Fried Fetuses and Watermelon
Well, I did it. I voted for Obama. God help us all.
If he gets elected, it's obvious that anything bad that will happen during his presidency would not have happened during a McCain presidency, because that's how it works.
It's too late now to try to talk about why people should vote a certain way (if I even wanted to talk about that). Instead, we can talk about how people did vote and why. Well, we don't know the results yet, but you know what I mean.
It's strange. In '04, liberals didn't vote for Kerry so much as they voted against Bush: they hated Bush (as they still do) but couldn't get excited about Kerry. This time around, however, liberals seem to be voting for Obama instead of simply against McCain--there doesn't seem to be much in the way of outright hatred toward McCain from the liberals that I have seen, and Obama has, needless to say, excited liberals quite a bit.
For my part, McCain seemed a bit like my dad: a good guy you can respect, but with some ideas about how to run things that ultimately aren't good for the country.
Now there are good reasons and bad reasons to vote a certain way. I'm sure there are plenty of people who voted for McCain--or declined to vote at all--either because they support McCain or because they have serious misgivings about Obama. Of course, many people have misgivings about Obama, but not all of these are what I'd call serious drawbacks as much as Republican scare tactics.
Here are some of the reasons I voted for Obama, which I consider to be good reasons:
* supporting his desire to draw out combat troops in Iraq, and fight terrorism smarter
* prefering his healthcare plan to McCain's (as far as I can tell)
* thinking he seems to have good temperment and intelligence
* supporting his desire to cut taxes on the lower end of the economic spectrum (where I am!) and on basically concentrating on "bottom up" economic strategies
I have to admit--in the back of my mind I thought there was a chance that maybe electing half-Kenyan Barack Hussein Obama might increase our standing somewhat among people in other countries, specifically people who might be pursuaded by other people to support killing us. Giving Obama brownie points for his father's background essentially means giving him points for his race, which I do not think would be a good idea by itself (see below). However, I consider this possibility of raised foreign esteem to be a side benefit. If I hadn't thought his policies and leadership were good for the country, I would not consider the chance for some slight uptick in foreign people liking us to be worth it.
I voted for Obama, but I almost didn't. Here are what I consider some good reasons to vote against Obama:
* lack of experience
* disagreement with him on some issue(s), such as (in my case) abortion
* similarly, wariness about the ballooning deficit and whether his proposals may increase it
I can understand, as someone who almost didn't vote for Obama, why someone would oppose Obama being president on those grounds. Now here are what I'm sure you'll agree are some bad reasons for voting against Obama:
* because he's black (though of course no one's doing that)
* because you think he's a Muslim
* because you think he's some kind of super-socialist caricature intent on getting our kindergarteners to fornicate while formenting "class warfare" and also somehow managing to be an ultraconservative Muslim at the same time (I consider this different than merely having a disagreement, ideological or otherwise, about his platform)
Frankly, I think class warfare is a good idea, inasmuch as it's already going on. I think a lot of Reverend Wright's words were taken out of context and I personally can't get too excited even if they weren't, I don't quite know why. I think it's a good thing that Obama has ties to students of Saul Alinsky--Saul was the man.
A lot of this discussion rests on whether Obama actually is a "closet radical" like his enemies fear and many of his supporters hope. This only time will tell. While I personally have mixed feelings about socialism in general, I kind of doubt he is a closet radical, what with all those capitalist economic advisors. And whether you have good reasons or stupid rich-person reasons for opposing socialism, I think we can all agree there probably isn't going to be the dawning of the People's Republic of Barackistan if he gets elected.
But even if you don't agree with me on the coolness of class warfare, you still should repeat these magic words:
"Barack Obama is not a Muslim."
Whether it would matter if he were Muslim is moot. He's not. That's it.
Which leads us to talk about people voting against Obama because he's black. Or anyway it would if people had done that, because we all know that nobody would ever think of such a thing, certainly not anyone we know, and we are insulted that anyone would stoop to such accusations.
But if people were to oppose Obama because of his race (how silly of me to even consider!), the race factor would be closely tied to thinking he's Muslim and thinking he's Fidel Castro. Race in America, any pundit can tell you, is waaay too fuckin' complicated. Those kind of associations (non-white/Muslim terrorist, non-white/socialist) tend to crop up in us crackers' minds. Heck, I voted for Obama's black ass like a good college-y liberal, and I can't even say I don't have some racist thoughts and tendencies somewhere back in the cobwebby attic of my brain.
Just letting you know I'm not being self-righteous about my vote.
Seriously, though, I actually think (as of this morning, the fourth) that I've made the right decision. It's not normal for me to think I've made the right decision about anything, so that's saying something. Of course he could be the antichrist and bring the world to destruction in December 2012, but I guess that's meant to be.
