Vote, Even If It’s For the “Wrong Reasons”

Ever heard someone say that stupid people shouldn’t be allowed to vote? Or say that people who don’t know the politicians shouldn’t vote? Or even something as simple as saying that someone or some people are voting for the wrong reasons? It’s actually been shown that people, if undecided, unaffiliated, and uninformed on the candidates, will simply vote for whoever looks better, or whomever’s name they recognize first if it’s a list?

On the other side, we’ve all heard it, if you don’t vote, you have no right to complain when things go wrong. It’s your civic duty to vote, and so forth. So where do people go who simply don’t know or don’t care or simply wish to straight ticket vote without regard to what their votes mean?

There are a number of people out there, I’ll call them “elitists,” not because they are, well, actually, yes, because tehy are. There are these “elitists” out there who think you shouldn’t vote, or even shouldn’t be allowed to vote if you are uninformed, indifferent, or a straight ticket voter. We all know the types: your neighbor who straight ticket votes every time and doesn’t follow politics, the people in some other town who vote because fear propaganda worked, your friend who got sucked into one candidate’s slogan and refuses to consider anything else, and all the rest. Should they really not be allowed to vote? The implication is that voting would exclusively be performed by those who are informed and deeply consider the issues, candidates, and policies. I suppose that would make campaigning easy: it would be a, I’m sad to say, small group to target. It would, however, for better or for worse, make the dream of hegemony come true.

Are elections not but the sum of all the influences on the electorate in the preceding months? So how can it be that some of those reasons are incorrect? There is a part of me, to be sure, that wishes some people wouldn’t vote. But that is entirely my selfish, biased partisanship, and nothing more. Everyone, everyone is entitled to vote for whatever reasons might move him or her. Every citizen is entitled to have his or her voice heard when crunch time rolls around no matter what motivates him or her to participate.

Think about it. A piece of every dollar you spend on gasoline goes to lobbyists who will serve their businesses interests in Washington, on Wall Street, and even in each American’s television set. A fraction of every medical bill you pay goes to groups that market drugs straight to the consumers on television. A bit of each purchase you make goes to at least one if not many interest groups that will attempt to influence your Congressperson. A sliver, or perhaps quite a bit more of your loan payments, whether it was a car, a credit card, or your tuition contributed to the push for deregulation that ended up crippling our economy. Not to belabor this but I have one more. Every time you watch television and see advertisements on FOX, or CNN, or MSNBC or whatever you watch, part of that goes to partisan and biased news reporting that will invoke fear and distrust and partisanship that will continually perpetuate itself.

So we are all responsible for why we vote the way we vote. Sure, some of us take the time to step outside our own visceral reactions and contemplate more. Some of us research the issues and maybe even change our minds. Some of us blog and attempt to reach out to others, often with our own partisan agenda. If you convinced someone to vote for your candidate of choice for the wrong reasons, would you still tell him/her not to vote? Maybe. But probably not. Why should it not be the same for the other side?

The right to vote is simply that. It’s everyone’s opportunity to push a button for whatever reasons they have. If inspired by brilliance or by fear, it’s nothing more than the net result of all the money we spend every blasted second on advertising, marketing, spinning, and campaigning. It’s the net product of all the minutes we spend talking politics around water coolers, canvassing door to door, and blogging politics.

Now, if you’re one of the “elitists,” I do apologize if this entry offended you. That was a bit of misplaced sarcasm, and really this would read just as well without it. Still, I feel like I should leave it in because this is one of those things that troubles me a great deal.

Something Positive in Politics!

In this time of troubled economic stability and a worldwide panic, it has been hard for most Americans to think about much else. People’s investments, college funds, pensions, savings accounts, and more have taken deep hits. It’s also been shown that more people are confident about Senator Obama’s ability to stabilize the stock market and clean up wall street, and all the other political rhetoric they both use. As such, it has been pretty imparitive that the McCain camp either distract people from the economy to present his stronger qualities, or convince people other issues need more attention. Both pathways of attack have been used, and both have seen limited success.

I apologize in advance because this will be a dry statement of my opinions on this topic without much humor, wit, or sarcasm.

The Palin half of the ticket has been launching some pretty inappropriate attacks that have only been fueled further by FOX news. After calling Obama friends with domestic terrorists, she was called out on it, and only defended it by repeating it. Pretty pathetic, right? It is insulting that that’s how low of an opinion she has about our collective intelligence. But it worked on so many people it just amazes me. With the aid of FOX news, namely, Sean Hannity, it was the Ayers “scandal” was perpetuated and repeated and now some people believe that Obama must be buddy buddy best friends with him and other domestic terrorists who hate America and went to WAR with America.

