I’ll put it out there. I voted for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Why am I writing this? Because I care. Obama will, hopefully, be able to turn this country around, or at least start the process of turning this country around. People talk about patriotism, and love of your country. In the time that I’ve been paying attention, I haven’t seen a time when I felt like the United States of America has done something that I could be proud of, or that warrants love.
I’m hopeful Obama can change that. Obama has tended to be substantially more pro-science and pro-technology than either McCain or Palin (McCain referred to a project for a planetarium as an “overhead projector”). Obama claims that he will reduce or eliminate our dependence on foreign oil, while bringing about a green economic revolution. He has said that he believes the internet should remain neutral, and not be subect to controls put in place by either the ISPs or the government, while still being accessible to everyone. He says he will increase broadband proliferation as well as up the definition of broadband beyond a measily 256Kbps.
I don’t agree with everything Obama says or does, obviously. He’s started wearing his flag lapel pin again (part of the reason I initially was interested in him, I like the idea of showing patriotism, instead of just saying you’re patriotic by wearing a stupid pin). He does consider himself pretty christian, which I’m not generally a fan of, but he has said that he’s not going to allow his own, personal, religion affect his presidency or policy decisions. This is the step the United States needs to take. I don’t honestly care if people are religious/spiritual/what-have-you, I do care if they take their hooey, and make policy out of it (abortion decisions, gay rights decisions, etc.). McCain may not be one to do this, but Palin certainly would.
I like Obama’s up-front foreign policy stance, where he suggests the United States actually sit down with leaders, instead of waltzing in, destroying a government, and leaving our troops there to clean up the mess. He’s advocating pulling out (at least in terms of troops, I’ll get to the other meaning in a minute), and refocusing our military elsewhere. I’d prefer he’d be a pacifist (closer to my views), but that’s not going to happen.
Speaking of pulling out, Obama is not advocating abstinence-only sex education (gee, because it works so well, right Gov. Palin? Bristol?). He advocates sex education at all levels of public education, obviously education that is suited towards the age group. That is, he’s not going to be handing out condoms to kindergartners.
Furthermore, Obama will give rights to gay couples identical to those that straight couples have. These include joint tax filing, the ability to adopt, and ultimately, the ability to be equal. However, Obama will not grant “marriage” abilities, which bugs me. Either go all the way, or stop using the term marriage in government. If you want to make marriage a religious thing, make it a religious thing, but don’t give priests/pastors/etc. the ability to legally bind a couple together.
Definitely part of the reason I voted for Obama was that the idea of a McCain/Palin administration scares me shitless. We need a rejuventated economy. Obviously, since de-regulation has worked so well for our banks now, I can see how McCain’s de-regulation would continue to do our country so much good.
Socialism you say? No, the phrase “spreading around the wealth” does not mean the United States will become a socialist nation (I’d be ok if it did, but that’s beside the point). Instead it means that people will be able to afford to live. It means the increasingly large disparity between the wealthy and the middle class will begin to decrease in size. It means people will be able to afford healthcare, and preventative care will be available, so that people don’t get to the point of needing expensive operations. Yes, taxes may be higher, but honestly, if we hadn’t fucked up in the first place, we wouldn’t need to start taxing more to pay for all of the blunders of our previous administration.
Obama is in no way my ideal candidate, but he’s much, much better than any of the other candidates that have any chance at winning. If this election didn’t have the potential of sliding to McCain, I maybe would have voted for Nader, the Green Party candidate, or perhaps even the Socialist candidate. But, as it happens, I didn’t. I’m proud of my vote, and if Obama does what he says he will, I’ll be proud of my country for the first time since I can remember.
-JTS
