“O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth.” Ps 67:4
There is no question regarding God’s government. It is what we all aspire to. Unfortunately, the human rarely approaches the divine. This election cycle is no exception. As I watch it unfold, I can’t help but ask, “Is this really the way that we want to choose our next President?”
John McCain, who had prided himself in the past on his strong character and high ethical standards, is running what appears to most to be a smear campaign against his opponent.
The political pundits suggest that he doesn’t have much choice because the weakening economy domestically, and the shift of emphasis from Iraq to Afghanistan leave him very few issues to use to differentiate himself. So he is going to use the only obvious issue he has. He is old white man with an anglo-saxon name. His opponent is a young African-American man with a Muslim name.
So barring any big developments between now and November, here are the two themes that you are likely to see played out for the American voter.
McCain – Obama can’t be trusted.
Obama – McCain is running for Bush’s third term.
Here’s an example of the cycle.
McCain challenged Obama to go to Iraq. In response, Obama goes and gets a better reception than our sitting president. In response, McCain criticizes him for being a celebrity. In response, Obama cancels a visit to an army hospital because of concerns of politicizing the plight of wounded soldiers. In response, McCain criticizes him for ignoring the wounded.
Obama criticizes McCain for being in the pocket of big oil. In response, McCain blames Obama and the Democrats for high gas prices because of their unwillingness to expand domestic drilling. In response, Obama supports a bi-partisan compromise in the Senate to open responsible drilling in Alaska in return for an aggressive push for alternative energy sources.
You starting to see a pattern here?
If so, get used to it because this is likely going be the drum beat for this election.
Obama will continue to demonstrate that he is qualified to be President. McCain will spin every action Obama takes to question Obama’s character and trustworthiness.
What is ironic about the whole thing is that if anyone should be accountable for changing their position, it’s John McCain. Here’s a list over the past few years.
To be fair, here’s a similar list compiled of Obama’s changing positions.
Hopefully these both demonstrate that the whole idea of flip-flops is another silly extension of this whole unproductive “character” discussion. At the end of the day, don’t we want a politician to respond to the feedback they get? We’ve seen the results of eight years of “my-way-or-the-highway” politics and it wasn’t pretty. The whole “character” issue is just a short cut for people who don’t want to do the work to develop an opinion. They can listen to talk radio, hear why the guy they like is good and the guy they don’t like is bad, and develop an opinion that has nothing to do with policy and everything to do with partisanship, manipulation, and fear-mongering.
Rather than have an election that will give the voting population an opportunity to express their opinions on issues (Economy, Healthcare, Iraq, Oil, Education, etc), the Republicans are determined to have another election decided on fear. In 2000 it was fear of moral decay. In 2004 it was fear of terrorists. In 2008 it is going to be fear of an African American with a Muslim name.
It is remarkable that this tired ploy continues to work. Bush won the first election on a pledge to run a principled administration that would advance the social concerns of fundamentalist Christians. That didn’t work out so well. Bush won the second election on a pledge to win the war on terrorism and ban gay marriage. That isn’t working very well either. The only reason that the Republicans even have a heart beat this election cycle is the fact that the Democrats are not running a old rich white guy like Chris Dodd or Joe Biden. The sad truth is that if McCain does win the election, it won’t because he has better ideas. It will be because he convinced a majority of Americans that another four years of old failed Republican policies is a safer choice than a young African American with a Muslim name.
so if obama loses it’s basicly because we’re racist or afraid of muslims………..
if i vote for mccain it won’t be because of those reasons…
so much for an open mind jeff.
further, when obama says he wants a $1,000 family energy rebate to be paid for by a “tax on excessive energy-company profits” aka, “wind fall profit tax’” then i start questioning his judgement. now define for me a wind fall profit tax. should one be put on the writing of a book when the autor gets $20 million to sign on for the writing? how a kid being drafted in the first rouind of the NFL and getting a $32 million signing bonus. this is bad thinking jeff……this is simply redistrabution of wealth and a bad one at that.
