The Environment & Energy Issues
While I might not be as "green" as I'd like to be, I strive every day to lessen my personal footprint & to encourage better energy management. My wife and I recycle, replace dead light bulbs with energy efficient ones, consider energy efficiency in our vehicle choices, compost, etc...
I am opposed to opening new areas for off-shore drilling. I do not see this as anything but a political ploy and a greedy grab by big oil. We can be energy efficient, reduce our foreign oil dependency & live greener by expanding our efforts in alternative fuels and recycling.
Economy
I watched for eight years as the 'Liberal' Bill Clinton worked to create a leaner, fiscally conservative government and then watched for seven more years as Bush's leadership created more and more unfunded mandates. The idea of tax-cut and spend makes absolutely no sense to me. It's like living on credit cards and it looks like just like the Voodoo Economics of the 80's. I have read Obama's tax-plan. I see no problem with changing the tax-structure to help the middle-class backbone of America & increasing taxes to the top 1% to cover it. I would very much like to see us return to the fiscal policies of wise and deliberate use of our resources to improve infrastructure, help our least fortunate & manage our military resources.
The War
I am deeply concerned with the process of 'Stop-Loss' and the state of our Veteran's affairs. I don't see how we can afford this continued conflict and it's cost in people, resources & money. Even if 'the Surge' has worked, it's a last-ditch effort compounded upon a series of ill-conceived failed efforts. Obama's opposition to the war is well-documented. John McCain's maverick image aside, his alliance to the current Administration's policies must be questioned as being more of the same.
I have always considered myself a pro-military democrat. For the sake of our military, I want us out of this conflict.
Social Issues
As the proud son of two parents who have waged hard-fought battles for the needs of the inner city, victims of AIDS, sheltered homeless & supported minority rights for their entire lives, I will align myself with a man who started out as a community organizer. For me it's a matter of faith & a moral imperative.
I am a firm supporter in a woman's right to choose & in the rights of all Americans to receive equal protections under the law. I know full-well that the next administration will pick as many as four Supreme Court Justices. I want to see a high court that protects Roe v Wade but that also creates a balance between the ideologies.
Conclusion
There you have it. I think these points make it obvious why I'm voting Obama without focusing on all the crap in the news.
4 comments:
Thanks for the insight! I can summarize my reasons for voting democratic fairly easily: I wish to vote for the party that is most likely(*) to continue to protect the rights of the minority as our Constitution was defined. The American version of Democracy and Freedom is NOT "majority rules" - it is to protect the rights and freedoms of everyone, regardless of personal opinions.
(*) The Republican party has shown a strong tendancy towards "my way is the way everyone else should do it" and a lack of respect for individual's rights. The Democratic party might not be perfect, but it has a better history of protecting individual rights and freedoms, rather than imposing restrictions on them.
You are not the target of the current crap in the news. I am not the target of the current crap in the news. Most likely your conservative/military/whatever readers are not the target of this (although if they are socially-conservative, then it was aimed at them)
This current crap in the news is aimed at people who haven't been watching until now. Do you know any of them? Probably not.
My cynical impression of this whole thing is that, if we can get through this election with Obama, more and more of these old people who are keeping the Repubs going will die off. A few more years and the generation that were adults before civil rights will be dead.
The optimistic side of me just thinks people will get smarter and stop voting for hate and cynicism. Yeap, you can say I'm a dreamer.
With current polling showing that McCain has narrowed or even eliminated the gap between him and Obama, there's a bit to be concerned about. McCain's sell-out to the "agents of intolerance" (his words, I might add) appears to have worked and has galvanized a base that up until the convention was not sold on him.
However, I also have to remind myself that the run for President is not the only part of this upcoming election. And despite McCain's advances, there appears to be little or no change in terms of the likely sweep the Democrats will have in congress. All evidence points to veto-proof majorities. McCain might take the White House, but he'll have to contend with a dominantly Democratic Senate and House.
Our votes matter in as much to make this a reality as much as they do to create an Obama Presidency.
Nord: I'd love to agree with you but the Supreme Court is my concern.
A McCain presidency will mean we have to rely on a Democrat Congress to hold back the tide of crazy when it comes to the next Justice(s). And they can't even develop a spine when it comes to off shore drilling.
As has been stated often, Politics is a contact sport and one side just hasn't figured out the rules.
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