REDS

REDS 

In the last week of this interminable Presidential campaign, the candidates are focusing entirely on seven erstwhile red states (Florida, Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina, New Mexico, Colorado, Virginia), all of which went for George W. Bush in 2004, and the red portions of one blue state (Pennsylvania). Ordinarily, this would be very good news for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. With the battle joined on territory the enemy must win to prevail, the odds are way too long that the GOP can come all the way back and steal victory from the jaws of defeat. 

But there are dissenters. 

The theory of the McCain campaign is that, at the eleventh hour and fifty ninth minute, the natural order will reassert itself; that most of these states will come home to the GOP; and that John McCain will be the nation's 44th president, albeit by a narrow margin and probably without a popular vote victory. The legion of pundits who thought otherwise will have serious egg on their face; the Democrats will psychologically implode given the enormity of their collapse; and a new corps of political consultants will take a bow, having demonstrated that the politics of fear and smear really works. You just have to believe. 

This is John McCain's dream. 

It would also be America's nightmare. 

To avoid it, I end this missive to all in favor of a simple message for the REDS. 

Don't do it. 

You are much better than the party you have been voting for, and you deserve much better than they have given. 

In 1980, Ronald Reagan famously asked: "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" Ask yourself the same question today. 

 Is your job more secure? Is your country? Is your retirement assured? Is your 401(k) worth more now than it was then? Can you afford to get sick? Are you even insured? Can you afford to send your kids to college? Are they in a school good enough to get them into the best college to which they can gain admittance? 

If your city or town is wracked or destroyed by a hurricane, will your government be there to help you? As your environment warms, is the government doing anything about it now? If you own a small business, or work for one, can the business get credit? If you declare bankruptcy, will it provide real relief, or will you still be saddled with that credit card debt, or those medical bills? Can you still afford the mortgage?

If you can't answer yes to way more than half these questions, there is no reason for you to elect John McCain and Sarah Palin. They call themselves mavericks. In fact, they are ventriloquists. And they think you are their dummies. 

After you have answered all those economic questions (and the single national security one), don't stop. 

Ask yourself if you know anyone who is pro-choice, or gay, or who lives in a "blue" state, or went to a good college? Do they go around praising the destruction of fetuses? Are they really anti-family? Just because they want their own? With someone they love? Are they all elitists? Have you ever seen a New Yorker get up and give his subway seat to a stranger who needed it? Did you know that all those elitists mobbed the hospitals on 9/11, donating so much blood that the hospitals had to stop accepting donations? 

If your kid got into Yale, would you tell her not to go because you were worried she'd become one of them? If she got straight A's there, would you tell her not to come home? Not to run for office in her home town because she had lost touch with her roots while studying in New Haven? 

Did you ever get a traffic ticket you knew was wrong? Did you fight it? In fighting it, did you think it wrong that the police had to actually prove you violated the law? Did you insist they do that? Were you a radical for doing so? Anti-American? Anti-cop? 

I know you are not a "socialist" and that McCain and Palin have tried to make this election something of a referendum on your aversion to that ideology. 

So here are a few more questions. 

Do you believe in socialism for banks? Or hedge funds? Or investors who purchased mortgage backed securities written on sub-prime loans that now have no value? McCain and Palin believe in all of this. Oh, I know, they don't call it socialism. But it is. They are willing to use your dollars to bail out the banks. They want to redistribute your wealth to the hedge fund operators or stock issuers who made the lousy bets. They think this will make it better for all of us over the long haul, and it probably will. If you agree, then you too may be a socialist. 

Just like McCain and Palin. 

When all is said and done, ask yourself if you think America is on the right track. I know 90% of you think she is not. (I know this because it is what you tell the pollsters when they ask. You don't walk away. Or refuse to answer their question. Or hide your views. Which, by the way, is what the McCain campaign says lots of you do when you are asked who you intend to vote for.) 

So . . . please . . . all of you out there in red America. All of you who know things are not going well. Who know we can do a lot better. Who know the whole promise of America is that tomorrow can be better than yesterday. 

Vote for Barack Obama. 

I promise you. 

He doesn't bite.