The Election in Beijing

Here is a little piece a filmmaker put together about a somewhat crazed Obama supporter during the lead up to the election.

(If you're having trouble viewing, you can go here.)

I wish I could have been in the U.S. during the run-up to the election—I would have liked to have canvassed, talked to neighbors, etc.—but I have to say that living in China during this time has given me an interesting vantage point. I hope my blog does not get censored for saying this, but Chinese people don’t have a clue about how democracy works. They’re not even cynical about it—imagine that. I was showing a Chinese roommate a video of an earlier Obama speech, and she became awestruck: you mean a politician who doesn’t bore you to tears with officious speech giving? Things work differently here. I won't go into details...

The events of the last couple weeks, indeed the last year or so, brings to mind for me a certain Leonard Cohen lyric:

"It's coming to America first / The cradle of the best and of the worst / It's here they got the range and the machinery for change / It's here they got the spiritual thirst. / It's here the family's broken and it's here the lonely say / That the heart has got to open in a fundamental way. / Democracy is coming to the USA."