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Maybe just one post on Political Thoughts
September 20th, 2008
Just one post on this subject. Tomorrow I will have pictures of The Son, or something else appropriate for a mommy blogger. I have kept pretty quiet about this election, and I really do not want to come across as one of those bloggers who insults her readers because of a difference of opinion. I think that both Democrats and Republicans want to help people, there are just very different philosophies as how to best deliver the help. Following are several reasons why I will be voting for John McCain (or against Obama). Read them….don’t read them, whatever. Just don’t go and vote without really being educated, (and Jon Stewart cannot educate you to the intricacies of national politics). If you are one of those people who does not care about policy, and only vote on charisma, remember this: the choice is between a dedicated, experienced American with an uncorrupted Governor as VP or a great speaker and his entrenched-in-his-ways VP. For me the choice is clear and here are some reasons why.
1. The point is small government. Period. Why can’t subsidies for those less fortunate come in the way of a donation to a privately controlled, nonprofit agency, or organization instead of the federal government? Maybe even a state run program that’s a little easier to control and manage? If the federal government lays down the law, then chances are someone is going to fall through the cracks, or get “red taped”. I don’t want my hard earned (er, well The Husband technically earned them) tax dollars falling into a black hole of endless administration that intends to help, but is often for naught. Republicans do not want to force their ideals on us by way of federal laws and legislation. Instead they intend to leave it up to the states, which hopefully then leave it up to cities or communities. That in turn gives the American people a little more freedom to choose.
2. The stereotype of Republicans is wrong. Not all conservative Republicans are either rich corporate fat cats or uneducated, gun toting, close minded, uncaring, religious zealots. Conservatives have been misrepresented as being greedy money hoarders. There are numerous articles based on polls and findings which show that conservatives give overwhelmingly more of their money, and time, to charities than do their liberal counterparts. We just believe not only is it not the job of the government to eliminate hardships, but rather it is impossible for the government to eliminate hardships. As a good citizen, I do plenty, donate constantly, volunteer and what not, I don’t need the government to tax my family for us to help others. This is one of the many reasons that we think a smaller national government works best.
3. I believe Obama has faith in his plans to help the poor, and I believe that he and most liberals really do want to help. However, he doesn’t understand that it is impossible for him to follow through on the programs he is promising. Universal health care, overtaxing the higher earners, these things look on good paper, but end up creating other problems and shortfalls in the long run. In the end, the failed programs would hurt more people than they help. Hope is not a strategy, and confidence alone does not solve problems.
4. Sarah Palin has been criticized for everything from her accent to her religious convictions lately. Most of that criticism is focused on her lack of experience. Which begs the question, if Palin isn’t ready for the task of second in command, how can Democrats believe Obama is ready for first? He is obviously lacking experience which no die hard Democrat can deny. The truth is neither Palin or Obama have enough experience for the roles they are now vying for, but in the political game, the best and most experienced people are either jaded, not well liked for some reason, or dead. Both Palin and Obama have moved up through the political ranks because they articulate well, and their personalities resonate with people. One more word about Palin. Sarah Palin is doing something right in Alaska to have an 80% approval rating.
5. There are many people in this country who are fiscally conservative yet have rather liberal social views. Trying to marry these two is extremely difficult. I will say that I think Obama has some good ideas in regards to some social views, and I feel he is a decent man, but he gives me the feeling that he wants to wave a magic wand at the woes of our country, and world, and POOF! It will all be better. The polarization that has happened in our country of pitting one group against the other is neither helpful, nor productive, and I sincerely believe the Republicans are better at looking at both parties, and using the good ideas of both.
6. We aren’t trillions in debt by giving back to our own people, as I have heard many complain. We’re in debt due to different reasons, but one of the main reasons is that we help our foreign allies and less fortunate countries. Regarding drill vs don’t drill, while I think other energy sources are desperately needed, I also think it’s ridiculous that we depend on dangerous countries for our oil and don’t see why there can’t be a middle ground while we search for longer term solutions. Until Obama sees Iran as the threat that it is, I absolutely don’t want to see him in office–even as Senator.
