registration, etc. I don’t recognize my party anymore. The only way I know, that will force them to change, is to vote them out of office, and make sure that BO is soundly defeated in November. Hopefully, we will then have the opportunity to bring about a new and better Democratic Party. If not, then we seriously need to start a third party.
If Senator McCain and Governor Palin overcome all of the fraudulent votes garnered by ACORN, trained by Obama and Public Allies, founded by Obama, who are paid through funding by our government to “get-out-the-vote”, socialism in America will come to a screeching halt. Everyone on welfare, who is able to work, will be weaned from the socialist troughs funded by American taxpayers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZVw3no2A4
Heidi you do wonders with words and I thank you.
When we have become them, when Democrats look like Republicans, when the end justifies any means then it is time to tell our party one thing. PUMA
Live chat at my house for tomorrow’s debate.
I have not changed my mind one bit in months - McCain is going to win and it won’t be close. That said, for those of you so worried about what if Obama wins, I say this: We get the government we deserve. If Obama wins he will fail miserably. His own party will fracture and republicans will be monolithic in the opposition. He sees big majorities in both houses, but the party will find itself unable to form winning coalitions. In short, we will have four bad years but this cancer on the party will have been removed. I would guess it means an open door for Mitt Romney in 2012 and he is probably already salivating.
One thing is for certain: as long as Obama draws breath, I will hate him and do everything in my power to bring him down.
Keep dreaming.
We will and The fraud and corrupt thug will go down. Our dreams will become reality.
We will keep dreaming and the Fraud and Corrupt thug will go down. Our dreams will become reality.
Hope is cheap.
hadenough,
Why don’t you tell Ombama that his campaign slogan “hope” is cheap.
There are only 2 Obama signs around my neighborhood, the rest are McCain. I’m with you, Shiloh, McCain is going to win big!
I live in Northern California in an area that you would expect to go heavily for Obama. The strange thing this year is that there are pretty much no signs up anywhere for either candidate. Moreover, bumper stickers are few and far between. I can drive on the freeway for an hour and not see any bumper stickers at all. It’s never been like this before, so close to an election. I don’t know what it means, but it’s eerie.
same in CT — which is VERY surprising. the few signs I see are 70/30 for McCain.
It means your region of the country is non-competitive in this year’s election.
I live in Northern California, too. I live 12 miles from Davis, which is very liberal (University of California, Davis is there) and that’s the only place I have seen Obama bumperstickers.
I’ve seen none in my little town or the towns close by (closer to the S.F. Bay Area).
When Obama loses, he and his supporters will blame it on race, but it has nothing to do with race - it has to do with who he is (and who he isn’t).
Well my dear it sounds like fetile grounds.
Get your stack of stickers and tell everyone why John McCain can help the USA weather the coming economic storms.
A single grain of rice can tip the scale.
Thanks, Jackie, so true.
Someone once told me, “If you think you’re too small to make a difference — you’ve never slept in a tent with a mosquito.”
Let’s be mosquitos for the truth and freedom!
NoVA is O country sorry to say.
I even called the local McCain office about a total lack of campaign signs. No presence displayed anywhere whatsoever on the main thoroughfares. And just a few on lawns and in windows.
This is reminiscent of Hillary pretty much giving up on VA. Yes I know McCain/Palin plan a rally in Richmond but they need to hit places further north in O country.
Send email tip to Mac about this. info@johnmccain.com
Because, former democrats are afraid to put up McCain signs. We usually live in very democratic areas, if we put those signs up we would open our homes up to vandalism.
I don’t want to be on the recieving end of the Obama armies wrath. I will keep my vote private and go cast it in a booth.
O won’t take that part of CA. That’s Republican.
He’ll take the state via the city vote.
Astra 14,
In MI, I saw a lot of McCain yard signs, more than Obama signs.
By the way, an Obama’s Red Guard removed my McCain yard sign. Fortunately, I had 4 signs. I still have 3.
Put vasoline on the metal part … I swear it works. It makes it extremely difficult to take out of the ground.
Strange, to feel this way about a Democrat.
And I do, too.
Shiloh:
YOu always talk with such confidence. Do you know something the rest of us don’t or are you an optimist?
Y’know Shiloh…I have called over 1000 people in the last week I have had very few Obama supporters in my responses.
I think that there are more undecided folks looking for answers then every before.
But I do know that positive thought works out to be positive actions.
Take a bumper sticker and share the uplifting message of hope the McCain way. He really gets what it is to have hope and to make a positive difference. You can too.
Jackie,
You are wonderful!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/06/opinion/polls/main4504633.shtml
Robert, I’m curious - is it your intent that you be viewed here as confident? because in fact, you have reason to feel confident, but you aren’t coming across that way. You come across as needy and your need is to feel that you are having an effect on the sentiments of anyone here. If you feel that you are I’m pretty sure you’re wrong and your even being here is strangely uplifting. Do you have any actual thoughts about issues?
Everyone quit being scared and fight. I am now making phone calls for McCain. It is so easy. I have given money to help the campaign. I talk to everyone I can. Speak out - make people talk. Sarah Palin has the brains and the intestinal fortitude. Follow her lead. If John McCain could handle 5 years in a prison camp -he with our help can take down Obama and his thugs!!
Great job,Larse12!