Why I Have Decided To Support Barack Obama
Though I consider myself a political moderate, I have consistently been the most conservative writer on this blog. I supported McCain being the president for several months. However, I have recently changed my mind on who to support in this election, and here’s why:
1. Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin is one of the very most disgraceful candidates seen in a long time. Without a shred of national policy expertise (even in energy policy), she is increasingly seen as a solely political pick. I was excited when I first learned of her. I thought it was great that a woman was having the chance to run. That changed drastically as soon as I heard her speak.
Sarah Palin is stunningly ignorant of the most relevant issues facing our time. Her ignorance conspicuously extends to financial markets, Eastern European foreign policy, Israeli-Palestinian relations, jurisprudence, and much more. She has no new ideas. She is not a good debater. She is not a uniter. She does little more than recite the official Republican sound-bites as she thinks of them.
Even if Palin was not frighteningly close to the presidency, she reflects awful judgement by McCain. I would nearly vote for Obama for the sole reason that McCain picked her. But I have at least seven more reasons.
2. The Middle Class
Without question, the middle class of America is going to take the most direct blow from our financial collapse. These people are not the couching-sitting welfare earners. These are people that are paying college loans, working fifty to sixty hours a week, barely paying off mortgages, taking risks by running small businesses, and trying to be productive and contribute to their communities. Yet, these are the ones who are going to be squeezed the most. They are going to be losing jobs, shutting down their small business, downsizing their health insurance premiums for them and their children, increasingly taxed to bail out the financial markets, and worrying everyday about their job security.
The liberal community has for awhile now said that the Reagan trickle-down economic system does not work. That’s only half true. While the middle and lower classes receive a less proportionate share of the benefits of upper income growth, the majority of the crap trickles down to them in economic slow-down. This means two things. First, it is important that the upper class is allowed to prosper. Second, it is important when it is certain they won’t be prospering to provide some means of protection for the middle class. They are the ones that taxes hurt the most.
Barack Obama has made the middle class the central component of his campaign economically. I’m normally not huge on making the upper class the scapegoat for economic problems and tax burdening but these are not ordinary times. I have doubts over McCain’s ability to take care of the middle class.
3. Foreign Policy
I have always been afraid of a McCain foreign policy. I see huge losses in Russia, China, Iran, and Pakistan under a McCain presidency. The man is not schooled in diplomacy and thinks from a Cold War paradigm. The only reservation I had with Obama on foreign policy was his insistence on leaving Iraq during the surge. The surge is over now and the two candidate basically have the same views on Iraq and Afghanistan now. Obama has a much better chance of restoring credibility to our country in the eyes of the world.
4. Social Issues
I also had reservations about Obama’s social beliefs. I am pro-life and he is not. But when I really think of it, the Republican Party had a majority in both houses of Congress and the Presidency for four years. In that time, they did absolutely nothing to make America more pro-life. I have no reason to believe that McCain-Palin would do anything to change that. Especially with a Democratic majority in both houses at this time.
Additionally, Obama and Biden have both stated that they oppose gay marriage. This leads me to believe that they will not make social issue policy any worse than what I believe it to be.
5. Transcending Race
Barack Obama has great potential to improve race relations in this country. I honestly don’t think that gets talked about enough. I have always considered that one of Obama’s greatest strengths. He has renounced most of the dogma of black nationalism and has embraced unity, non-violence, and hard work in the black community. He gives young African-Americans a greater sense of hope in this country that hard work can lead to achievement.
6. Political Intelligence
If I have learned one thing from the last eight years, its that we need highly intelligent people running our executive branch. I believe Obama to be much more capable of interpreting and adapting to facts presented before him. And he does not oversimplify most things. McCain is fair when it comes to intelligence. Sarah Palin is poor.
Barack Obama was supposed to be the underdog in the debates. Conventional wisdom was that John McCain was better at thinking on his feet. Obama clearly played it safe in the debates; he had much more to lose. But McCain had everything to gain, yet he failed to demonstrate that he had anything more substantive than Obama, that he had any unique insight, that he was any more equipped to handling complicated issues. What he really did was offer more of the same.
Sarah Palin is even worse. Her lack of political intelligence frightens me because there are many times when the correct course of action is not instinctive. Yet I feel the passions of the moment are going to get to her the way they got to Bush we when declared war on terrorism and went headfirst into Iraq. I can hardly take four more years of low political intelligence. It was bad enough for the last eight.
