White Light Black Light

The Chem Blog, in these days of electoral hysteria, has been hit hard. The bloke who writes it is very keen to show everybody that, back in September, he was already mad for Obama.

The main reason why I’d like to see him comprehensively beat the Republicans is because: Bush is an imbecile, Sarah Palin is a bitch and the party have managed to ruin a decent man such as McCain.

My real hope, however, is to see Gloria La Riva to ultimately prevail and finally put a marxist in the White House. I mean, how hilarious would it be?!

Americans still see Marxism and Communism as evil, creepy things. Me, born in Italy, have fairly different perspectives. Let me explain. Italians and Spanish have lived under fascist dictatorships until relatively recent times. Therefore, when people define themselves as communist, we aren’t shocked and don’t try to escape and call the police/army, as, I’ve noticed, people do elsewhere.

It’s acceptable, even if we are aware of what was going on in the USSR or today in places like North Korea or China (two, utterly different ways of interpreting marxism, by the way). Despite this knowledge, our (recent) history make us focus more on far-right extremism, which we perceive as a worse threaten to our democracy, and tolerate opposite ideologies.

America, from this point of view, is even more different from other countries. Diehard Republicans still, today, claim that Democrats such as Barak Obama (whose name also sound like Iraq and surname like Osama, as a British comedian recently pointed out as an explanation for Republicans’ recent speculations of a link between the Democratic candidate and islamic terrorism) would turn free America into a Socialist dictatorship or something. Communism creeps in as the boogyman in many speeches. I wonder how the Yankee, public opinion perceived the presence on its sacred territory of an official communist party during the Cold war.

I tolerate any opinion as long as people do no harm to other people in the name of their ideas. I would vote for the Tories here in the UK, too. So, my endorsement for Gloria La Riva should be taken as a provocation but invite you to reflect about how you normally judge radical political views. And, actually, I have always been fond of desperate underdogs.

I think Obama will win, although not as triumphantly as everybody outside the Republican rallies believes. I don’t think he’ll be able (and willing) to change things that much. But, until Wednesday morning, let me dream of a radical marxist woman that win the American, presidential elections. My Goodness, that really would be a change. Hasta la victoria Comandante La Riva!