Undecided
I’m getting mighty tired of the assumption that I’m going to be voting for Barack Obama in November. I mean, sure, I think the current leadership is perhaps the most misguided and inept this country has ever had — certainly in my lifetime — but does that mean I’m going to vote for the party that does not contain George W. Bush just to prove a point? That’s foolishness.
Most of my friends (who have long since decided they’re going with Obama) fit the same basic political profile: socially liberal, opposed to the war in Iraq, displeased with the direction the United States has taken these last 8 years. And I’m with them on all of that. But they forget that Bush’s harshest critic in the 2000 election was not Al Gore — it was John McCain. So impressed was I with the senator from the great state of Arizona in the 2000 primaries that I actually considered campaigning for the guy. No candidate before or since has inspired that sense of admiration in me. He was the first (and to date, the only) candidate I actually supported, rather than just not opposing.
The problem is, that McCain is long gone. It’s been fairly apparent to me over the last few years that he’s been positioning himself for this run. He’s moved his talking points toward the Republican party’s set-in-stone ideologies. He’s been a vocal supporter of the war. And he’s even made nice with the President. This is not the McCain I fell in love with, damn it.
But here’s the thing about Obama: the McCain camp has a solid point when they bring up the man’s inexperience. You know what other President came into the job with little experience? The current one. And how’s that working out for us? “Oh, but he’ll surround himself with smart advisors.” Again I ask: how’s that working out for us?
He also talks about Jesus far too much, which is another thing I was hoping we might move away from with our next leader. I won’t get into my specific feelings on God or religion here, because they’re not particularly relevant to my argument. Suffice it to say that I am a strong supporter of the separation of church and state. I think it’s inappropriate for any elected official to wear their religion on their sleeve. And I particularly oppose spending federal tax money — the money that’s taken out of my paycheck — on “faith based organizations.” Obama has promised to continue (and even expand) this practice, which was one of Bush’s big things. I’m pretty sure he’s doing all this to combat those ridiculous forwarded e-mails everyone gets from their mothers about Obama being a Muslim or something. To my way of thinking, he’s just overcorrecting and turning himself into the exact same sort of Jesus nut we’re trying to get rid of.
I just don’t buy into the hype surrounding Obama. He’s being marketed to me like some kind of goddamn rock star. Sure, maybe America does need a Clinton-type to make us feel good and inspired again, and on that front maybe he’s not a bad choice. I am tired of seeing media reports about how the media talks about Obama too much, though. Yeah, if only you, the media, could do something about that. Asshats.
At this moment, I’m still undecided. I refuse to vote for a Democrat simply on the basis of being opposed to the sitting Republican. I refuse to let a single issue guide my decision. And I absolutely refuse to vote for a guy because the media tells me he’s cool. I’m trying to make an informed decision here, based on real information and not just the usual knee-jerk superficial bullshit. Granted, I care about this stuff a lot less than I used to (the last 8 years, beginning with the 2000 election, have made me pretty cynical about politics as a whole), but I do think it’s important to vote for the guy I want, rather than against a guy I don’t want. Or worse, to vote with the goddamn pack. (I even have a friend on Facebook who’s threatened to cut off anyone who expresses support for McCain.)
Perhaps the debates will help me reach a decision. If nothing else, we’ll at least have two guys who can actually form complex sentences without tripping over their words, so it should make for a good show. It’s sad that we’ve reached a point at which having two vaguely literate candidates is something of a novelty, but that’s where we are, I guess.