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One reason (among others) for Obama's victory is the economic crisis, and the way Obama calmly responded to it, as opposed to the McCain camp's somewhat irrational attempt to make political hay out of the plunging markets. Obama's response, at first, was actually to do nothing for about a week while he studied the problem and decided what would be best to do. Obama was (and is) practicing a simple, rational approach to the problem: get all the facts before you make a decision.
In the coming years we're going to face even more crises. The economic meltdown has taken all of the "press" away from the peak oil crisis, and the environmental crisis, but make no mistake, they're there. The media may be currently spending all their air time explaining the minutia of credit default swaps to the astounded public, but we have even bigger and nastier problems on the horizon. And these are not the kinds of problems that will respond to empty political showmanship such as "suspending the campaign." These are the kinds of problems that inherently require rational, organized approaches.
The American love of technology and rationality is one that's bred deep in the bone. We take pride in thinking of ourselves as innovators, as scientists, as the first nation to put a man on the moon. Sure, we do have a strong religious / irrational bent, but ultimately everyone benefits from the fruits of science in their daily lives-- electricity, combustion engines, modern health care. The "average" American gets this, I think.
And this is why, ultimately, the McCain-Palin ticket failed to win over average Americans -- because Palin, especially, displayed a dangerous strain of ignorance, an obvious lack of rationality, that scared many people.
The Fundies, of course, loooooved her. She represented to them, the "pure" candidate they've been hankering for. But, ultimately, the Republican party is going to have to figure out a way to kick these crazies to the curb and move themselves towards a more rational mode. Because, folks, we are facing crisis after crisis in the coming years... these crises, sadly, of our own making, but there you go. And we are going to have to approach them with the same rational calmness that Obama uses. Let's figure out what's going wrong, then figure out how to fix it. With science.
With all the shit we've got coming down the pike, the leaders that we are going to need in the future will be cool, rational, science-based problem-solvers. As long as the Republican Party is trapped by the heat and noise of the ultra-religious branch, they're not going to have any energy to figure out how to rationally solve problems. So, keep up the religious wingnuttery, Republicans -- the way things look, America is going to continue to elect rational DEMOCRATS for the forseeable future.
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