I’ve had a little time to think about this, now, and put my thoughts in order.

There, I said it. Go here to see why.

(yes, I know the punctuation is wrong)

Isn’t it a great thing that we have a black President-elect of the USA?

No, not really.

I’d better explain that, I suppose.

In probably my first conversation with my father about Obama, I was slightly surprised at the strength of his desire for Obama to win. Why? I asked. You know what he stands for just as much as I do, and you certainly don’t subscribe to it. Because, he replied, he grew up in the 60s, with the civil rights movement in the US, and this was something they never thought they would see happen. This was a culmination.

Okay, I said. I get that.

I mentioned that in terms of leadership, the US would shortly have a black man at the #1 spot, with a woman at the #3 spot (Nancy Pelosi). The man at the #2 spot (Joe Biden), my dad pointed out, was a Catholic. The 60s win! I joked, but it is only a win if that is what the civil rights movement was about. I don’t think it was.

Margaret Thatcher becoming PM did not result in nor co-incide with a sea-change in the attitudes of the UK towards women in politics (there are 125 female MPs to 521 male MPs in the UK Parliament nearly 30 years after Maggie got the top job). That Margaret Thatcher reached that position says more about her than it does about the UK’s attitude to women in politics, just as Barack Obama’s achievement says more about him than it does about racism in the US. Sexism and racism are still with us, as are capable, smart politicians.

I suppose it is a case of being careful what you wish for. When you get it you own it, and people do some odd things to justify purchases they should never have made, just like people will say some odd things to justify the very establishment positions Barack Obama has made it clear he will be taking. There is going to be a lot of disappointment, and a lot of denial. Maybe some weeping and rending of garments, who knows?

I think he is a very capable politician and clearly preferable to McCain in almost every way (I say almost, but I really cannot think of a way in which McCain is preferable), but they are both war criminals who will keep the wars going and Obama, almost certainly, will start ones of his own.

One perspective is that voting is support. Read Arthur Silber for all you need to know about that. The other perspective, articulated by Noam Chomsky in an interview recently, is that voting is a responsibility, and by choosing the lesser of two evils you reduce the harm.

It is hard to whip a stadium into a frenzy chanting, “Reduce The Harm”, however.

I really wish, for my dad’s sake if nothing else, that Obama was “the people we were waiting for”, but I seriously doubt it. Efficient imperial management has been restored. Hooray.

The thought occurs, although I wish it wouldn’t, that we might wind up missing Bush and Co. At least they were either arrogant or contemptuous enough to do some of their looting, pillaging and general violence out in the open, and happily let their incompetence hang out like an ill-judged muffin-top on a pasty teenager. They were, on the other hand, obsessively secretive, of course, and most of the establishment went along with them in that, but some of their land-grabs were so egregious and brassy-balled you couldn’t hide them under a National Security directive the size of Texas. I think Obama will be much more circumspect when he attempts something similar, but will be grateful for the curtain of secrecy drawn by the departing dauphin.

I won’t mention politics again, in case you are wondering. That is not the direction this revived blog is going in.

My new Ork warboss has two new powerklaws, by the way. The left one is called “Hope” and the right one is “Change.”