Up until the 2004 election I had been a registered Independant. I never felt any party truly fit my beliefs, so I would vote based on the individual person’s stance on the issues.
Today, I voted straight Dems, all the way. This is not so much an endorsement of the philosophies of this party, but a repudiation of everything the Republicans have come to stand for.
The GOP has proven itself over the past eight years to be a bigoted, cultish, reactionary, divisive group interested only in making themselves and their allies richer, at the expense of everyone else, including, but not limited to: the poor, the middle class, education, American investors, Iraqis, and our international reputation. They are not to be trusted with power anymore. Even if there are rational candidates who self-identify as Republican, I want to keep them out of office until they fix their party. They are like a two-year-old with an oxyacetalyne welding torch – until we take it away and give it to someone who knows how to use it, they’ll just keep burning holes in everything.
If they were just incompetent and greedy, it would be one thing. But the tactics they have used to achive and retain office are reprehensible and illegal. Karl Rove and his progeny have brought election-stealing to an art form. How many stories of hanging chads, vote-flipping, and voter suppression do we need to hear before someone gets prosecuted? Despite what John McCain says, this kind of thing is the gravest danger to our democracy.
Not to mention all of the illegal things Bush and friends have done while in office.
Gruber posted a link to this conservative who is supporting Obama. His description of what he considers a conservative to be is the only description of conservative that makes any sense in politics. Not the NeoCons that we have now. I truly believe that, given that definition, our government is best served by a give-and-take between conservatives, liberals, and all the other points of view.
But, since the spokespeople for today’s conservatives are the likes of Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter, etc., we need to take away the welding torch until they grow up and learn how to act like mature human beings.
Is Obama perfect? No. I wish he’d take a harder stance on state/church separation, support science, support gay marriage, end the war on drugs, and get behind net neutrality. But these are minor quibbles in the grand scheme of things.
But he is the most intelligent, well-spoken, rational, and inspiring politician of my lifetime.
I believe an Obama presidency will move the country to a place where these issues can be discussed rationally, rather than just knee-jerk reactions, the way the extreme ends of the spectrum love to do.
The Republicans have been fanning the flames of fear and bigotry in this country for too long. It has to stop.