7. As for health care, private insurance does need to change becoming affordable for everyone. HOWEVER, the government is not there to provide insurance for everyone. Insurance companies are in business to make money, the government is not. Besides, Republicans did not invent insurance. Insurance is not around just to make Democrats mad or keep the poor in their place. Insurance is a risk-based business that, unfortunately, causes some people great heartache. How can insurance companies make money when they can’t choose whom to insure? I absolutely don’t want the government anywhere near my health care. I have seen how much they can screw up an theoretically good system and don’t want to depend on them to tell me what doctor I can see, and when. I cannot believe Democrats really want the same people that run the DMV running our health care?
8. After the elections are over, and the dances have ended at the inaugural balls, it’s really just a game of who has best mastered the game of compromise. Who can work with who to get the most done, who knows how to play the game? Who is going to hold himself to the rules in which I believe? I think it is John McCain.
The Declaration of Independence states regarding the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness:
“…That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
14 Responses to “Maybe just one post on Political Thoughts”
I discovered your homepage by coincidence.
Very interesting posts and well written.
I will put your site on my blogroll.
Thanks for posting the article, was certainly a great read!
My husband and I have canceled each others votes for years as I have always voted Democratic believing that they are the compassionate party. Yet this year I have really struggled as it seems this party no longer reflects my ideals as much as it has become a party of radicals and victims. Because of my discontent with the party as a whole, I have finally looked at the ideals of the Republican party with unjaded eyes. Finally, I get what my husband has been trying to tell me.
Its not that Republicans don’t care, its that they believe the assistance to the needy should come from a source other than Government. If we’d all go to church and tithe, or give generously to the charity of our choosing, all the social needs of the world could be addressed with much less going toward paying for the infra-structure needed to supply the aid.
I’ll be voting for McCain and Republican for president for the first time in my life. Thanks for the good post.
I wrote like eight different responses and decided just to keep my mouth shut. I’ll just say I’m voting Obama and leave it at that.
I’m with JHJ. Sorry, you know I love you Hey You, but we just have differing opinions when it comes to politics.
To be honest, I’m still slightly unsure. While Obama has very little experience, he seems just passionate to make something happen…whether that something is good or bad remains to be seen. However, I’m not sure McCain has anything new to offer to the Bush administration’s failed attempts. Bush was/is a dumbass. Daddy’s war was his agenda. He didn’t care about getting it right. He cared about making up for Desert Storm and finding/killing Hussein.
But, now that we are intertwined in a system of government that is unstable at best, I’m not entirely sure what would work best. On the one hand, I’d like to see ALL troops back home. In reality, the Iraqi government likely needs some assistance for a while. If ALL troops are removed unconditionally at the start of the Obama administration, I’m not sure what logistical/political/humanitarian negatives we would see. It is difficult to operate a government with a blind eye to the rest of the world.
The point of all this is to say that I don’t know. Really. I think Obama lacks experience, but I think McCain offers more of the same policies. I don’t want more of the same, but I certainly don’t want radical change of the wrong kind.
My family’s voting habits cancelled each other out in the last election, and I fully expect them to do so this time as well. We’re all registered Democrats. My brother is a tree hugger (obvious Demo). My mom’s dad was the chairman of his county’s Democrat Party (obvious Demo). My dad is a Democrat who has voted Republican in the last two elections (and will likely do so again this year). I voted Republican last election, because I hated what Kerry had to offer.
Thanks for the informative post. It made me think a little.
Regardless your vote, I’m pleased that each of you is thinking about this election and planning on engaging in your right to vote.
Very well written. I am neither Republican nor Democrat and neither is FFIL, but this blog was respectful to the reader regardless of their affiliation or lack thereof.
I must say that I fear inexperience in the top job much more than inexperience in the No. 2 job in the Executive Branch.
I only wish that more people would educate themselves on the truth behind the politics before they make up their minds on who they’re going to vote for (or against).
People would have you believe that Bush is to fault for all of the current woes of this nation. In doing so, they ignore that the seeds of this were planted in the last years of Clinton’s presidency. They also ignore the fact that Bush repeatedly (since 2001) warned congress that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac needed to be reformed. Don’t believe me? Check out this news release from the White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/09/20080919-15.html
Don’t just rely on the media hype, educate yourselves on the issues and the candidates proposed solutions for these issues.
