I'm sorry. I really do try to be even handed. I try to stay right in the middle and really see things from both sides. But this is one I just don't get. First of all, I really can't see why anyone hasn't made up their mind yet, and second of all, I really can't see why anyone would still vote Republican. Now, I don't mean this to sound like a Democratic rally here. I'm serious. As a thinking adult, who has weighed all the issues, and who doesn't always agree with the Democratic leadership (in fact I sent them a rather nasty e-mail a couple of weeks ago), nor do I swallow campaign hype and regurgitate it as fact, I just can't see why anyone would vote Republican at this point.
I didn't understand it in 2000, but I thought, "Well, 50% of the American people voted for Bush - maybe I'm missing something here?" But then, well, he didn't do anything except show his ignorance. And then, after 9/11, he sent us off into a disastrous war that had nothing to do with anything either. Our economy took a hit, gas prices rose, we were forced to make tough moral, legal and constitutional choices and all the while Bush kept telling us that didn't agree with him that we were wrong. I looked around at the way the world was crumbling and I kept thinking, "What are these people smoking?" But clearly, I was still not seeing it correctly because 51% of Americans voted him back into office.
The train wreck continued. And now our economy is in a free fall and I'd like to think that the Republicans might fix it, but just as I'm not eager to give over tax payer money to the companies that caused the collapse, I really can't see why anyone would want to hand over their vote to the people in charge of the country when the collapse occurred. I don't know what people are looking for in a President. But I can't imagine that the color of one's skin or their "inexperience" or their charisma would exclude them from the highest office when we've already seen what the other guy has to offer.
I didn't understand why people would vote for Bush in the first place and he proved to be the biggest disaster of a President this country has ever seen. And now I can't understand why people would vote for McCain at this point in time, and I worry what that means for the country over the next four years.
Of course, I only get one vote and I have to go along with whatever the American people decide - just like everyone else. My criteria for electing a President might be different that yours. I happen to think that the main reasons for electing a person ought to be 1)their intelligence (We've seen what stupid CEO's, Baseball Managers, and elected officials can do, so why do we keep electing them?), 2)their patriotism (I've got to believe they love this country and not just the perks of the job), and 3)their can-do attitude. This last quality is the most difficult to define, but its that quality of leadership and potential that you see in the rare individual that would make you want to follow them into any situation. It's the Kennedy mystique and the way we think about Abraham Lincoln (after the fact). It's that little bit of Knute Rockne and Jimmy V. and the 1980's Olympic Hockey team rolled up inside of us. It's that spirit of Rocky, that eye of the tiger.
To be fair, I don't question two out of three of these qualities for John McCain. In fact, I mostly downgrade him for his integrity. Had he stuck to his guns over the torture of enemy combatants, I'd probably be voting for him right now (I'd at least be conflicted). And so that makes me wonder if McCain really wants the job for the right reasons and whether he'd become beholden to the special interests who practically ran the White House for the last 8 years. And, of course, Sarah Palin as President scares me even more. Not that she's not a good person, or that she couldn't be a capable leader, but President of the United States? This isn't a fantasy where some ordinary joe shmoe becomes president and saves the world. This is reality.
But again, I must be seeing things that others are not. So will somebody please enlighten me as to what trick of light I'm missing that suddenly makes putting the Republicans back in control of the country for the next four years a good idea? Otherwise, I just don't get it.
3 comments:
I understand your point, and in all seriousness, I'm leaning towards Obama myself (all my snarky comments elsewhere about voting for myself notwithstanding).
I do find it quite amusing that far right Republicans and far left Democrats are actually in agreement that there shouldn't be a taxpayer bailout - politics certainly makes for strange bedfellows.
The main consolation I see is this: Bill Clinton had the benefit of a Democratically controlled Congress during his first term, and he STILL couldn't get anything done.
I see the same with a President Obama and a Democratically controlled Congress, especially since I believe Obama will be making a bee-line straight to the center once elected - the fact is he has to pander to the extreme elements of his party just as McCain must do to his.
And isn't that the main indictment of the past 16 years, quite frankly? We've had two very polarizing presidents in succession, each one's 2nd term progressively worse than the other, and a Congress that's so encumbered by lobbyists that no one EVER in that body will ever be truly "clean".
And let's not even get into the mess that is the State of California.
Thinking back to the 2000 debates, I could just see old W stumbling if they'd asked him the foreign policy questions they asked McCain and Obama... As for the rest, I tend to agree with you.
I really wasn't looking for a defense of my position on Obama. I know who I'm going to vote for and I should encourage you all to decide the same. What I was really looking for, however, was some defense of McCain - someone to explain to me why they would vote for him with some sort of sane rationale.
Alas, I'm not sure I'll ever find someone.
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