By DoubleSpeak guest contributor Todd Henkin

At a local pub the other night, I struck up conversation with a few raggedy dressed guys sitting near me. One looked to be about seventy years old and the other maybe twenty-five. Though of completely different ages, they had a similar look in clothes, in mannerisms, and in the dark circles under their eyes. My friend nudged me and told me they came often. They were coming from the Veteran’s Hospital nearby. They drained their beers over little words before we started speaking, eyes pasted on the television, four elbows on the beer-wet counter.

We were watching the national news, a rare break from sports at an Irish pub. This was evidence of a new interest in America; politics. These primaries have been like the NCAA tournament as we approach March-Madness with no clear candidate. The sport has especially intensified on the democratic side as the two candidates spar with each other in training for the championship fight. Each is secretly throwing extra power behind their bruising body shots. There are usually no knockouts in sparring bouts, but recently we are seeing something different.

Leaning in to hear our conversation, the younger veteran decided to join us with a comment. He told us he’d just gotten back from two tours in Iraq and found it to be a completely useless and un-win-able war. He said he’d vote for whoever would get us out quickest. Having identified himself on the Democratic side, we then pushed him to a decision between Clinton and Obama. His answer struck up a new topic. Both he and the older veteran agreed that Obama seemed like a worth candidate except with one major drawback. “He’ll never make it through a full term if he wins. Someone will definitely shoot him. They always assassinate guys like him. They’ll find a way.”

I’ve heard this election described on the news and by many of my peers as a battle between fear and hope, the old and the new. McCain represents the old politics of fear, as he is constantly drilling into our heads the threat of terrorism and of those countries that support it. Obama represents a new politics of hope and change with his omnipresent motto of “Yes we can.” He is drilling the promise of a New America devoid of the kind of interest group politics that have strayed the agenda from helping US citizens to helping major corporations. You may wonder “Where is Hillary Clinton on these sides?” Having played the game for nearly two decades in Washington, though she may be the first woman to run for office, she is not new to the white house. The old Clinton moniker simply does not represent change as well as the name Barack Obama.

When discussing the election with my friends, many of them, to their dismay, believe that McCain has the edge over either Democratic candidate. This is difficult to believe with all the scandal and mistakes tearing into the Republican Party over the last eight years. Are the Democrats so ineffective that they can’t win over a party that, so obviously is not only self-destructing, but pulling down the rest of the country like a purposely demolished building along with it? The answer is that it’s not completely the fault of the Democratic Party. They have a difficult job with their own demolition project; the demolition of an extremely sturdy Machiavellian monument of fear.

This monument has been painstakingly constructed throughout the last eight years of the Bush administration. The empowerment of a new and complete propaganda news source, Fox News, the sacrifice of Colin Powell, an American icon, and constant manipulations of information have served as an unbreakable foundation to this monument. The keystone, however, to this monument is not held in place by evil architect Karl Rove, puppet king George W. Bush or the horned devil himself, Dick Cheney. They have been hoping to build something that will outlive them, as do all architects. They needed something with lasting power. They found it in the minds of the American people. Without our weakness towards fear, the Republican monument could never be built, let alone held together.

As Barack Obama picks up steam around the country with his message of hope, we have to analyze his chances in the ring against this reigning champ. McCain may look old, but he has grown into a Goliath, snowballing around the states learning to be a conservative. In this process he found the fountain of youth, or I should say the fountain of fear. In a few months he went from political death, to Lazarus, sprung from the grave, stronger than ever, ready to face even the youngest and wiliest of opponents in Barack Obama.

Ladies and Gentleman of the audience, here we are, approaching a fight of biblical significance, David against Goliath. How will the story end? Well, the Old Testament had it’s moments of hope, but if I remember, a new book was written where heroes like David are nailed to a cross and left to die. Here in America we have learned to follow the example of our most popular book. We have learned to crucify our heroes. We hurry them onto impossible pedestals, toss them into the all seeing public eye, and then watch in pleasure as they are slowly burnt down to nothing, like an ant in a magnifying glass.

How many hours did we sit and watch the O.J. Simpson trial? How many hours did we waste defining sex and analyzing Bill Clinton’s exploits with an intern? How much time and effort are we wasting now with the congressional hearings about steroids, attacking record setters like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. What are baseball players doing on capitol hill? They were brought there by a rich and powerful industry, fueled by demand, that builds up and tears down our celebrities and national heroes. Barack Obama’s rise to fame through the media is no different than Roger Clemens or pop star Britney Spears. Hillary wonders why he is getting a free ride.

Many of us are saying to ourselves, “I’ve seen this before.” A quick rise to fame, media love, national adoration, then something is discovered. Then over a long period of time we watch the prolonged torture of character assassination. It’s like the plot of any predictable Hollywood thriller. There is a successful formula at work. When I spoke to the veterans at the bar the other night and they spoke of how little hope they had for Obama due to the threat of assassination, I had not considered the duality of that word. Their fear is not only of real bullets, but a fear of the sharpshooters of a legal and thriving industry of assassination in this country. The feeling of Déjà vu in Obama’s rise to fame is simply the scene that’s been pounded into our heads through constant repetition. Set up the target and shoot it down. In light of this, I found my own trite, but still functioning answer to repeat to them; “I’m not going to live my life in fear.”

Euphobia is defined as “The fear of receiving good news.” It’s the closest term I found to a fear of hope. Barack Obama is a human; and humans are flawed. Therefore, for those of you afraid to like him because you are waiting for the inevitable flaws to be uncovered, don’t worry about it. It will happen. They will dig until they find something; and if they don’t find something worthy, they will create it. We have to learn to collectively stop feeding these monsters with our morbid desire for our heroes’ failures. What we need to do is learn to focus on what we can do together by believing in something positive. The more faith we put in our fears, the longer they will reign over us, not only in the White House, but at the center of our lives. We were once a nation of idealists.

Believing in Barack Obama’s message takes more than voting for him, it takes a re-examining of our selves. To do this, we need to stop fearing our reflection, shooting mirrors in our bedrooms, imagining them to be invaders. Our president is someone who will represent us to the rest of the world. He or She will be our reflection. The standing of our international character under President Bush is surely sinking. We have a decision to make as the world watches. Do we want to project a nation of fearful cynics, waiting for things to go wrong, or a nation worthy of rebuilding what has been deconstructed in recent years; our monument to hope. I’m holding my breath; not to delay the drowning, but for the trip back to the surface.

Todd Henkin is a conscientious objector living in the great city of Philadelphia. He is a writer of political commentary, non-fiction accounts of what he feels is an interesting life, and is the songwriter and singer for local band The Great Unknown. Contact Todd at Thenkin@gmail.com