<a href="mailto:llilja17@hotmail.com">By LORRAINE LILJA</a>
Innocent Bystander
April 30, 2008 04:32 am
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Election-wise, truth is stranger than fiction.
If I were writing a novel based on our election process, there is no way I would use the existing cast. With the outgoing president polling the lowest approval ratings in history, the Republicans' new candidate is embracing similar objectives. Although 75 percent of the nation is allegedly against the war, he proposes to stay in Iraq indefinitely.
The other party, with a reputation for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, is considering two candidates with built-in odds against them. There's an uppity woman who must fight the chauvinism of aging macho men. Her opponent is considered black, though his mother is white -- he will lose the voters with inborn racial attitudes.
Many women feel that having a woman in this position is long past due. In this nation of immigrants, others are celebrating the mixed lineage of the thoughtful man from Illinois.
Few prejudices exist in the unprecedented flood of young voters who are campaigning for their choice.
While the Democrats wrangle, Republican John McCain is traveling the world and courting the various factions in his party. For although the Republican candidate was decided upon early, it was not a universal choice there, either.
The rancor is so prevalent that it's hard to remember that we, "the people," chose this trio in a series of voting rites. Each party had a full field of wannabes and eliminated them one by one in contests waged coast to coast and beyond.
As Pogo said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
On second thought, I couldn't have come up with a more dramatic plot. I would probably have selected a governor in a pinstripe suit or a senior senator. We've been there, done that.
Women have been filling the top posts of nations all over the world. Why did it take us so long to have a distaff candidate like Hillary Clinton?
And Barack Obama is so symbolic of the melting pot that is America, he seems well cast, as well. Tens of thousands of men wearing uniforms of blue and gray gave their lives in the cause of equality. Why has it taken so long for it to become fact?
While McCain suffered in another war, could he have imagined that he would one day be running for the most powerful job in the world?
I want to know their views on a host of issues: Iraq, the economy, health care, Social Security, creation of jobs, educational opportunities, etc. It's so sad to see the political machines start throwing mud to confuse the issues.
We have this idea that we are world leaders, but we haven't looked lately at what the older nations are doing. Most European nations have free cradle-to-grave health care. I have a nephew living in Norway. His step-daughter came down with leukemia. She had the best of care. She was given a mechanized wheelchair and a laptop computer to keep up with her lessons. She's fine today.
Education is free, as well. From grammar school through higher education.
They are ahead of us in wind and solar power, too.
I think we have very worthy candidates. I will listen to their opinions and find which one is the most like mine, then vote for him or her, whatever the gender and color of their skin ... and hope I've made a noble choice.
Lorraine Lilja is a retired Press-Republican reporter. A collection of her columns, "Lilja's World," is for sale at local bookstores. Lilja can be reached at llilja17@hotmail.com
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