Question of the day: When it comes to politics, Republican candidates often like to invoke "family values," which are usually related to abortion and gay marriage.
Now, when it comes to family values, who is better: McCain, who left his first wife and married a trophy wife who was 18 years younger than him and filthy rich, or Obama, who has been married for about 15 years and whose marriage by all accounts is doing great?
I guess the real question is, how much should a candidate's personal life influence my perception of that person politics?
I was at a debate this evening...Students for McCain vs. Students for Obama.
It was a wash, in my opinion. The Obama delegation couldn't seem to say anything substantive beyond the old "We're not the Republicans who have been screwing things up the past 8 years." The McCain delegation couldn't say anything that didn't somehow involve Iraq, had trouble staying on topic, and the one guy thought that Darfur was "the place that just had that cyclone."
I've been raised in an environment that is largely conservative Republican. And I'm a registered voter. But this November, I am not going to vote.
I don't care any more. I follow the news, I've taken 2 political science classes in the past four months, and know enough numbers about the off the top of my head to shoot down half the things that both delegations had to say (no joke). Quite frankly...I've had enough. All the people out there who think Obama is a Muslim or is sympathetic to Muslims or is a babykiller or whatever might crucify me for this but...I officially don't care who gets elected come November. I don't think it's going to make a substantial difference either way.
With one caveat. I think that having both houses of Congress and the Presidency belonging to one party concentrates to much power in one place, and I believe in the old adage about how power corrupts. The 1994 Democrats and 2006 Republicans are both prime examples of this. Thus, I hope that if one party winds up with both houses Congress, that that party' presidential candidate loses. Seeing as how the Democrats are likely to retain majorities in Congress, I suppose I'm rooting for McCain in that regard. Same for Obama if the Republicans somehow take Congress.
Note: Thank you for all your prayers. That said, I got a letter from ATS saying in effect, yeah we like you but we like someone else better. And now I'm officially starting to get worried, because I really need to get work lined up for this summer.
Comments (3)
I just blogged on the election myself. My primary focus is being anti national health care, so I'll vote McCain.
You're right that the majority of the people who get really fiery about politics have far more passion then education on the issues. The more you actually learn about what's going on the easier it is to feel disenfranchised with the whole process.
I think the country as a whole should take a breath an re-read George Washington's farewell address to Congress.
i just bought a pretty cool book titled "Jesus for President." It's got some interesting ideas.
it's really refreshing to hear from someone else who just DOESN'T CARE who gets elected this fall. almost everyone i talked to thinks mccain is our last chance for normalcy - if obama gets in, we will be murdered by african americans or muslims, and if clinton gets in, the country will fall apart (i haven't heard why yet).
This morning I was trying to find out which of two conflicting pieces of trivia about John McCain were correct and kept thinking about this blog entry. In doing my research, I realized that McCain divorced his first wife in 1980. Not only was that 28 years ago, it was only seven years after his being release from 5.5 years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Although seven years seems like along time, I don't think that it's very long to deal with something like what he went through.
While I don't agree with affairs or divorce, I think the period of his life where it occured could have ben a strong influencing factor. I think the fact that he's been faithful to his second wife (as far as is publically known) for 28 years is more indicative of his character than a 28 year old error.
I'm sorry that politics has worn on you to the point that you have decided not to vote in November. My first experience voting was teh Ford/Carter race in 1980. My experience since then has been that even subtle differences can be important.
Ok, sermon over.