Pamela K. Taylor
Co-founder, Muslims for Progressive Values

Pamela K. Taylor

Taylor is co-founder of Muslims for Progressive Values, former director of the Islamic Writers Alliance and strong supporter of the woman imam movement. She blogs at A Modern Muslim

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The Diversity of America

Over the past month I have watched as Barack Obama's campaign was supercharged not just by Obama's own charismatic personality, or efficient campaign machinery, but by average people around my home state of Ohio. My neighbors called me, visited my house, hung leaflets on my door, and emailed me in an unprecedented show of grass roots support. And this is in a heavily Republican district where we had little hope of winning.

As in past elections, I've received recorded calls from the governor and national party leaders; I've gotten official mailers and been bombarded by TV ads, but this is the first campaign I can remember where the people I live with every day -- the guy who works at my gas station who wore an Obama button on his uniform shirt, the family across the street who posted yard signs, the lady in my mosque who arranged house parties to get out the vote -- got involved.

Obama's message of hope and change has clearly struck a cord with the average American who is feeling beleaguered by an economy that leaves some astoundingly wealthy while the rest of us struggle to give our kids the things we feel essential for them to develop their full potential. It's clearly spoken to the minorities in our country -- Hispanic, African American, even Muslim American despite the various incidents in which Obama fell so short of our hopes for him (incidents like campaign staff telling two women in hijab they could not be in a promotional picture with Obama, or the firing of his Muslim adviser after criticism that he was associated with various mainstream Muslim groups who have been smeared in certain circles as soft on terror, or even his own rebuttal of the accusation that he was Muslim, which so clearly should have been met with the answer, "No, I'm not, but so what if I were?", which was left to Colin Powell to say.)

Obama's message of hope and change also resonated loudly with young people. My oldest daughter turned 18 this year, and due to Ohio law was not only able to vote in the presidential elections, but also in the primaries. Watching her, and her friends, and the enthusiasm they showed for politics and for Obama contrasted sharply with my own first presidential election where Michael Dukakis ran a lackluster campaign against George H. W. Bush and there was absolutely no hope at all for a Democratic win. Unlike Hilary Clinton, who ran a passionate, and hard-headed campaign in this year's primaries, 1988 front-runner Gary Hart foolishly threw away his presidential hopes by challenging the media on their accusations that he was having an affair and then the next day meeting his lover, which, naturally, was easily discovered by the paparazzi. The young people on my college campus, which coincidentally is where my daughter also goes to college, couldn't have been more disgusted by the Democratic floundering. When I visited my alma mater in the beginning of October, Obama was on everyone's mind and posters littered dorm room windows and hall way cork boards (with a lone display championing McCain.)

This ability to stir up the grass roots and to run a campaign that inspired and mobilized local resources is, I believe, the key to Obama's win.

By Pamela K. Taylor  |  November 7, 2008; 11:20 AM ET Save & Share:  Send E-mail   Facebook   Twitter   Digg   Yahoo Buzz   Del.icio.us   StumbleUpon   Technorati  
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Diversity in America!

We go into the Muslim mosque and find a call to violence against infidels and oppression to women.

We go into the Jewish synagogue and find myths and more calls to violence via the trumpets of Jericho.

We go into the Catholic/Christian church and find blood and bodies and pretty, wingie thingies but no Virgin Mary.

We go into Hindu temples and find cows and the lower class cleaning up the dung.

We go into a Buddhist temple and find tributes to obese and not so obese male figurines.

Posted by: CCNL | November 10, 2008 1:11 PM
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CCNL
The way you just cut paste your hate-filled comments shows acute state of your sickness, which in-self is a pusishment for your bad deeds.
May your heart and mind rest in peace and the boils be healed.

Posted by: jamil51 | November 10, 2008 4:57 AM
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Hopefully President-elect Obama's call for change will change Islams' call for world domination to include a rewrite of the Worst Book Ever Written, i.e. the koran!!!

Posted by: CCNL | November 9, 2008 6:18 PM
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I have always thought that America would have a Black president and a female president before a Jewish president. It is something Jews and Muslims have in common is that we are both non-Christians in a Christian world.

However, the reaction I get from far too many Muslims is classic Western Christian antisemitism. They talk about tolernace and then blame their problems on Jewish or Zionist conspriacy theories. I don't mean this columnist, but it happens far too often.

Posted by: shirah | November 9, 2008 8:16 AM
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Strange to find few of you on "char-coals" about Quran. It is called stubborn and ignorance.

