one of the major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary; anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.
~ Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Tomorrow is election day. One thing that I’ve believed for a long time is that people who don’t research the issues should stay home. Voting is not your civic duty. Your civic duty is voting RESPONSIBLY. Acting foolishly is worse than not acting at all, and I have a lot more respect for someone who says “I really don’t know…” rather than someone who just votes based on their general feelings or what letter the person has after their name.
I’ve also been watching the candidates rather closely, and there’s one thing that I can’t get past: both of these candidates are terrible.
To be certain, my views align better with McCain’s than Obama’s, but I refuse to vote against Obama and that’s what John McCain has turned his campaign into. He wants us to vote against the other guy, rather than asking us to vote FOR him. Of course, as Republicans go, the true fiscal conservatives are on the endangered species list and McCain is no exception.
To be certain, he’s said all of the right things. I have a hard time finding things on his campaign site that bother me but, more than anything, it just doesn’t seem like the same John McCain is running for president as has been in the Senate for so many years now. Why re-make yourself now unless you’re desperately trying to win an election? And if that’s the motivation, what does that say about his principles?
Anyone who wants the job of President that badly should be automatically disqualified.
~ Hunter S. Thompson
Further, while I’m not as disappointed with Sarah Palin as it is popular to be (although I still haven’t been able to figure out why, exactly) I certainly don’t think she was the best option he had, and it makes me wonder how McCain would handle the number of appointments that he’ll have to make during his term. Sarah Palin is a gimmick, and while that might be fine for a 4-year stint as VP, it’s not fine when it comes to appointing judges and justices… and I’m not confident that his picks for his cabinet would be any better.
As for Obama… where to start? How about this… which adequately sums up pretty much every Obama supporter I’ve had the “pleasure” of talking to about the election (3-4 minutes is more than enough to get the gist):
What’s more… how do you run on a platform of “changing Washington” and then select, as your VP nominee, one of the single most “Inside Washington” politicians you can find? Joe Biden also has two admitted cases of plagiarism to his name… and this is the guy we’re going to put “a heartbeat away” from the Oval Office? No, thank you.
Bottom line: there’s no there there, ya know? All of this hype and support… it’s based on… “hope”. Really? Can I pay back my student loans with that?
That’s before we talk about the huge tax hikes he’s planning and his support for the death tax — easily one of the most immoral and unjust taxes in the history of the country. Ridiculous spending increases. His history of being a major player in the pork game.
He’s pretty much like every other Democrat who has run for President in the past 20 years except that he has better speech writers1.
I decided back in the primaries that I wasn’t going to vote against anyone this year. I decided that if I didn’t find a candidate I felt good about who had a platform I was comfortable with, I wasn’t going to cast a ballot. It is my firm belief that not voting is legitimate form of political expression, in much the same way that senators themselves can vote “present” on bills that come up for vote.
I’m not voting for President tomorrow, but here’s hoping that two years from now we don’t really regret whichever one of these self-serving charlatans we manage to elect.
Oh, and he’s black, but I’m sure that has nothing to do with his popularity at all, right?
Tags: Election 2008, McCain, Obama
Pete, it’s the nature of a two party system that the election is about voting against someone rather than for someone. If you lived in a battleground state I’d drive down there and introduce my foot to your ass. =)
a) Georgia’s listed as a “battleground” state on every map I’ve seen.
b) the reason the system works like that is because most people don’t have the principles not to vote for shitty candidates. It’s a signaling problem… and you’re not part of the solution.
a) In that case, call me Red Forman.
b) I voted for Browne a few elections back, and I’ll be going Barr this time around. I don’t mind signaling when it won’t effect a key state. Power matters.
Pete… I can’t disagree with anything you’ve written here.
I voted for McCain, and here is why: turnout.
Obama is, I am afraid, going to roll the buses tomorrow and pick up every legal and nonlegal person he can find and get them to the polls. In other words, he’s gonna get his votes. I really feel at this point, unfortunetly, it has become you are voting for Obama or you are not voting for Obama.
Of all the registered and likely to vote voters, I really think something close to 50 percent of those people will vote for Obama. The others will be split between McCain, Barr (haha) and staying home.
So, to me, by staying home… you are “splitting” the vote among the Obama opposition.
So consider my vote not so much a vote for McCain, but rather, my vote will cancel out one Obama vote.
Does this suck? Absolutely. It’s embarrasing that this is the best the GOP could come up with.
Honestly, if the Dem nominee would have been Kerry, Edwards, Hillary, maybe even Biden, I would stay home. But… Obama is going to be such an unmitigated disaster as president, the precedents he set will be so awful, that in my good conscience I could not sit back and let him get elected without myself at least trying to prevent it.
But, I’ll say it again: I can’t disagree with you. I think your position is absolutely reasonable given the circumstances.
‘Tis a shame that at a time in which we really need a good leader, this is what we get. Oh well. Wednesday starts the 2012 campaign.
I am voting for Rupert Welsh so I can be revoked of my citizenship for making websites.
Holy hell Manny, I just spit my drink all over my computer screen. Too funny.
I also want the government to stay out my vajayjay.
Bobby, when Pete gets off his ass and becomes a lawyer it is on like donkey kong!
Lol…. so glad I decided to read the comments for this post.
I’m voting for Barr as well, and don’t care about taking votes away from anyone else. Maybe it’s unrealistic but I’d like to see the Libertarian party gain momentum, and you have to start somewhere. And he’s the only one I can stomach.
Amy, when Pete becomes a lawyer its on like Donkey Kong right? YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?! It’s time to bring our resurrect our brainchild!
I’m a fan of Bob Barr’s platform — except insomuch as he, and most Libertarians, are hopelessly naive on defense issues, but I was turned off to the party back in 2004 when they had an opportunity to sell their platform on national TV and instead chose to run an infomercial on the legalization of pot.
What a damn waste.
I officially lost all respect for the Libertarian Party when they somehow chose Utah’s biggest nutcase (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Schanze) to run as their candidate for Governor of Utah.
/agree on Lib’s and defense.
But really, having a party that agrees with me 100% on every issue is a lot to ask for. Especially in a single member district first-past-the-post electoral system. If you want to make it likely you’ll have a party you can agree with on anything more than slightly over 50% of the time, we’ll need to switch to PR.
That’s a valid point, and I do understand the strategic benefits of voting, but… my god… I just don’t want EITHER of them to be president.
I obviously don’t think that’s an option, but I also don’t want my vote contributing to some sort of “mandate”.
I too agree. Unfortunately, it’s Wednesday and I almost feel like an idiot even commenting on this post but I had to comment about the automaton who spouted off about personal inspiration.
Personal inspiration, while at first and on the surface is great, almost always spells disaster. That’s been my biggest problem with Obama all along. I don’t feel like he stands for much at all, he just makes people feel good. He brings to mind a certain WWII instigator which I would like to remind all of those enamored by him of.
I would also just like to point out how big a dork I am by saying, “This is why studying history is important.”