I don’t care who you vote for, as long as you make an EDUCATED DECISION and VOTE!!!
I disagree with almost all of your points and will be voting for Obama, but I enjoy your blog and thought this entry was well-written.
I think what it comes down to, for me, is that Obama is a risk due to lack of experience, but McCain is a certainty in his similarity to the current administration. I’m gambling on change because the Republican party has had 8 years (6, if you only count the years they’ve controlled Congress as well) to prove they’re capable of respecting the environment, following through on their small-government promises, and showing the patriotism they flaunt by defending the Constitution. Instead, they’ve tried to legislate personal choices, trampled the Constitution, demoted America in the eyes of the world, expanded the government (and the national debt) a zillion-fold, alienated anyone who doesn’t subscribe to their ideology, and embarrassed me as a citizen.
Maybe Obama won’t be any better; but I can’t imagine he’d be much worse…in my view, there’s nowhere to go but up!
I just wanted to add one more thing: please be careful about assuming that anyone who doesn’t agree with you is uninformed (i.e. “believes media hype” and is relying on “Jon Stewart [to] educate [them] to the intricacies of national politics.”) Liberals are, admittedly, prone to throw the “You just parrot what FOX News says and vote how your church tells you to vote,” gauntlet, and some of your comments are the equivalent of that. I get frustrated when anyone’s political opinions come in the form of sound bites and information from made-up email forwards, too, but if I can speak for myself, my opinions are as well-informed and well-supported by evidence and history as yours are; we just happen to see things differently. And that’s okay, because your kid is still freaking cute…even if he is a future Republican.
Crystal,
I just wanted to say thank you. Seriously, no sarcasm is involved in that statement. So many people tell us, “I disagree with your political views”, but hardly any ever tell us why.
So, thank you for expressing why you disagree. This is the kind of dialogue that I was hoping a post like this would spur.
Unquestionably this administration has been a disaster. Fairly, though, its hard to know what it would have been like had 911 never occurred. The spiraling war debt has taken its toll on the deficit.
Many people make the mistake though of thinking the surplus of the Clinton administration meant we had our debt paid down. This is wrong, it just meant we weren’t taking on more debt. We are adding on to the trillions of dollars in debt we already had as a nation.
I’m just hopeful that the latest disaster doesn’t get compounded by adding frivilous spending packages in an effort to make one party or the other look like the good guys instead of taking care of the matters at hand in a non-partisan manner and being responsible in their spending.
So I was abit misty after the Tractor poem and missed your earlier paragraphs, will catch those in a mo…. But your thoughts here resonated with me, I was Democrat-minded for years, I liked the loving rhetoric toward the poor and thought that the government provided lots of great services for which we should be grateful. Then, suddenly in one year, I had to actually pay taxes (as opposed to that nice little check that came for three years to my dorm mail slot) and Clinton signed the Partial-Birth Abortion legislation and I found I couldn’t stomach the Democrat rhetoric anymore. Still reeling from the horrors of P-BA, and in grad school, I started to watch my supercool Democrat friends and my nerdy Republican buddies, bless them, and guess who was actually getting their hands dirty cleaning up the yards, painting, making house repairs and watching children in the slums, taking meals out to the homeless, hiring and training laborers, tutoring hispanic students in the evenings and feeding victims and their families after trials? By contrast my Democrat friends worked hard teaching, assessing welfare needs and representing the poor who were suing or being sued, but because the state paid them to; one worked in a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving because his family wasn’t in town. Not all Republicans are white, rich, and educated; some are gay, some are black and at least one lives in a house where the mama supports a family of 6. And the refreshing thing about them is they don’t complain, they can always do something more to help themselves. I’m so tired of mealy-mouth Americans, rich beyond world standards, whose voice is magically magnified by the media, and seem to be constantly complaining, “we’re in a war, we’re in a recession, that bad man George Bush blabbity blah blah, wah wah.” It’s like we’re a nation of Debbie Downers. Fortunately Conservatives who aren’t getting the mike will be heard through the clicking of their ballot machines. I’m still not a Republican, but I’m sure as h*!! not a Democrat and I will be voting for the pair who actually have children in the war to decide our future involvement there, as well as our future here at home.