October 23, 2008
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Re: Why I Can’t Vote For Obama
I wrote this reply to this entry in the comments but a friend suggested I make it my own entry. So here it goes.
Original Entry: Snopes says it is true…………… I wanted to send⦠| WiLD4SURFiNG’s Xanga Site – Weblog
Ugh. Is this really so good an essay? It’s interesting and well written I’ll give him that. But it’s far from convincing.
I
don’t really take much stake in the “Most Liberal Senator” designation.
I think it’s a scam. I mean how is it that every democratic candidate
for President is always given that label? Seems like the definition the
journal is using for “most liberal” is in fact “most in line with the
Democratic platform”. And if that’s the case umm why would you be
surprised? The Democratic party standard bearer should be expected to
score very highly on any such scale.And the Ted Kennedy, Hillary
Clinton comment strikes me as absurd name dropping. Guilt by
association as a means to discredit Obama for his similarity to people
that conservatives don’t like. This is exactly what Obama/Biden does
when they mention McCain’s similarity to Bush and Cheney. It’s an
absurd waste of our time on both sides. We don’t need to hear it.“There is a reason Planned Parenthood gives him a 100% rating. There is a reason the homosexual community supports him. There is a reason Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Castro, Hamas etc. love him.”
This line, absolutely
pisses me off! What a way to associate a bunch of non-equivalent things
together! Now Planned Parenthood and the homosexual community are on
the same level as Hamas? And Ahmadinejad?!?! Give me a break! There’s
nothing inherently wrong with being supported by Planned Parenthood or
the Homosexual community. Not in my book. But even if there were,
that’s not something Obama can control. All Obama can do is follow his
beliefs and his principles. You can’t say these people support his so
therefore his beliefs and principles must be bad because they are bad.
It doesn’t follow at all. You have to show which beliefs and principles
he has are actually bad and why. And once you’ve done that, what’s the
point of name dropping Hamas? There’s NO POINT except to build up fear.
That’s dumb.“when a society gets abortion, same-sex marriage, embryonic stem-cell research, human cloning to name a few, wrong economic concerns will soon not matter.”
This
is a very substantive different in basic philosophy. Honestly, in my
opinion the economic concerns will and DO matter a heck of a lot more
than these other things. And I think history carries that out. Masses
of people starving on the streets has a remarkable tendency to focus
people on what really matters. Cloning and stem-cell research will only
be applied if they are financially viable. Same-sex marriage people
won’t care enough to argue about. Keeping food on their plate will be
more important. And abortion will be pretty much the same as it is
now, accepted to a certain extent with conditions. Again people will
worry more about ensuring their clothes are on their back. Some women
getting abortions or not will not significantly effect their ability to
do that.So that leaves the partial birth abortion and the
Jeremiah Church thing as Mr. Brown’s sole real arguments against Obama.
And that’s fine. Obama does have a voting record to be opposed to
basically all legislation that restricts abortion. This is primarily
because he believes that these legislations are being advocated by
lobbyists who are trying to get Roe v Wade overturned which he is
adamantly opposed to. If you want Roe v Wade overturned voting for
Obama will not help you get there. So it makes sense to vote for McCain.That
being said, what’s the point of giving that grotesquely detailed
description of partial birth abortion? That’s not a logical argument.