Posted by: jamil51 | November 9, 2008 5:16 AM
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Daisy says:
“even his own rebuttal of the accusation that he was Muslim, which so clearly should have been met with the answer, "No, I'm not, but so what if I were?",”
There is plenty wrong with him using your reply. Islam is an ideology that is camouflaged as a religion, and this ideology runs counter to all the values that this society believe in: Starting from freedom of conscience, religion and press right through gender equality and pluralism. Such a reply would have definitely relegated him to the dustbin of history. He is smarter than to bite on such a hook.

Posted by: abhab | November 8, 2008 11:27 PM
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The Reality of the 2008 Presidential Election in the USA:

The fastest growing voting bloc in the USA: The 70 million "mothers and fathers of aborted children" whose ranks grow by two million per year. They easily put President-elect Obama in the Blood Red House!!!!

Posted by: CCNL | November 8, 2008 1:20 PM
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" ASTORIA :

"Obama's 50 state on the ground campaign can be credited with one man- HowardDean- (remember him? candidate for prez until his ufortunate yeeeehaaaaw?)"

*sigh* I remember watching that with a big facepalm, though to be honest I thought it was delightful. :)

The 50-state campaign is really a lot more satisfying than only focusing on swing states. It really makes everyone feel more involved, and in the end, represented.


"He has changed the paradigm of how campaigns will be run forever."

Well, let's hope so. :) I think it has interesting implications for campaign finance reform: I think the power of masses of small donations might be something worth keeping, while reducing the big-money donors' influence.

Posted by: Paganplace | November 8, 2008 12:26 PM
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This was the first presidential election for both my kids. It was a proud moment for me for all three of us to go to the polls together.

My first presidential election was in 1980. I voted in the evening after Jimmy Carter had already given his concession speech. (I live in California.) I was really peeved. We all knew Reagan was going to win, but Carter shouldn't have officially conceded until all the polls were closed. As I recall, he got a lot of criticism for that.

Posted by: LaurelYves | November 8, 2008 11:35 AM
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Stop picking on the Koran. It is no worse or better than the Bible. In fact if you read it there isn't a lot of difference between the two. The problem is mankind. We(mankind)are bound to walk the bow and arrow road.

Posted by: PatStrickland | November 8, 2008 1:09 AM
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Hopefully President-elect Obama's call for change will change Islams' call for world domination to include a rewrite of the Worst Book Ever Written, i.e. the koran!!!

Posted by: CCNL | November 6, 2008 10:36 AM
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Obama's 50 state on the ground campaign can be credited with one man- HowardDean- (remember him? candidate for prez until his ufortunate yeeeehaaaaw?)
He has changed the paradigm of how campaigns will be run forever.

soo- in honor fo Howard Dean - and especially OBAMA

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: ASTORIA | November 6, 2008 1:25 AM
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Actually, hopefully, it won't be too long before we can say 'that's how the game *was* played,'

Yaknow? :)

Posted by: Paganplace | November 5, 2008 4:56 PM
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Eh, Ms. Taylor. Dukakis' campaign wasn't 'lackluster,' it was *pre-luster.* Acting like Reagan hadn't turned the news-media into the entertainment organs so satirized by our old friend Max Headroom.

He lost over Willie Horton-related fearmongering and the fact he looked kind of dorky in a tank helmet.

Gary Hart had problems cause despite actually being a guy with good ideas, he mostly ran on a JFK-nostalgic sex appeal and was dumb enough to use it. :)


But that's in the past. :)

Frankly, the Dems still tend to be focused on the issues and consider the media thing nonsense to get out of the way.

Which is actually not the worst idea ever.

Good thing we got a statesman this time.

The last two guys that ran got mostly slammed over supposed (and manufactured) lacks of 'personality' and 'intellectual elitism.'

Not a rare characteristic in guys who don't think the numbers are something Daddy gives you. :)

As for complaints about the overcautious intern Obama renounced keeping women off the stage cause of Republican smear-and-fearmongering, well didn't we go all through that?

People might think *I* dress funny sometimes. Maybe I don't think I ought to be a quarter of the people in a bust shot of someone I want elected, either. That's how the very game you cite and teenage interns bathe in is played. Even if Obama himself took the high road.

Posted by: Paganplace | November 5, 2008 4:53 PM
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Our War on Terror and Aggression will continue under President Obama because the Worst Book Ever Written, i.e. the koran, did not change with the election.

Posted by: CCNL | November 5, 2008 4:34 PM
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