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-------------------------
Back to contents:
http://jlhart7.blogspot.com/2006/07/contents.html
If he gets elected, it's obvious that anything bad that will happen during his presidency would not have happened during a McCain presidency, because that's how it works.
It's too late now to try to talk about why people should vote a certain way (if I even wanted to talk about that). Instead, we can talk about how people did vote and why. Well, we don't know the results yet, but you know what I mean.
It's strange. In '04, liberals didn't vote for Kerry so much as they voted against Bush: they hated Bush (as they still do) but couldn't get excited about Kerry. This time around, however, liberals seem to be voting for Obama instead of simply against McCain--there doesn't seem to be much in the way of outright hatred toward McCain from the liberals that I have seen, and Obama has, needless to say, excited liberals quite a bit.
For my part, McCain seemed a bit like my dad: a good guy you can respect, but with some ideas about how to run things that ultimately aren't good for the country.
Now there are good reasons and bad reasons to vote a certain way. I'm sure there are plenty of people who voted for McCain--or declined to vote at all--either because they support McCain or because they have serious misgivings about Obama. Of course, many people have misgivings about Obama, but not all of these are what I'd call serious drawbacks as much as Republican scare tactics.
Here are some of the reasons I voted for Obama, which I consider to be good reasons:
* supporting his desire to draw out combat troops in Iraq, and fight terrorism smarter
* prefering his healthcare plan to McCain's (as far as I can tell)
* thinking he seems to have good temperment and intelligence
* supporting his desire to cut taxes on the lower end of the economic spectrum (where I am!) and on basically concentrating on "bottom up" economic strategies
I have to admit--in the back of my mind I thought there was a chance that maybe electing half-Kenyan Barack Hussein Obama might increase our standing somewhat among people in other countries, specifically people who might be pursuaded by other people to support killing us. Giving Obama brownie points for his father's background essentially means giving him points for his race, which I do not think would be a good idea by itself (see below). However, I consider this possibility of raised foreign esteem to be a side benefit. If I hadn't thought his policies and leadership were good for the country, I would not consider the chance for some slight uptick in foreign people liking us to be worth it.
I voted for Obama, but I almost didn't. Here are what I consider some good reasons to vote against Obama:
* lack of experience
* disagreement with him on some issue(s), such as (in my case) abortion
* similarly, wariness about the ballooning deficit and whether his proposals may increase it
I can understand, as someone who almost didn't vote for Obama, why someone would oppose Obama being president on those grounds. Now here are what I'm sure you'll agree are some bad reasons for voting against Obama:
* because he's black (though of course no one's doing that)
* because you think he's a Muslim
* because you think he's some kind of super-socialist caricature intent on getting our kindergarteners to fornicate while formenting "class warfare" and also somehow managing to be an ultraconservative Muslim at the same time (I consider this different than merely having a disagreement, ideological or otherwise, about his platform)
Frankly, I think class warfare is a good idea, inasmuch as it's already going on. I think a lot of Reverend Wright's words were taken out of context and I personally can't get too excited even if they weren't, I don't quite know why. I think it's a good thing that Obama has ties to students of Saul Alinsky--Saul was the man.
A lot of this discussion rests on whether Obama actually is a "closet radical" like his enemies fear and many of his supporters hope. This only time will tell. While I personally have mixed feelings about socialism in general, I kind of doubt he is a closet radical, what with all those capitalist economic advisors. And whether you have good reasons or stupid rich-person reasons for opposing socialism, I think we can all agree there probably isn't going to be the dawning of the People's Republic of Barackistan if he gets elected.
But even if you don't agree with me on the coolness of class warfare, you still should repeat these magic words:
"Barack Obama is not a Muslim."
Whether it would matter if he were Muslim is moot. He's not. That's it.
Which leads us to talk about people voting against Obama because he's black. Or anyway it would if people had done that, because we all know that nobody would ever think of such a thing, certainly not anyone we know, and we are insulted that anyone would stoop to such accusations.
But if people were to oppose Obama because of his race (how silly of me to even consider!), the race factor would be closely tied to thinking he's Muslim and thinking he's Fidel Castro. Race in America, any pundit can tell you, is waaay too fuckin' complicated. Those kind of associations (non-white/Muslim terrorist, non-white/socialist) tend to crop up in us crackers' minds. Heck, I voted for Obama's black ass like a good college-y liberal, and I can't even say I don't have some racist thoughts and tendencies somewhere back in the cobwebby attic of my brain.
Just letting you know I'm not being self-righteous about my vote.
Seriously, though, I actually think (as of this morning, the fourth) that I've made the right decision. It's not normal for me to think I've made the right decision about anything, so that's saying something. Of course he could be the antichrist and bring the world to destruction in December 2012, but I guess that's meant to be.
-------------------------
-------------------------
Back to contents:
http://jlhart7.blogspot.com/2006/07/contents.html
posted by jlhart7 at 5:15 AM
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