HOWEVER….
Pitching a Hissy-Fit
For Democrats to vote for McCain simply because their candidate is nothing more than tossing a quasi-idealistic tantrum, in effect saying, “I didn’t get my way, so I am going to vote for the candidate who will keep things the same as what I hate now, just to show you all!”
All week long “Morning Edition” has been running an expose that included a poll about those who are going to jump ship and vote Republican. The percentages from the poll haven’t been revealed, but the content is frightening. People are considering voting for exactly what they don’t want in order to show their dislike of the outcome or the primary, not what will advance their needs the most in the next administration. I didn’t get may way --- waaaaahhhhh!
So let’s do what people tossing a tantrum rarely do and that is to look at the impact of our tantrums. Let’s look at what voting for McCain will really mean, starting with the thing that will impact us most, the economy. I’m in the camp that believes that a vote for McCain is a vote for continuing what we have presently seen which has driven us into this culture of business deceit (i.e. foreclosures spawned from the greed driven voodoo of mortgaged backed securities). Particularly revealing of McCain’s mindset is his contention that protecting the economy means bailing out Bears Stearns, who, at the very least, is in trouble for making bad business decisions and at the worst acting in a criminally irresponsible way.. However, he is against helping homeowners, who we are finding were often victims of the kinds of corporate entities of the Countrywide, Bears Stearns ilk. Does this sound like a guy who has your best intentions in mind; a better choice than Obama? At one point this year McGain indicated that he in fact needed more education on economics, but why? He has big biz cronies to tell him what to do.
Obama, on the other hand, wants more accountability on the part of big business for their actions, such as subprime loan practices, even if it means government regulation (See Sidebar). Hey, it worked for Roosevelt. In short Obama understands that this past eight years has created a culture where big business has carte blanch approval from the government to victimize the consumer for the purposes of profit.
When it comes to Iraq, Obama acknowledges that $2.7 billion per week (unaccounted cash to big biz cronies of the Neo-Cons) cannot be sustained has in fact hampered our countries security to protect ourselves from terrorism coming out of Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has a plan for redeployment.
McCain on the other hand makes broad, unsubstantiated, statements that drive at our fears about how it would be much more costly for us to pull out of Iraq. That’s what they said about Vietnam and it didn’t happen, communism did not conquer the world as argued. In fact, in less than a decade after leaving Vietnam, KFC opened stores in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and just last year opened stores in Hanoi. Vietnam is clambering for western style capitalism via tourism. We should have sent in The Colonel instead of the 1st Infantry. Might have saved us 58,000 American lives. Same with Iraq, we pull out, and the Iraqi’s will have less motivation to settle their own form of government employing violence. They won’t have an invading army to fight. McCain has also claimed that the U.S. problem is that we “have no plan to deal with success.” Yah. Just look at how successful Iraq has been so far.
I shortened this a bit. My first draft of this blog entry, summarily compared McCain to Obama, but it got long and begin to move away from my original message about the danger of Hillaryites switching to voting McCain because their candidates lost. Suffice it to say that danger in a vote for McCain lies in that it will be a vote for the status quo. To see this compare Obama to McCain for yourself, but don’t rely on the media, or even me, filtered by their particular slant. Go to places like On The Issues. Org where you can see simple factoids about each candidates stance. It will be a sobering exercise in why pulling your vote from the Democrats to the Republicans will be an extension of Bush’s Administration in a lot of ways.
You may not get exact what you hoped for by voting for Hillary, but you will get a lot more than if you vote for McCain. Besides, if nothing else, Obama has proved to open a ear to his constituency. In the beginning of his campaign, I found his rhetoric to be feckless oration, “word fog”: as I heard one disgruntled Hillaryite called it. But, he listened and changed. And I believe that he will continue to listen and act, and hopefully have the right people around him to guide him toward getting results
Time to Unify
Time for us Dems to unify and stop being self-righteous cry babies. Get behind our candidate, monitor and pass him information about who he should appoint to guide and help him. Stop focusing on single issue items and look at the whole picture realizing that if Obama gets elected, you have a better chance of influencing government to your needs than if McCain gets elected who is embedded in the Neo-Con paradigm
Democrats have lost the last two elections on narrow margins. Convince everyone you know not to cave into emotional principles of apparent idealism, such as voting for McCain out of Primary Election disappointment, or voting for Nader, simply because you think that will give your opinion a voice. As if a newscaster is going to announce, “Patti Jones of Omaha voted for Nader to register her political ideals and unhappiness at the primary. We are so chagrined at your disappointment, Patti”
Get on top of who Obama wants to surround himself with and get the message to him to do what you want. Tell him flat out, that you wanted Hillary, but will back him if you feel he will represent enough of your needs. Then if he’s elected, continue to send him messages. He’s inspirational, and even if he isn’t the best candidate, he’s better than the alternative: fragmenting the vote so that McCain wins!
Despite my really, really thinking that Hillary was the better choice and my misgivings about over self-ambitious, partially racist, feckless orator, Obama, I am willing to look at the overall picture and realize that punishing Obama because i didn't get my way in the Primary isn't really going to get me what I want. Still it was so, so wrong...Waaaaahhhhh!