7. Campaigning
Barack Obama ran a superior campaign to John McCain’s. It was far more focused, organized, positive, and relevant. Not that Obama was perfect in this regard, but McCain used a significantly greater amount of scare ads that are little more than divisive and distracting. He struggled to find a central message to deliver and never stayed with any idea very long (nothing worked very well).
Obama’s campaign organization was impeccable and engenders a much confidence in his ability to manage organizations, a task which is not unimportant in being the President.
8. Lack of Confidence
One great problem in our economy is lack of confidence. Regardless of how sound Obama’s policies might be, the fact that they are different from past policies gives at least some level of hope that better things are ahead. If society lacks confidence in the stability of our financial markets, we will never get back on track.
Chris… what can I say? Welcome back, prodigal son.
Obviously you are just jumping on the bandwagon at this late date to get in good with Steven and David so they’ll invite you to their liberal Searcy cocktail parties. Your elitism disgusts me.
Nice…
All great points in my opinion, Chris. I find points #5 and #6 especially appealing and important, but I agree with all of them.
Well, we’re apparently not “liberal” enough. We had an insurrection at the end of the week. There’s now the “unofficial” HU liberal blog, called What’s Left Now. I suppose The Political Cartel just wasn’t hippie enough. They want to give more of their monies away to the poor peoples.
Look to them for all your liberal garbage needs.
Insurrection?
Thanks for the link, Steve.
It was sort of like a rebellion. Except no one ever told me it was going on. I was like the absent-minded King.
Welcome to the vaguely defined middle (of the HU blogosphere, in this case) Steve. I suggest you stay there. As long as you’re somewhere in the middle, you’re technically never wrong.
But am I ever right?
In my experience being wrong is more of a blow to one’s intellectual vanity than being right is a boost.
Plus being in the “middle” leaves you free to choose which side might be right on a given issue at a given time. Long live the narcissism of small differences.
Number 8 would be number 2 and number 1 would be enough without 2 to 7 being mentioned. Excellant post, and being a moderate as you are, all are great points.
News flash: no one cares what you think or how you “feel.” Ever consider making a judgment based on fact/morality rather than emotivism??
I’m pretty excited about that new blog…they seem to be brighter.
I saw that there were plenty of facts in this article. It wasn’t all feelings, was it?
Even if it were… I care how you feel, Chris. :)
Can Obama Save Us
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12306
CFR/Obama
Quite frankly, James, I cannot see how you could vote for the McCain-Palin ticket from anything other than emotivism. They offer nothing. And this is coming from a guy who was dying to see something offered from them. It never came!
Actually there is very little in my post about sheer feelings. The differences between the candidates and their views are fairly well established. While I offer my own interpretation of the implications of those differences, I don’t think I’m just making stuff up from the feelings of my heart or some crap like that.
When Sarah Palin claims that she has foreign policy experience based on her proximity to Russia, and people believe that, that is judgement from emotivism. That is the most baseless crap I’ve ever heard. And people all over (well at least in the Southern part) of the country are buying into that left and right (or rather, right).
I’m excited about the new blog as well. If you are one of those bright people, you might not want to hang around our blog. We don’t tend to use factual information and sound arguments.
Chris, I’m glad you’ve seen the light.
I ask sincerely, can you tell me what Mr. Obama has relative to new ideas?? I can honestly say I am on the fence and neither received my vote. Today in the Daily News and the NY TIMES of NYC, the writers already started making excuses for why Obama won’t be able to change what he “promised to change.”
In his acceptance speech, he stated It may take one year, or two years or even longer than his first term. When does the good change begin? I’m honored to be alive during the first African American President, but other than that, I don’t see much benefit.
I work hard, earn my salary, pay my own way through college and will be taxed more than those who decide they don’t want to push themselves to attain or achieve greater status. I grew up poor and made the change for myself. I ask what does Obama have as a president that Palin didn’t have when it comes to foreign policy? When I search for these answers online, I get nothing…
McCain did not deserve to win, but I want to know what makes Obama worthy? He spoke better yes, but just having an ivy league education does not make a man better for a position. I am thankful that Biden can assist with areas that Obama will be in need of guidance, but also feel that the same could have been said for the alternative.
Respectfully Submitted:
Christ, shouldn’t that have been printed in the letters to the editor section in some Bible Belt newspaper in a mid-sized town?
Thanks for your intellectual response…