I have a disgusting personal habit. I enjoy talking politics with friends, family, even total strangers if they should show the inclination to participate in my disgusting habit with me. Those of you who have been reading this site (and there have been a surprisingly large number of you… thank you!) have probably figured out by now that I cast my vote for Barack Obama.
Those of you who are unfortunate enough to know me well are probably a little surprised by that. As a former ditto-head and frequent connoisseur of talk radio, I am not exactly the Democrats “core demographic”. Typically, “30-40 year old white males working white collar jobs” are a part of the Conservative base, or at the very least Libertarian.
In an ideal world, I would vote for a candidate like Ron Paul or perhaps even Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate. Votes are *never* wasted, even if you write in “M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E” on your ballot. Your vote is a voice and your voice needs to be heard, even if it is a discordant note. However, I don’t believe that any third party candidate that is out there today has a chance of successfully implementing their policies if elected President. That is a topic and a column (more likely, book) for another day, but suffice to say that there is not a *viable* third party in this country yet, nor is there likely to be one in the near future. Electing a Libertarian or any other third party candidate for President would ultimately do more harm than good for our country.
Traditionally, I have leaned closer to the Republican side of the aisle. I don’t like high taxes, and I think that many government programs are a waste of money. I don’t think that politicians can be trusted to look out for our interests, and that individuals are more likely to make correct decisions for themselves than government can in general. So why on Earth would I vote for Obama?
In the words of Ronald Reagan, “I didn’t leave the Republican Party, it left me.”
Over the course of the past 30 years, the “Conservative movement” has been co-opted by people who are no more conservative than Ted Kennedy (or Barack Obama, for that matter). Between tax incentives for corporations to move jobs offshore, an interventionist foreign policy, erosion of civil liberties, gun nuts, and shameless pandering to a religious base that would see just about everything made illegal (gambling, abortion, drugs, alcohol, you name it). The party of “personal responsibility” is anything but. I’ll address each of these groups one by one in a bit.
The fact of the matter is that government interferes in just about everyone’s life. Death and taxes have a new roommate. The question you must answer is “What can you live with?” Can you handle paying 3% more per year in taxes if it means that the government doesn’t wiretap your phone calls or have a say in who can get married and who can’t? What issues are important to you?
In business, the Republicans (aided and abetted by Democrats) passed a 700 billion dollar bailout package for Wall Street. Ostensibly, the package was supposed to be used in order to fund new loans and stimulate the economy. In actuality, the money is being used to pay for “executive compensation packages” which are lining the pockets of Wall Street fat cats. 700 billion would pay for a lot of social programs and leave enough to fund a few R&D projects. Do we really need to bankroll failed CEOs on Wall Street? If we had done nothing, and let those banks fail, smaller institutions would have purchased the failed bank’s assets for pennies on the dollar. Your mortgage would still be intact. Your credit cards and loans wouldn’t have gone anywhere. The economy would move on and eventually recover. Your 401(k) would have taken the same hit that it already has taken.
I’m not trying to paint corporations as some nefarious entity. Corporations and other businesses exist for one purpose and one purpose only. Making money. They follow “the rules” because failing to do so costs them money. They move jobs offshore because it is cheaper to do so than it is to keep them here. Why on Earth would any sane politician write tax laws to encourage job movement overseas? Obviously Corporations would favor such laws, it allows them to make more money. Corporations have no sense of “community responsibility”, nor should they. They make money. That’s all they do. If government decides to re-write the tax code to provide incentives for certain business activities, then corporations will blindly follow along and go where the money is. It’s not a question of personal liberty to tax corporations or to provide incentives for them to keep jobs in the US. It is a question of money, and “how much is enough?”
In foreign policy, the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive war has done more to damage the United States’ image in the world than any other action in our recent history. After the attacks of 9/11, Bush had the political capital he needed to take the fight to the terrorists. Democrats and Republicans alike stood with President Bush and were ready for him to lead us to war. Even the French, later lampooned and mocked as “Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys” boasted newspaper headlines saying “We are all Americans” America had the chance to turn a tragedy into an International moment of triumph. We could have stood at the head of an entire host of nations saying “Terrorism will not have a place in our world”. With the right strategy, we could have brought Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden to justice while offering our enemies the same rights that our own citizens enjoy. A fair trial, a public presentation of evidence, a chance to rebut and defend themselves in open court. We could have gone into Afghanistan, routed the Taliban, and “brought ‘em back alive”. We could have fought for justice using the very principles that we claim to hold dearest, and won.
Instead we went to Iraq.
Our government lied about weapons of mass destruction. Our government engaged in a petty propaganda campaign to tie Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda. Our allies around the world walked away from us (except for Great Britain, and while we were wrong in this instance, you can’t help but admire a nation who will stand by you no matter what.) Our enemies had a neutral field to fight on and other nations who might otherwise have not gotten involved now had a reason to jump in the fray against us even if they did so in a clandestine fashion. (Syria, Iran, etc.) Now, our best reason for remaining in Iraq is essentially “We broke it. We bought it.”
Finally, let’s take a look at the religious base of the Republican party. The same base that McCain has courted by nominating Sarah Palin as his running mate.
Drugs. We’ve spent billions on the “War on Drugs” and it has been a colossal failure. Having failed to learn the lessons from the Prohibition era (which gave birth to the Mafia), outlawing recreational drug usage has resulted in a proliferation of gang activity and crime. There are drug offenders in prison serving longer sentences than rapists and even murderers. Has it worked? Just say “no”
Abortion. How is this still an issue? Roe v Wade was over 35 years ago. The fact that this issue is still a plank in the Republican platform is mind-boggling. The fact that John McCain can say the following two sentences back to back with a straight face is chilling. “I do not believe that someone who has supported Roe v. Wade that would be part of those qualifications. But I certainly would not impose any litmus test.” It isn’t chilling because the issue is abortion. It’s chilling because he knows that there are a significant number of voters out there who will vote for any candidate who vows to fight Roe v Wade. It’s chilling because most politicians wait at least one speech before contradicting themselves and won’t do it in consecutive sentences.
What these issues show is that the Republican party, allegedly champions of personal responsibility, will pander to the worst elements of our religious faith. They see nothing wrong with telling individuals how to live their lives just as long as it doesn’t involve money. They have no problem championing personal responsibility if it means fewer social programs or more money for failed CEOs, but when it comes to drugs, abortion, gay marriage, or what consenting adults do behind closed doors, well that can’t be left to the whims of the masses, can it? Abortion, gay marriage, and drugs are not issues that matter to me in the slightest. It is a waste of their time, and more importantly my tax dollars, for government to be involved in those issues to any degree whatsoever. The apparent hypocrisy of advocating personal responsibility while simultaneously dictating what adults do in their private lives is not lost on me, nor should it be on you.
Why am I voting for Obama? Because we have to be the ones to tell Republicans “You’re fired”. They have failed to do their jobs over the last 8 years and it’s time to give the other side a shot at it. If Obama should stumble and fail to deliver on his promise of “Change we can believe in”, you can rest assured that I’ll be looking for someone to replace him in 4 years. If Obama comes through on his promises regarding energy, education, and restoring America’s image in the world, I can handle paying a couple thousand dollars more per year in income tax. (I won’t have to. My taxes would decrease under Obama’s plan, but that’s beside the point.) I have heard nothing from the McCain campaign that would lead me to believe that his administration would be any different than Bush’s administration. Change? or More of the same?
Your call.
