There are now less than 8 weeks until Election Day. Those weeks will be a time of strong emotion and, for a lot of people, dramatic mood swings. So much is at stake, and so much has gone wrong since Election Day 2000, many Americans simply cannot bear the thought of any kind of continuation of the Bush years. Many other Americans cannot fathom the possibility of an Obama presidency. Emotions will not merely run high: they will dominate everything.
Except, thankfully, the campaign run by Plouffe and Axelrod.

Emotion is such a central part in all human affairs that to discuss its mere presence feels obvious: Well, duh, yes people are going to be emotional. But the nature of the emotions at play in these last two months of the campaign deserves comment because, despite the theme on which Obama has built so much — hope we can believe in — the two dominant emotions that we are seeing expressed are fear and anger.

These emotions share something in common: Both kill hope.

Fear is easy to understand. We saw the Supreme Court overthrow the will of the American voters, five justices deciding that not every vote had to be counted. In 2004, the irregularities in Ohio gave the appearance of another stolen election. In 2008, we know that voting machines are not safe; the ability to steal yet another election is very real.

The media is giving the GOP candidate yet another free ride. In 2000, blatant lies about Gore were repeated endlessly, undermining his legitimacy while Bush’s record and suitability for office went unexamined. In 2004, the mainstream media abetted the swiftboating of John Kerry and, for a second time, did no serious reporting on how Bush avoided service himself in Vietnam.

This time, McCain’s pathetic self-labeling as a maverick receives virtually no scrutiny from the MSM. His actual record of voting with Bush 90% of the time is reported only by liberal and progressive reporters and bloggers, and the former are vastly outweighed on cable and the networks by corporation-owned mouthpieces. His temper, his horrific dumping of his first wife, his Keating Five past, nothing gets the kind of journalist vetting the next president deserves.

The kind of media beat-down Obama has taken. That he survived the orgy of Rev Wright “reporting” is testament to the skill of his campaign and the amazing speech he gave in Philadelphia. Currently, the media is concentrating on the polls and how day-to-day tracking shows Obama to be in big trouble, even when a simply examination of how he is doing state-by-state — the way we actually vote — shows him on the brink of an easy electoral college victory.

Seeing all this, knowing that the will of the voters can be stolen and the minds of those who vote based on the most evocative commercials can be swayed with just a few million dollars, many voters are angry. Terribly angry. Fear begets anger, and a cycle grows that slowly squeezes hope.

The only cure for this, of course, is personal action. Sending money. Volunteering. Few people enjoy making phone calls or going door-to-door, but there is no other alternative. This is what it means to be a progressive: You get out and do it yourself. Great candidates are a blessing but they are no guarantee. Ron Wyden has become a more responsive and dependable advocate for progressive beliefs as the movement has grown. He didn’t need to be taught new beliefs or ideals; he just needed to be shown that thousands of Oregonians would actively support him as he spoke for universal health care, tax fairness, net neutrality and opposition to the war.
Politicians have to know we have their back.

If we fear what “they” might do, if we consume ourselves in anger, our hopes are lost. The only remedy is to take personal action. Contact the local Obama office, or Merkley, or a state representative. Join with Defend Oregon to fight the Mannix and Sizemore initiatives. Nike has had the right answer for years now: Just do it. Do something, anything.

Or stay at home and let your fear and anger slowly destroy your hope. Do you really want to live with despair?