Re: Who Are/Did You Vote For President?
I'm curious Dumpy, why do you feel he is the best. Not trying to argue, just wondering.
I have a litany of complaints about the Bush administration. In no particular order: A culture of waste, fraud, and abuse; a poor record on protecting the environment (although great, great props for Bush recently proposing creating the national monument in western hawaii); appointing unqualified people to lead Federal agencies and departments who aren't committed to the mission of the agency, and controlling much of the decision-making from the WH; gutting regulations that would protect the environement and the health and wellbeing of the citizens; a lack of transparent, open decision-making at those agencies and departments; a culture of hatred against gays; a frightening promotion of religion in government; the fact that a third of all federal judges have now been appointed by Bush and they are typically religious conservatives that overstep their bounds (see, for instance, the goup "Americans United For the Separation of Church and State," which follows such things); hiring and firing career civil servants on the basis of their political beliefs; etc. I also feel strongly that providing government-sponsored health insurance is the right thing to do from a moral standpoint, and, in fact, will eventually help grow the economy (an argument I've made in at least five threads and no one has repudiated).
Obviously, most of those complaints are against Bush, and not necessarily against McCain. But I have to believe that many of these same policies and methods of governance will continue. They have less to do with broad national policies on things like security defense, and more with the way that the government as a whole is administered. I also believe that it is very likely that the amount of waste and fraud committed by Dems in the next few years will skyrocket, since I expect that they will be in power, and you can't commit waste, fraud, and abuse unless you control the process (for the most part). That doesn't bother me. I would have no problem voting them out in two or four years if that does, in fact, happen. Change is good; it keeps the politicians aware of their responsibilities.
Public service is an honor and a responsibility, and I have been very discouraged by the way that the Republicans have run the government top-down over the past eight years. Even if the Democrats do no better, being voted out of office will hopefully give the Republicans a chance to rethink things for when they regain power.
On issues like national security, immigration policy, energy, I don't expect that there will be much difference between them despite the rhetoric. Tax policy, I don't care much about, but generally I believe that the nation's infrastructure is failing and needs to be repaired, and that our tax dollars should go to that instead of repairing the infrastructure in places like Iraq. In the depression, there were a ton of public works projects which succeeded in getting people some work and growing the economy. For instance, many of the skyscrapers in NYC were built during that period. I would be all for a similar surge in public works projects. I would even be all for tying eligibility to receive government-provided health benefits to accepting such work if you are unemployed. I don't know if that is realistic, and neither party has really stood out on those issues, anyway.
Anyway, I think Obama is forward-looking, while McCain represents the past. Obama must be careful not to be sucked in by the far left-wingers in his party, though, or he will pay the price. The expected big wins in the Senate and House will be a double-edged sword. I really hope Pelosi is replaced by a moderate. I think Reid is smart enough to know to dial back the rhetoric. I don't feel that way about Pelosi.
