A Choice

I haven't posted anything in a while, and that is primarily for two reasons. The first is, I have been very busy. The second is, because I kind of feel like anything I post at this point, would be beating a dead horse.

In my opinion, Obama is clearly the better candidate, and McCain has done nearly nothing to show us that the next four years under his leadership will be different from the last 8, and I think the last 8 have been pretty scary. After 8 years, Bush's popularity is somewhere around 20%. For the 20% who think Bush is doing a good job, I'm sure nothing I can say would convince them otherwise (although, I might encourage them to dig a little deeper). For those who fall in the 80%, and are still considering voting for McCain, I can't help but think it is because of fear. I can't really relate to this fear. This fear, I am guessing, ranges from the crazy (Obama is a terrorist, or Obama is a closet Muslim who is going to turn the US into a Muslim nation) to the somewhat grounded (Obama is a tax and spend Democrat).

For those on the crazy end, first, I am sorry for offending you by calling you crazy. Second - SERIOUSLY! take a deep breath and ask yourself, "Do I really believe this, or do I want it to be true?". I mean, I'm sure if you are on the "crazy" end you are not going to vote for Obama anyway. Fine. But at least accept that he isn't going to take over the country and enslave all white people. He may have a different opinion than you, but he isn't some closet, manic Muslim, domestic terrorist, anti-white, un-American, socialist, communist, community organizer. Does that kind of shit happen anywhere but in really awful movies?

When Palin was announced as the VP candidate, I spent a morning reading all sorts of rumors about Palin's baby not really being hers. The truth is, there IS a lot of weird stuff there to feed the rumor mill, but after several hours of gleefully reading every little piece of evidence I could find, I stopped myself and said, "What the fuck am I doing!? SERIOUSLY! Do I believe this, or do I just WANT it to be true?" I found out that, of course, I just wanted it to be true. I wanted it to be true because it would be easy. If everybody could just be made to believe that Palin had faked her pregnancy to cover for her daughter's premarital sex, then Obama would win the election no problem.

It's the same thing with all of the crazy rumors about the Bush administration planning 9/11 so they could start a war. Nut cases on the far left want it to be true because they want to have a clean and easy way to get rid of Bush (and, more importantly, because they want to justify their dislike of Bush). Again, the truth is, if you start looking, you can find a lot of evidence to feed the rumors. But if you ask yourself, as an intelligent, thinking person, if you really believe it, I think you will say no.

Those who don't say no, those who let themselves be hoodwinked into believing absurdities, are those, quiet frankly, who end up in line shouting shit like this. I don't think any of us want to be in that company. So, if you are thinking stupid stuff, please stop, even if you disagree with Obama and aren't going to vote for him, stop!

And so, on to the those who fear Obama for more rational reasons. I would like to say, "Do you really think your worst fear could be worse than what we have now?" but that would be too easy. That would assume that you felt the same way I did about where Bush has brought us. I am well aware that my views are tainted by where I get my news (I get my news from the Internet, I'm sure most of the news I get has a liberal slant). All of our views are tainted such. We need to be aware of this, and we need to try to distinguish between what is, and what we have been presented, and then figure out what we think. But still, I am convinced that if any intelligent person spent time researching it, they would see that we were intentionally mislead into a war, that the Bush administration has abused their power, and that we have offended what it means be an American in the name of freedom (here I am looking at torture and the Patriot Act).

You may read this and think I am being reactionary. In response, I would say that I think if you spent three or four hours online, really looking into it, you will agree that we have been take to a very scary place in the history of our country. I won't even give you a starting point, just all on your own, start looking - I think you will be shocked at what you find.

I truly believe that Obama will take us away from all of that, and back to where we should be. I think this is what Colin Powell is talking about when he says an Obama Presidency would "electrify" the country and the World. Bush and fear has turned America into something it should not be (the terrified, unthinking mob that we see in the video I linked to above) and people are desperate to learn that America has only lost her way, and not become something else (something doomed). McCain and Palin's willingness to turn this election into and "US vs. NOT LIKE US" "AMERICAN vs. UN-AMERICAN" debate is evidence enough for me that they are not the ones to take the country back where is should be.

But again, I sense this argument is far to easy, and won't work. So, I defer to the other sensible conservatives. I'd like to start a list, because I bet it is longer than what I have here, But for now, I will defer to the Chicago Tribiune, who have not, in 161 years, endorsed a Democrat for president. This year, they endorse Obama. Or, William F. Buckley's son, a former writer for the National Review, who has also endorsed Obama.

I'm sure there are more, and more will come (I bet the Economist endorses Obama) - people who have the same principles of government as you, and yet still can see the reason for voting Obama. They may have had their fears (or still have them) but either decided that Obama is pragmatic enough so that their fears are largely unfounded, or, they simply realized the danger of continuing what we have now is much worse than anywhere Obama could bring us. Maybe just consider your self the mirror image of a Reagan Democrat - somebody who wasn't completely comfortable with where we might go, but was far too dissatisfied with where were to not go someplace else.

So anyway, this is one of the reasons I haven't posted in a while. I have seen a lot of funny/interesting stuff, but I knew posting it would be preaching to the choir. I have felt like I wanted to say more about what I thought at this point. So I just did, and I let it all flow out in a kind of stream of consciousness. And it's late now, and I don't have time to even go back and proof-read (sorry about that). But anyway, at least I didn't just link to something else and preach to the choir - even if nobody is listening - or even if if the seven or eight who are listening, are already in the choir anyway :-)