It’s a fear tactic. Again. Because that seems to be Mr. Brown’s
strategy in this essay. He wants to associate Obama with terrorists
earlier and now he wants to paint him as a kind of baby
murdering/mutilating monster. Give me a break! Legislation that is
reasonable Obama does support. He just didn’t support any of the
legislation that came to the floor on it. Politics are complicated. He didn’t want to give his opposition any leverage toward overturning Roe
V. Wade. That’s how the game is played. It doesn’t make him a monster.And
so there’s the church thing. That’s probably his best argument. But
again it’s guit by association. Surely he needs to show that Obama
actually believes some of the things Jeremiah Wright says not just that
he happened to be there while Wright was preaching sometimes. I’m not
very religious but I can tell you every time I’ve attended a church
I’ve been repulsed by what the preacher was saying. (hence not very
religious) But I never walked out because I didn’t want to embarrass my
family.That being said yeah it’s true that Obama didn’t
repudiate his membership in that church until it became politically
toxic for him to be associated with it. (It wasn’t before, hmmm I
wonder why?) Probably he has friends in that church. Probably he does
agree in principle with some of the principles of that church. And
probably most of the members of those church are good people. Trust me,
I’m black, and it is not at all uncommon in black churches to talk about
the “black agenda”. That doesn’t mean they are all horribly racist and
evil. Generally what they mean by and large is supporting policies that
help black people to advance and create a more equitable society. (hint, it isn’t yet) And
honestly a white platform like the one specified above I would not
assume is racist either. There is a racial distinction undertone that
is less than ideal, I agree. But it’s not evil. It’s not racist like
Nazi racist or like lynchings racist. So I think Mr. Brown needs to get
over it. It’s not so big a deal as all that. Why do you suppose McCain
refuses to use it to attack Obama? Being a member of a church should
not disqualify anyone for president.I’m not in favor of McCain
but I would never write such a hateful associative attack on him as in
this essay. He’s a good man who would make a fine president. I don’t
think he needs to be associated with racists, terrorists, and baby
killers or painted as a monstrous bogey man who is going to creep into
your homes and take away your way of life. If I would critique McCain
it would be solely on the basis of the issues that I believe he’s on
the wrong side of. Exactly as Obama does.Now I completely agree
with Mr. Brown that you should not vote your race solely. That’s dumb.
But I also believe you should not vote your religion solely either.
Rather you should vote your interests, your beliefs, and your
*humanity*. I am a human being before I ever developed a faith and
independent of my visual characteristics. So I’ll be voting for the
candidate whom I believe will best assist me and my fellow human beings
to create a better world for us all.
Comments (8)
I’m not an Obama supporter, but I read that and thought the same thing — “Wow. This sucks.” He’s not doing his candidate of choice any favors by writing such crap. Bummer.
oh the year of the sheep. that is equivalent to cancer in western sign.
why do i know this? because one saturday afternoon i was really bored and decided to start learning about astrology.
Right now I really wish Xanga had that “reply with a post” feature you wrote about once. The one like the “video responses” feature on YouTube?
Um, I went to that post… after you and YukinkoIcy left, someone made this comment:
Remember that “generated crisis” Sen. Biden referred to? It will involve the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” and American Christian churches’ participating in politics.
As President Obama rounds up people like Huntley Brown and you and me and silences us, as he uses the “Fairness Doctrine” to shut down radio stations that offer opinions about him that he does not like, and as the American and global economy continue to nosedive, Obama will declare martial law “for the national good”.
Politcal opposition silenced. Check. Spiritual freedom crushed. Check. Socialism initiated en route to Communism. Check. Military dictatorship established. Check.
Not bad for only three years of actual work. Of course, he will have had a lot of help on the way up there. And while his minions will also realize the disaster they helped bring about, it will be too late for them – or us – to do anything about it.
I don’t know what Biden meant… I admit that particular statement of his bothers me… but I do not expect Obama to round people up and establish a military dicatorship.
Some people are getting hysterical.
@ClockworkBunny - ugh. Yeah I left that thread when someone said something about God’s wrath being visited upon the US because of Obama’s being elected. That’s just… deranged. I don’t know any way to put it. If someone believes that, you cannot have a rational discussion with such a person about matters of politics. Letting your faith inform your political choices is one thing (that’s perfectly fine and people should do that), but believing that your preferred diety cares so much about the outcome of one election that he would rain down fire and brimstone because the outcome doesn’t go his way is just borderline psychotic.
