God Blessed America

I've never said, "God Bless America" (nor God Damn America) and have thought the practice trite at the least and idolatrous at worse. Last night, after listening to Obama, I felt a gladness and delight in the American ideal as symbolized in the electoral victory last night. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered without tanks or military coups to transition from a horrible government to a new one. In defeat McCain was gracious. In victory, Obama set out an audacious vision. McCain and the Republicans may have lost but America won last night. The world is a slightly better place this morning. God blessed America.

Morality and youth

You may not agree with who they promote but the sentiment is bang on - voting is a moral action for young people and we need to treat it as such. Of course they are making fun of anti-drug PSA but that is the point. Adults get obsessed about the wrong moral issues, like drugs, and leave aside the most important ones, like who is the next president of the largest military power in the world.

For my blue state friends

Perhaps because I currently live in NJ (a Democratic state) I often hear, "If McCain and/or Palin win, I'm moving to Canada." The following public announcement should help:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid271557392/bctid1842856410

Winning without winning

The results are in. Harper, Layton, Duceppe win. Dion and May lose. In the end, nobody really won. Harper has more seats but not a majority. Layton has more seats but not as many as Broadbent. Duceppe holds even but hasn't furthered his separatist agenda. Dion clearly is the biggest loser. May didn't even get a seat (why the heck did she think she could beat McKay?)

I hope that Harper and the Conservatives do not interpret the rejection of the Green Shift plan as a rejection of the environment by the Canadian electorate. Can't the Tories reclaim the leadership that Mulroney showed regarding the environment? Can't they find a truly conservative policy regarding global warming? Can't they find a way to connect their economic policy with a progressive environmental agenda? My hope is that Layton and May can give up their left agendas and focus on crafting an environmental policy palatable to Harper.

I hope that this environmental soul searching will also lead to a renewal of the Conservative party. I'm dismayed that they can't win in Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver. Maybe Harper needs to look to Britain for ideas on how to renew the party. If he doesn't, he may end up like Diefenbaker - a Western prime minister unable to govern a majority who gets pushed to the edges when the opposition party finally elects someone who can rally the troops against him. Heck, there is even a Trudeau in Parliament again.

Do Hard Things

Marko pointed this meme out to me through his blog. I wasn't aware of these guys before but I think that they are entirely correct in their assessment that young people are significantly more competent and able to deal with challenge than the "mook" or "mid riff" image of adolescence promotes.

Tie this into one of the questions asked by an elderly man from Chicago at last night's Presidential debate. "What sacrifices, other than military service, are you willing to ask Americans to make?" (I'm paraphrasing). Obama started to get it although I thought that his answer wasn't as strong as it could have been. He should have gone the direction that the Harris twins go - life has more meaning than consumption and we need s to step up and start to claim meaningful challenges for the young people in their lives.

Please Register to Vote

I have a bias for who you vote for but it is more important to me that you vote. Democracy matters.

Student Polling info

First, I'm happy about this piece for its content. I'm glad that students don't like Palin. I'm not sure that it is all that significant considering how few students there are and who vote but it is still encouraging.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, I'm envious of the US. I deplore the electoral cycle and the money that it consumes here in the US. I like the Canadian electoral cycle, its brevity and its relative cost. What I do miss is regular polling information about particular demographics. Specifically, how do young people feel about politics. I've done some cursory searches but I can't find equivalent data for Canada as I can for the US. I'm sure this is a factor of the very things I deplore. The US has more time and more money to study these things. Not worth the trade off but I think it would still be worth it for Canadians to have a greater sense of how young people are or are not engaged politically.

James Fallows on election

As some of you know, I read the Atlantic monthly cover-to-cover. I have since 1995. James Fallows is one of my invisible friends who I trust and has been for a long time now. His comments on Palin reflect my own opinion. Palin is unprepared. Leave aside the fact that she has not demonstrated the capacity to prepare, at the moment, she could not assume the duties of VP or POTUS with any degree of knowledge or competence. That, for me, is enough reason to vote for someone else.

Framing the Election

In part as an effort to move away from my opinions about the current US election and moving the discussion towards a more neutral ground that includes some of my interests such as media literacy and young people, I offer the following link. Henry Jenkins provides a sustained analysis of the two presidential candidates bio videos. (By sustained I mean too long but it is worth touching down in a bunch of places). He uses George Lakoff's theory of how the two nt parties "frame" their presentation in such a way as to appeal to two different types of people. What I like about this piece is that Jenkins is using it specifically to talk to young people about how the media shapes our vision of the world.

I think that we often confuse being technologically savvy with being media savvy. There are always young people who are skeptical about the media that they consume but there are a larger number who are not as critical as they should be. Take for instance, Jenkins comment that his students typically view these bios as objective history and do not inquire into who and why they were produced. I look forward to the next installment which deals with the Vice Presidential candidates.

Links to references

In my response to burnlikestars below I referenced two items. First was an article about the dangers of talking points in a campaign. My friend John pointed me to this article earlier this morning.

Second, was the Sarah Palin interview where she did not understand the significance of the Bush Doctrine. Here it is: