The Real
Issues: Politics
Why I
Understand McCain Voters -- and Why I Still Think Obama Is the Better
Choice
By:
Charles P. Kirchofer
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It may sound incredible to many other socially liberal voters out
there, but I can understand McCain voters. In the last two elections,
it was different. My gauge for American swing voters, my father, let me
know that George Bush would win the last two elections. Both times,
particularly the second time, after everyone had gotten a chance to see
Bush's disasters in action, I simply could not grasp why he was being
elected. This time, as I suspect my father will vote for McCain, I am
actually able to discuss the pros and cons with him. This time also,
unlike the last two elections, I think my father is not a reliable
barometer for public opinion. No, I think Obama will win this election,
even though it is still open to either of them and it is actually too
early to be making such predictions, that's still the sense I get.
So why, after all these years of republicans showing us how incompetent
they can be, how much neo-conservative idealism they can put into their
foreign policy and cloud their judgment and deafen them to the
recommendations of their own military commanders, after years of
infrugal fiscal policies that have turned federal surpluses into
federal deficits, could I ever even consider voting for a republican?
The answer is that the republicans, much like the democrats, are not a
unified block. John McCain, in spite of everything, is not George W.
Bush. In fact, in spite of all attempts to show otherwise, they don't
even really like each other very much. But this election is about more
than just whether the candidates like Bush or not.
Looking at John McCain's record, he's stood for a lot of sensible
things, things we should actually be able to take for granted. For
example, one of the most important issues for me in the last eight
years has been torture. McCain spoke out against allowing torture and
opposed it from the start. This is, of course, a personal issue for him
as a surviving POW. Whenever McCain speaks, there is a
general
feeling that he is a good man, and means what he says. Although he's
abandoned some of his straight talking ways, there's still enough of
that to get the feeling that McCain understands the voters.
McCain also can boast experience. In matters of foreign
policy, he
is certainly right that he understands more about military operations
than Obama. Having been to Afghanistan doesn't mean that much, but it
is a start that he is at least somewhat familiar with the people there
he would later be working closely with. That the surge appears to have
worked is also helping him a great deal.
As for economics, McCain's professed weak spot, he is against
nationalizing the health care system. I am actually a supporter of
universal health care in the long run, but the idea of the government
taking over a system whose costs are already out of control and then
attempting to solve the problems only later through layers of
bureaucracy makes me shudder. There is also the problem of financing
such a system. Obama has never adequately explained how he would like
to do it.
And there we are back to an area where they are similar again: both of
their budget plans have holes of between $200 and $300 billion in them.
Both have failed to adequately explain how they will pay for them.
Obama claims he will do so by repealing Bush's tax cuts on the rich and
cutting unnecessary spending in other areas. The experts remain very
skeptical, saying that will still leave a hole of over $200 billion
dollars. McCain proposes to stop pork-barreling. As Obama was quick to
point out, that would only amount to a savings of $80 billion dollars.
Though an impressive sum, this amount assumes he would succeed 100% and
even then would leave a hole, like Obama's, of over $200 billion in the
budget.
So if McCain has some things going for him and both of them are going
to end up going back on their promises, why do I still feel Senator
Obama is the better candidate? Senator McCain has some problems as
well, and Senator Obama also has some things going for him.
Senator McCain claims foreign policy experience, and yet most
politicians in Europe dread working with him because of his
uncooperative hot-hotheadedness. Even if their opinions do not reflect
the opinions of our other allies (although I suspect they do, to a
large extent), it is important to win back the support of our allies.
If the US has learned anything in the past few years, it has been that
it cannot go it alone, no matter how strong it is. Obama would be much
more likely to win support from leaders overseas, and that in itself is
an important foreign policy feat.
Senator McCain claims the surge worked. It is true that the level of
violence has fallen off in Iraq, but that has more to do with Iraqi
religious leaders deciding it is better to work with the US than to let
Al Qaeda and other groups from foreign countries start coming in and
determining what happens for them. They now consider the Americans the
lesser of two evils. In addition, much of the ethnic cleansing in Iraq
is already complete. Iraqis have moved around and reorganized, meaning
the mixed neighborhoods that were hotbeds for violence have become
somewhat calmer. Although the surge undoubtedly had an impact and
should have been done from the start, it was only one of several
factors that contributed to the current, relatively peaceful state in
Iraq.
Another area where I simply cannot agree with the new McCain is on the
issue of George Bush's tax cuts. McCain originally spoke out against
them. Most economists and even businessmen were against them as well.
They caused an enormous federal government deficit, after Clinton had
left Bush with the healthiest budget the federal government had seen in
a long time, if not ever. I strongly oppose the tax cuts.
Unfortunately, Senator McCain has changed his mind on that issue and
now supports them. The argument that they help to spur on the economy
doesn't work when put into perspective. Yes, tax cuts might be
acceptable now, during a time of economic weakness. Taxes (along with
interest rates) should have been higher
over the past several years, particularly on the rich, to help slow the
expansion we saw, but more importantly to help pay back the debt that
was taken on. It may have made sense to cut taxes in 2002 in the post
9/11 slump, but keeping them for more than a year was foolish. Even
Alan Greenspan thought so. The bottom line is, slump or no, the tax
cuts are currently not feasible, and should be reversed. We cannot
forget the importance of consumer spending in addition to business
investment. Therefore aiding consumers in hard times can also be useful.
The next area, of course, is on human rights, equality, and
nation-building. In order to have peace and order in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the US MUST get involved in some nation-building, as
opposed to it as US conservatives are and as risky a business as it is.
Now that we are there, there is no other way to prevent the situation
from becoming incalculably worse. Other areas are human rights, and
here my interest is domestic. I cannot accept a vice president, who
could easily become president, who is anti-abortion, believes god
created the earth in seven days and that dinosaurs and men walked
together on the earth, and who supports a federal constitutional ban on
same-sex marriage. I am diametrically opposed to her on all these
issues, and McCain agrees with her enough to make this problematic even
if he doesn't pass away during the next four years (which I would
certainly hope doesn't happen). Obama, while he does not outright
support same-sex marriages, opposes a federal amendment, believing this
should be up to the states to decide. Leaving it to the states is fine
by me, I'm from Connecticut.
Finally, one of the biggest reasons for voting for Obama is his shear
personality. Bush won by a strategy of divide and conquer. Since he
became president, America is an intensely divided country, and I think
that's a shame. Obama is a uniter. His speeches are speeches of a
better America, a United
States
of America. Obama says these things not, as Palin would have us
believe, because he doesn't like America, he says them because he wants
America to get back to its core essence of hope, opportunity, and
respect for differences. Obama embodies these beliefs and has the
ability to bring some healing to the wound down through America's
middle.
It is clear to me that Obama will not be able to keep all his promises.
It's a fact of life that being completely forthcoming will keep you
from being elected. What is important is his abilities and the person
himself, along with the advisers he has chosen. He may be
inexperienced, but he can unify, both domestically and internationally,
something that America desperately needs; he is intelligent; he
listens; and he has selected an excellent and experienced team of
advisers. In this way, if people can accept that he is not America's
savior and will have to make tough decisions and break some promises,
he is sure to be a great president. He is the one who could begin to
turn things around and get America headed in the right direction, even
if he cannot fix all of America's problems overnight. For this reason
we must give him a chance. So McCain's not a bad guy and has good
things to contribute, but Obama's still our man.
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