Sundays with Sus--11/2

My sense of humor is coming back... and hopefully it's not of that slightly hysteria-tinged variety which precedes the nervous breakdown. Because I admit it, I'm on pins-and-needles about this election. But there are only two days left... and I've done about as much as is within my humble means and abilities to do. Except vote, that is.

And so I'm looking ahead to the future... and here's what's on my mind today:

1) What's your Superpower, America? As I see it, this clash of values unearthed by Election 2008 is largely about competing notions of what America's role in the 21st Century should be.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War left America as the sole and reigning Superpower. Even though times have changed drastically, some in our country seem insistent upon clinging to that old role, because it suggests we are somehow safe from all threats, both military and economic--what do you think those hockey-game-esque chants of "USA! USA!" at the Republican National Convention were all about? Xenophobia and the Bush Doctrine of preemptive strikes play very much into that outdated notion of American supremacy.

I believe that America can maintain its role of Global leadership--in fact, I think most of the world is hungry for that. But it can't be based on military might (do y'all want to reinstate the Draft in this country? Because at the rate we're going, that's what it's going to take. And nobody likes a bully... do they). And our businesses can't continue to rest on their intellectually lazy (and lobbying) laurels, if they hope to truly compete economically with all these upstarts like China. It's going to take some vision, and all of us tapping into the greatest of America's truest resources: intelligence, creativity, boldness, and a concern for the common good.

John Cleese remarked recently on this paradox about American culture as it currently stands: In most of the world, resentment centers around wealth, and the have-nots envy and fear those who have. In our country though, it seems to be intelligence, rather than wealth, that's the seed of resentment separating the haves from the have-nots. Too many in this nation fear intelligence, and love to pooh-pooh the value of things like a high IQ and an Ivy-league education. How else could a man like Bush Jr. get elected, and twice (fer Chrissakes), simply because he was the guy everyone wanted to have a beer with. Because they were comfortable with him, because he seemed just like them...

But I, personally, don't want a President who's "just like me." He/she better be a hell of a lot smarter than I am! How else could a President possibly tackle these tremendous challenges facing us, and set the course and tone for the kind of complex policy initiatives our country so desperately needs to get us, and the world, back on track?

Because let me say this about McCain: he can be funny. Really funny. And I totally get why he was so popular once, on both sides of the aisle, as they say. He's also got this habit of being goofily honest and unguarded on occasion. A great trait in a person you have a beer with, but the kiss of death when it comes time to, say, negotiate with world leaders. Goofy does not command respect (trust me, I speak from personal experience here). Goofy ears, maybe. Goofy personality, no way.

So think on it: what's your Superpower, America? (My superpower of choice, personally, would be Invisibility--hardly a surprising choice among writers and filmmakers, who are a largely voyeuristic bunch at heart, believe me. See Hitchcock's Rear Window, for example.)

2) The winner of Election 2008 cannot say, in essence, F*ck You to the "Losers." Because the losing side will still get the vote of about 43% of the electorate, at the bare minimum. Nothing is going to get accomplished in this country if the "winners" effectively disenfranchise that 43+ percent. We need them. And our new President has to know how to get those people to the negotiating table, and set an example by accepting their 50% share of the responsibility to work together in brainstorming solutions.

That's the challenge in store for not only the next President, but for us all... when you really stop to think about it. Because the microcosm feeds the macrocosm, and the macrocosm feeds the microcosm, and so on and so on...

Enjoy your Sunday, everyone. Go have some laughs... That's what I'm going to do (which is why I'm on self-imposed no-cable-news lockdown today).