What is wrong with everyone? I keep hearing and reading peoples reasons for who they have decided to vote for and I have never been so disgusted in my life.
Let’s look at some of these reasons:
- Because Senator Obama is African American
- Because they do no think that the country is ready for an African American president.
- Because Senator Hillary Clinton would be the first woman president
- Because Senator Obama would be the first African American president
- Because Senator John McCain is a veteran like me
- Because I think Senator Obama is a secret Muslim
- Because I do not trust his wife (either Senator McCain or Senator Obama)
- Because he or she is too rich I will vote for another (has there ever been a poor president in say the past hundred or so years – how about ever)
- Because I feel he or she was rude to my favorite candidate I will do anything to spite them even vote for a candidate I don’t like.
- “I don’t give my vote on the first date.” “I need to be courted.”
- I don’t like him that much but I will never vote for a Democrat
- I don’t like him that much but I will never vote for a Republican
- The Republicans don’t like African American people
- The Democrats don’t like Christian people
And on and on the list goes on.
Where are ideas like: The most qualified, who will do the best job, who most represents your values? What we have is wild generalizations, wild accusations, bigotry of different sorts not the least of which is racism, spite, and ultimately stupidity.
How can any human being truly place wellbeing of our country, the lives of the people that live here including our children, the peace of the entire world and all of the rest of the spheres of power or influence that the president has into someone’s hands for such reasons.
People! Each one of our votes is precious and a presidential election is not a game of Monopoly with toy pieces, play property to buy and have taken by the bank, and play money. This is our lives involving real people, real homes in foreclosure, taken by real banks, and we are spending real money.
Even more astonishing is the fact that people are even so bold as to think it is okay to say these things publicly and even on television.
The entire planet is watching one of the most powerful nations in the world (the most powerful in the eyes of many) in the democratic process it has repeatedly told the world is the best system going. Then we show the entire planet this nonsense as the way we chose our leadership.
The facts are that we have two candidates that do not really represent anyone in any party. We asked for change and got confusion. We asked for non-partisan and we got people who really believe in nothing and stand for nothing.
They build a pretty good case for what they say they stand for, but the evidence is that they stand for nothing.
The fact that so few people even care to look that deep is a disgrace and an embarrassment.
I have come to a conclusion. If you vote for one of these stupid reasons, don’t vote, or vote in line with my biggest pet peeve; voting simply by party, you have no right to complain later no matter who is elected and what they do.
Here we are going into September, near the end of the Democratic Convention and the biggest rival Senator Barack Obama has is…Senator Hillary Clinton?
How can this be? How do the Clintons get more airtime and media attention than the nominee, Senator Obama?
I have to question how this man intends to unite the country and the world while he cannot even unify his own party. The independent voters and unsure Republicans in particular have a hard time thinking he can carry out anything if he cannot even get his own party behind his ideas.
The government is divided enough with two parties fighting and being childish without separating the members of one of those parties and in reality pitting three groups against each other in a fight to the death (although it is others that seem to do the suffering and dying while they sit on Capitol Hill playing games).
This potential scenario is quite scary. If that is the new Washington we are being promised, it is actually worse than what Washington is now. Tri-partisan politics under the president of a kingdom divided against itself.
In Senator Obama’s defense I have to admit two things.
The first is that while Senator Clinton has stated all of the right things over the past few days, she has been slow to undo the damage she did to Senator Obama in the brutal cage match that they had against each other.
A simple statement to the effect of: “I know I said that Senator Obama was not ready to lead or to beat Senator McCain, but the experience and growth both of us has had over the past few months on the campaign trail has made him obviously a far stronger candidate than he would have been without our brutal battle and things that were true than have been proven not to be the case now.”
That is the kind of political statement a person who was truly supporting a candidate would make. Her whole case over the past few days as to why we should vote for Senator Obama is that Senator McCain is such a terrible choice (not that I disagree, but it is not a very strong case for Senator Obama).
The second is that the diehard Democrats and Hillary Clinton supporters who seem to be holding out on Senator Obama all seem to be total wing-nuts whenever they are interviewed. I honestly tried to hear their case with an open mind but they sound so silly, petty, and spiteful that I cannot take them seriously.