Keith,
You’ve already demonstrated that you are a thoughtful person and I trust that whomever you vote for, it will because you’ve invested time to develop an opinion.
As far as whether this election is going to turn on the issue of age, race, and religion – this wasn’t an original observation on my part. Read the whole article that I quoted from the Monitor as just one example. That was the whole reason for this post. I didn’t chose this strategy and I don’t like it any more than you do.
As far as energy policy is concerned, I’m not sure that I’m happy with either candidate. McCain seems to feel that domestic drilling and nuclear power is going to fix the problem. That’s sloppy thinking too. The oil problem is a global one. Do a little research on how much domestic oil we export every day, for example. I think that we should build more nuclear power plants, but that’s also something that takes about 10 years.
Since it appears that we are a decade away from substantive conventional solutions, why not set a BHAG (Big H**** A** Goal) for the country to dramatically alter the costs of alternative energy sources.
That said, I think that we probably need to do both the conventional and the unconventional.
As far as windfall taxes are concerned, your libertarian roots are showing. Both candidates are proposing some short-term relief. I agree that these sorts of short-term solutions rarely have a long term effect. At the same time, as we’ve discussed in other posts, the oil industry regulations were significantly relaxed during the Bush administration, and the resulting free market has not done us any favors. So whether it is a windfall profits tax or the imposition of more regulation in order to insure that we have a reliable supply of this commodity – we can’t continue to allow our economy to be held hostage to oil commodity speculators.
Jeff
as to energy, i say lets do it all!!! so you and i are in agreement there. ley’s drill, conserve, and create other sources like wind, solar and others. i’m heavily invested in a green company by the way. lets build every nuke [lant thats ever been thought of…all that said, the name of the game today is oil. unless we want tot go back to the stone ages then we had better just stick with the thought that we should gget all we can today of this stuff as its what runs the world> any other thought abbout oil is just naive.
again, why just pick on the oil guys for the tax for “excessive profits.” how about the farmers? chack the price of grains over the past three years….why leave them untouched?? in fact look at ALL commodities. i don’t understand the dem’s fixation with/against “big oil.” who do they think “big oil is?
John McCain prided himself on strong character and high ethical standards? he is one of the most corrupt politicians out there, with the keating five scandal, lobbyist scandals, affairs, etc. I’m not endorsing Obama. He doesn’t have the extensive background that McCain has. Besides the fact that i disagree with a lot of his stated positions, If he’s elected we’ll likely see him building a collection of lies, flip flops, and scandals. His positions have already gone significantly to the center (pandering to the “right” on many issues) since he secured the nomination. Though they are significantly less blatant than McCain’s gigantic list of flip flops.
The fact of the matter is, both candidates are typical establishment candidates like those who have been elected time and time again, and continue to run this country into the ground. They have little respect for the Constitution or our individual liberties. Neither of them address the root causes of our economic woes which reside in our monetary, banking policies, and deprivation of economic freedom. Both will worsen our situation in the long term.
It’s high time Americans stop worrying about throwing away their votes, and consider other options. As some people say “a vote for the lesser of two evils, is still a vote for evil.”
Can you further explain a few of your comments as i’m not quite sure what you mean?
1) What are Obama and McCains flip flops as you see them. Just two for each would be enough.
2) What are you referring to when you say “They have little respect for our consitution or our individual liberties?” I need a few examples to be clear of your comments.
3) I don’t know what “Deprivation of economic freedom” is. Can you explain and give and example?
I am curious as to your thoughts but not sure what you are saying here.
JL,
Thanks for the post.
I understand your frustration with your choices.
That’s the challenge of our current two party system. You effectively have only two choices.
That being said, I have voted for some independent candidates in the past just on principle because I didn’t like my major party choices. The problem with that stand is that you may end up helping your least favorite candidate get elected (e.g. Ralph Nader voters helped elect George Bush).
If there are any third-party candidates out there that seem to better voice your positions, please share those.