Is this really how far we’ve come? We’re going to be as petty as we can and treat the highest office in the nation, and dare I say, world with this sort of immature contempt?

The effects of this spread fast. Friday, the 10th of October, a man at a McCain town hall style event got up and made a couple stupid coy jokes and said he was scared to bring his daughter up under an Obama presidency. I mean, seriously, is this best political discourse some people can come up with? Another woman later on just laid it out and said it. She said… that she’s a racist. Basically. Faulting Obama and his campaign for being an ARAB, McCain cut her off and defended Mr. Obama from the second distressingly ignorant insult-in-the-form-of-a-question of the day. People in the audience demanded McCain show no mercy, and when he said he would remain respectful, the assholes actually got pissed off. Are they supporting their candidate, or just reveling in the opportunity to hate and spout off whatever uneducated garbage comes to mind?

I have to say, despite the lower level of commitment to clean and fair campaigning for the last few months, McCain showed some true guts today. Getting booed at his own fucking rally, he defended his opponent and defended clean and respectful politics. I liked that. A lot. It doesn’t excuse him for not always playing fair, but at least he drew a clear line where he would venture no further into the dark slanderous campaign path. It certainly doesn’t make up for all the ridiculous stunts some of the more outspoken and hostile groups have pulled, in their own names though, not under Mr. Mccain’s banner.

So I say again, Good for you, Mr. McCain. It took some real character to take on your own booing audience for a good cause. You said you were commited to a clean campaign in the beginning, and that’s how it should remain. It speaks better of both parties when both commit to it, and it demonstrates America’s good grace and our values and virtues. It’s frankly, rather embarrassing to see smear tactics.

So which of these two is going to lower taxes, again?

Let’s face it folks. No one is going to lower taxes. The economy is in tough territory, global markets are plummeting, and people are panicking. China will start calling in some their loans and America won’t have an easy time keeping up with it, particularly following this multi billion dollar bailout. Add to that the costs for war, hopefully the cost of increased veteran’s benefits and subsidized health care and every tax dollar will be stretched thin.

Regardless of who you support, taxes aren’t going anywhere but up. Trickle down, bottom up, it doesn’t matter. No president will be able to push through any sort of significant, and probably not even any insignificant tax breaks for any brackets. We’ve got a Democratic house to boot.

So don’t talk about who will actually cut taxes for whom; I seriously doubt it will happen. Let’s focus on how we can “clean up” wall street, pick up the pieces, reenergize the markets and restoke investor confidence.

It’s my opinion that if you have money to invest, you should invest it right now. The darkest times are the best time to get in on the action. After everyone gets out of the pool, the water levels are lower, you can get in at a good price. Assuming the entire US economy survives, which, despite the problems, I think is a sure bet, the water has no where to go but up. So get back in it.

VP Debate

Minute 28 in the debate: She didn’t fucking ask you about your tax plan and McCain’s “Maverick” tendencies. She asked you about the bankruptcy law changes from last year. She didn’t ask you about cleaning up wall street. While we all agree wall street needs something to change, she asked you about Bankruptcy laws.

Minute 37: Ooh, you are “tolerant” of homosexual couples. Harsh. Not the right word choice. And not without a snarky tone of condescension towards all those pesky gays, right?

Minute 44: Palin queries Biden about Obama’s prior vote regarding troop funding and that Biden and OBama disagreed. Okay, Biden got a little cornered and is now diverting attention to the whole “who was right?” thing about being greeted as liberators, short war, etc etc. Not so strong, Mr. Biden.

Minute 47: “Nuke-u-lar,” Mrs. Palin? Really?  Now she is regurgitating the same things McCain harped upon in the first presidential debate. Obama addressed this already. Diplomacy needs to come first. 

Minute 49: Oh god, barf. TERRORISTS JUST HATE FREEDOM. Are you fucking serious? That is what the sheep were saying in 2001. Creating a world of fear, war, hatred, distrust, and ignorance is what creates terrorists.

Minute 50: Biden is completely right here. I would really, really like to find some sort of middle ground defense here, but so many people have called for just plain old fashioned fucking diplomacy. Fucking talk and work this shit out. This passive aggressive bullshit about demanding concessions to even negotiate is ridiculous. People on both sides of the aisle have called for diplomacy, diplomacy first.

Minute 71: Stop with the snarky little immature comments. “Oh Joe, there you go again.” This is politics. This is high office politics. This isn’t high school.

Minute 89: City on the hill? Oh fuck you. Puritanical shit. Also: please stop digging up Reagan’s corpse.

Minute 91: Biden apparently puts the fun in fundamental.