This one lady I saw on Larry King yesterday named Elizabeth Joyce stated she was not ready to vote for Obama because she doesn’t “vote on the first date” and that he hadn’t “courted” her vote enough yet.
She basically stated that she wants to vote for the person most adept at behind kissing. Not whoever she believes is most qualified, will do the best job, who most represents her values, or even who is more likable, or any of that. She sat on national television as a representative of the progress and strength of women in 2008 and said the key to the votes of strong women like her was political foreplay (I personally think she just set the cause she represents back thirty to forty years in one interview).
This was not an isolated incident (although it may have been the stupidest that I saw). All of the people I heard trying to defend this stand basically made it clear they were making a political statement by not voting for Senator Obama. Most of them would state however that they felt he was a better choice than Senator McCain. A political statement? Who are these people who would throw away what they themselves believe to be better for the nation, the world, and all of us just to make some point.
This is the party Senator Obama is supposed to represent in his plan to unify and run our great nation and this is the result of his candidacy.
Whatever the reason is for how it happened, I am not finding a lot of hope in what I am seeing.
I have been quietly watching Senator McCain and trying to see if there was anything to hope for beyond what I already knew. I tried to have an open mind and was again disappointed.
Over the past few weeks I have watched Senator McCain get on the offensive (and yes it was definitely offensive). I actually was okay with the first few attacks and political ploys, but it has really gotten tired.
I could not place how I was feeling about him until I heard somebody describe him as reminding him of the grumpy elderly people down the street that we all remember for always yelling at the neighborhood children for making too much noise or for stepping on their grass etc.. That hit it on the head. He strikes me as just some grumpy person that that is just angry at a bunch of stuff.
I have also watched him and anyone who supports him build on Senator Hillary Clinton’s theme of his extensive experience in government service.
I was thinking about that and the first images that came to my mind were
- Me watching the news sometime in the late eighties or early nineties and suddenly hearing a song from the very political rap group “Public Enemy” playing on the local news. This caught my attention and although I do not remember which song it was, I will always remember the kinda scary looking gentleman that was the topic of the news story. The story was about the people who were fighting against the Martin Luther King holiday and that “poster child” for this movement perceived to be anti-African American was one Senator John McCain.
- I remember flipping through the channels at some point in history and seeing some guys from the government in some kind of legal trouble and trying to defend themselves. Apparently there was a question of some possible shady dealings and one of those men was this Senator McCain fellow.
- I remember being vaguely interested in the 2000 elections and suddenly this one guy busts out and says a bunch of anti-Christian stuff and blows his stack. I remember thinking to myself; “Isn’t that that crazy guy who fought against the Martin Luther King holiday.”
In sports I have had several coaches that made a correction to a popular saying. The popular saying is “practice makes perfect.” The correction is “No! Perfect practice makes perfect. If you practice it wrong you will only do it wrong in the games and lose.”
Just time spent in the government does not make a person a good president especially if the memories I have are any indicator of what we can expect of McCain presidency.
Court cases, angry outbursts, and the end of those pesky tributes to African Americans. I know it sounds a little extreme, but I am not the only person who has these scattered memories along with some vague recollection of his wife in some kind of trouble for prescription drug addiction.
I honestly have not given these things much thought until the recent push to focus on Senator McCain’s ever so incredible and extensive political experience. I went through the memory banks and this is what was buried back there. Research has revealed much more good and bad, but I am still haunted by these images.
I am even more haunted by the idea of similar images coming from a president of our great nation.
And if I hear one more person defend their plans to vote for Senator McCain by stating he or she doesn’t trust Senator Obama or because he or she wanted Senator Clinton to win the nomination I promise to vomit on them. Not voting for him because he would be a good president, can save us from the current messes, or even is a good candidate, but to spite the other candidate a person would put the fate of our nation and all of it’s inhabitants in the hands of someone they do not truly believe would be a better candidate. A person who would do something this careless and reckless should have their right to vote taken away.
I have yet to see any reason to vote for either candidate from the major parties and yet have reason upon reason why neither one is a safe bet for the Whitehouse.
I am beginning to think there isn’t even a lesser evil. It is like asking which person in the morgue is deader or in effect which is the “lesser” dead? They are all dead and that is that.
Both of these candidates are terrible and that is that!