Biden’s comment was just plain DUMB. But he ALWAYS does that. He’s got serious foot-in-mouth disease. For someone who’s been in politics for so long it’s sort of amazing how often he gaffs. Then again a lot of is purposeful misinterpretation and over analysis, but still, politicians should be more careful.
What Biden said was:
“It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like
they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a
brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of
America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember
anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis,
a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”
The big problem here is ofcourse the word “generated”. Had he not said that word his comments would have been perfectly reasonable and not subject to so much scrutiny. OF COURSE there will big “tests” for the next President within the next six months. There will be “tests” with regards to foreign policy for the next president within the first 6 DAYS probably. Nobody will need to *generate* any. The world is got enough crazy stuff going on as it is.
That being said what he probably meant was a truism of diplomatic relations and that is that government heads see new leaders as an opportunity to push a little further to maneuver and to challenge and to try and get away with some things you can’t necessarily get away with when dealing with a highly experienced leader who has been around a while. So yeah, new leaders have to earn their respect in the international community. It isn’t given to them on a silver platter. It’ll be hard. People will see a young inexperienced senator and they’ll try to walk all over him. He’ll have to prove he’s a good leader to the other nations of the world.
McCain will have to too. He might have some previous experience and knowledge to help out but at the same time he would also have a harder time convincing foreign leaders that he is NOT going to just be Bush again. He’ll have to fight against the Republican legacy which, no matter what Americans believe, *most* of the world is not too fond of.
But yeah that kind of diplomatic pushing might very well include a “generated” crises in the sense that one nation might take that opportuntiy to act on ambitions to invade another nation or might threaten to restart nuclear reactors or some such posturing. These kindsof things happen every time and they’ll always happen.
Still it was stupid for Biden to say it in that way, because it naturally invokes the idea that we are a bunch of paranoid conspiracy theorists. It makes the US look isolated and thinking that the rest of the world is out to get us. Worse it makes individual citizens think that Biden doesn’t have a reasonable grasp of reality and is living in a dream world of fantasy political machinations. He’s *not* of course, but it sure sounds that way.
But of course it goes too far. He should be criticized for that comment. But then going from there to the idea that Obama is going to institute internment camps and cease all our property and create martial law is absolute nonsense. Not that that couldn’t happen. It could with any leader if they turn out to be evil. That’s why we have separation of powers and checks and balances and all that to keep that shit in check. And that’s why the Bush administration’s legacy is so dangerous because if it is DOES happen it will happen in LARGE part because of the increased power the Bush administration has provided the executive branch.
But just because it’s POSSIBLE doesn’t mean it’s LIKELY. It definitely is FAR from likely in the United States as it stands. And it certainly doesn’t mean that we can conclude that it WILL happen because Biden used the wrong word in a speach. Give me a break!
Sorry for ranting. Politics drives me mad! >_<
Long comments FTW! ^.^
Makes sense to point out that Biden is kind of like Dan Quayle… the less he talks in public the better?
Unfortunately hysteria may become the order of the day as we get closer to November 4th: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27369927/ The fact of the matter is that many Evangelical Christians believe that these are The End Times, and are reacting accordingly. They’re panicking. They’re saying things that don’t make sense- they have to be more scared than they are letting on. It has crossed my mind that if they ever get the idea that the end of the world is in full swing and they somehow missed being “raptured”- well, I don’t know what they’ll do. Wait, they’ll probably blame Obama. XP
If anyone actually believes that God is going to “unleash His wrath” just because Obama’s in the White House… then you just know that every single earthquake, hurricane, and splinter in someone’s finger is going to be blamed on him.
I agree with you too. I read the first 3/4s of the essay, and it started to make me sick. Politics make me sick. Homophobes and irrational “Pro-lifers” make me sick. (The sane “Pro-lifers” are okay. I can debate with them.)
@Murder_chan - I am exactly the same way. I get along ok with many people who are pro-life and I can see their side of the argument. But a lot of pro-life people refuse to even try to understand mine and those people I can’t talk to.