Email Exchange between Yang Shixin and Ms. Marge Lipton (2)

 Hello Marge,

Recently, I have read something on the experience of the candidates' respectively. I think that the experience that Mr. McCain got when he was a POW shapes his personality and his view on this world which is obviously different from that Sen. Obama holds. For McCain had a very tough time in Hanoi as prisoner, he ,of course, will be supportive for the use of force. He thinks the reason why American lose Vietnam War is that the US did not take use of all it could to confronted the Communist in North Vietnam. Partly because of McCain's hard time during Cold War, his running-mate, recently, said to public that Obama is a socialist. In my view, McCain primarily focuses on the political ideology and the state interest. As an African American, Mr. Obama has experienced what Mr. McCain cannot gain when he was growing up. Sen. Obama has been to Pakistan and other Muslim countries and has learned a lot about that civilization. Thus, he looks like a internationalist rather than a pure and extreme nationalist. Maybe, under Obama's leadership, we can establish a novel relationship with Muslim world and peacefully co-exist with other civilization in the world.

 Shixin 

 Response from Ms. Marge Lipton:

Hi Shixin,

You are very perceptive. This is one of the fundamental differences between Americans. There is a split. Some are extremely nationalistic...seeing it as "my country, right or wrong"...and damnit to anyone who thinks otherwise.

Then there are the internationalists who realize that the world is changing, globalization is here, and America cannot go it alone. This means sometimes having to ask for and hear opinions contrary to what we may believe or want to believe. I find this a critical component of dealing with a 21^st century world. But many people here are scared of this new world and want to preserve the past. In fact, that is another way of looking at this election: clinging to the past or choosing to enter the future, with all its unknowns.

 It's easy to understand why so many people do want to cling to the past. America is a big country, but amazingly only a tiny fraction of Americans have passports and first hand experience with other countries and cultures. For some people in the small towns and cities, while they've been affected by the changes in the world, they have limited familiarity with it. Yes they shop at Wal-mart and welcome the cheaper products made in your country and elsewhere. But ever since 9/11 many of these same people have developed an unrealistic and unfair fear of all Muslims. Of course they're scared of terrorism. We're all scared of that. But when you think about people in Israel, for example, who have been living with terrorism for generations, you have to admire them. They don't stay in their bunkers. They don't avoid riding busses (which are frequently targets of the bombers.) No, the Israelis say, this is my home, I'm not going to give in to fear and stop living my life.

New Yorkers have come to adopt that attitude. But much of the rest of the country is scared and rather than have the Israeli reaction, they just want to close the borders and seal "everyone else" out. Of course that's hard to do. America was not formed by bloodlines. America was formed as an idea and we have citizens from just about every country on the planet who've decided to make their lives here. This part of the American dream is also what the election is about.

John McCain does see the world from his prism. And it's a valid one for him. He's also smarter than his rhetoric on the campaign trail and I'm not sure he believes everything he's saying. But he does feel that he has a whole lot more experience than Obama. And I think it kills him that this untested younger man, who comes from such a unique background would even dare to take him on. But for many voters, in this particular campaign season, McCain's experience which looked great in 2000, now looks backwards when a growing number of  citizens here are realizing the need to move forward. The election will tell us which side wins.

Calling Obama a socialist is ridiculous to me because I don't believe that is what he believes. Now that major banks have been "nationalized" even temporarily, by a conservative Republican president and administration, just goes to show that ideology, while important, isn't always what is necessary in solving a crisis. Sometimes you just have to do what makes sense to get you out of the crisis. I would call that pragmatism. And I'm a pragmatist rather than an ideologue. For example, National health insurance may come to make sense in America because we can't afford to have almost 50 million people uninsured using the emergency room as the place for their primary care, thereby making it more expensive for the patients who do pay or have their insurers pay.  

Marge