I promised myself I’d wait a week to let the knees jerk about the election before I would consider weighing in.
And I wasn’t going to, except over the weekend we were out and I overheard the following comment about the Obama presidency: “You wait. In about two years we’ll all have to face Mecca twice a day.”
Guess the honeymoon’s over.
So today I’d like to preach a little moderation.
However, before I toss my two cents into the fray let me provide some context. I grew up in a household of conservative Republicans. Conservative in the classic “the government which governs least, governs best” sense. Republic in the election day mantra of “The worst Republican is better than the best Democrat.” As far as my family was concerned FDR was the devil incarnate.
Consequently, as statistics show the overwhelming majority if peope do, I registered in the party of my father. Except it was the early 70’s, I was a teenager while Vietnam was winding down and Nixon was winding up. My father and I didn’t see eye to eye on a lot.
But as I aged, studied history as an undergrad and in grad courses – and eventually ended up teaching it for over 20 years — I began to understand the value of classic conservative philosophy. A government that has been spinning out of control for some time now needs to get back to its roots. Sometimes, less is more.
I also came to embrace the concept of moderation as a political means to the end. Those who tout the blind fanaticism of the far left and the far right annoy me equally; media “pundits” who do so I find worse.
Politics is the art of negotiation and compromise, neither of which are possible when people scream without thinking or talk without listening.
In the past year I saw far too much screaming and fear-mongering, and I’m afraid to say, moreso from the McCain camp.
I also understand the concept of the division of power in the U.S. and trust that whole checks and balances system.
Finally, I believe compassion and empathy are critical to success as a leader. (And yes, Virginia, conservatives can be compassionate too.)
These, then, are some of the reasons I voted for Obama.
This is not to say I voted for George W. Bush, either. (On the other hand, I didn’t vote for his Democrat opponents either — I opted for the Libertarian candidates as a protest vote, and please don’t lecture me about “throwing my vote away.”) Personally, I think voting for people you see as unfit for the job (and who actually will get the job) is disingenuous. At least the Libertarians never had a snowball’s chance.
Why I didn’t vote for Bush is another reason I voted for Obama. I never liked how the “neo-conservative” crowd had its hooks in the Bush presidency. (It’s amazing how you can put the word “neo” in front of something to hide your real agenda. To me, “neo” is the word form of wolf in sheep’s clothing.)
The Neo-Con foreign policy agenda, for example, is right out of Woodrow Wilson’s interventionist policies in the early part of this century. “I will teach those people how to vote,” said Wilson of Latin America. Bush has said virtually the same thing about Iraq.
Bush’s domestic policies were equally unappealing. One quick example: Oil. No push for alternative energy. And the mismanagement continues even now with the pressure to ease up on drilling restrictions. I don’t come at this from an environmentalist point of view but from the simple fact that while everybody’s talking about drilling, there’s very little discussion of the fact that the major oil companies have — and continue to — post record profits. I’m not critical of making profits, but for crying out loud, what these corporations are doing is obscene — and they are literally fleecing the gas-buying public.
I’m not wild about the recent bailout, either. Again, while many folks are debating the de-regulation issue as an allegedly prominent cause, they are overlooking a more important aspect: The level of greed and mismanagement that is being tolerated at many levels of public and private corporations.
(One final aside: I also never trusted Dick Cheney. It’s no coincidence, to me, that he was a key player in the misinformation about Iraq, a situation which has cost us dearly both domestically and internationally. For another, his type of blind arrogance has no place in my White House.)
Despite his attempts to paint himself a “maverick,” in John McCain’s policies I saw more of the same.
I’ve always liked McCain and was willing to give him the benefit of a doubt to a certain extent. But his voting record with the Bush administration was troublesome. Then two other things happened which sealed the deal.
The first was the selection of Sarah Palin. I’m not getting deeply into the whole Palin thing other than to say early on, McCain had a valid issue in attacking Obama’s lack of experience. Yet, he then chose a running mate who had no experience whatsoever then touted the importance of having “fresh views” in the White House. This maneuver smacked of either hypocrisy and/or the fact McCain sacrificed some of his own principles to the “win at all costs” drive of the Republican campaign. Both are distasteful.
Then there was the vitriolic nature of his campaign stops. He began to play to the crowd, ramping up — and taking advantage of — their fear. In watching clips of rallies I saw anger and the potential for violence. Frankly, at stops where some people would shout “kill him” in reference to Obama, I thought McCain should have just said “This is ridiculous” and walked off the stage. It might have gained their attention.
I read an interesting piece a few weeks ago by a friend of McCain’s who said when the election was all over and McCain would reflect on how things went, he would view the campaign as one of the most regrettable acts of his career. McCain, the author said, is an overall nice and decent human being. He suffered for this country and wants to give back. He fancies himself an artful negotiator, a low-key individual who can bring all sorts of diverse groups together. Yet, the author wrote, for whatever reason he became an individual who was divisive and incendiary. The McCain the author knew, his close friend concluded, got hijacked.
But the good McCain wasn’t who I saw in this campaign.
So I voted for a man who, to me, exemplifies the optimism that can exist in this country. (Frankly, his policies don’t scare me that much, and if things do get a little out of hand he’ll still have a Congress and Supreme Court lurking about. I think we need to give the man and our system the benefit of the doubt on this one.)
I believe divisiveness must end. I believe the fears that the current administration has been overplaying for its own purposes should no longer be flamed. I believe there must be more energy placed on uniting all groups in this country (it’s not like any of us are going anywhere, so it’s time to move on in a positive direction). And I believe it’s time to extol and utilize this country’s virtues, not use them to denigrate political opponents as I saw the McCain campaign do.
If you want one last piece of evidence regarding the dysfunctionality of the Republican party, witness the McCain-Palin sniping and backstabbing that began even before the election occurred. There was no one in the party who had the foresight or power to get everybody in one room and say, “Look. if you want us to rebound you need to shut up. You are doing no one any good.”
That lack of vision, and that campaign, were not run by the same Republican party I signed on to, lo those many years ago. As the old saying goes, I didn’t leave them, they left me.
