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Hey all
This is a letter that I wrote to a friend regarding socialism and the presidential campaign. I've filled out my entire ballot already except for the presidential election. This is my take and I need some advice on your thoughts and feelings. I hope that I don't offend anyone here and publicly admit that I can be swayed one way or another.
Phil
Tim
Thanks for the dialog. I don't think that most republicans are talking about kicking the poor to the curb and cutting them off. I don't believe that taking care of the poor is socialism. I do believe that our current system is meeting many of the needs of the people in that it doesn't give them everything but does support basic needs. No one in the US needs to starve or be without the basics and I think that few actually are. I don't believe that everyone needs a college education. I don't believe that everyone should be able to get fast food to eat every day. I get the feeling that this is where some left side policies are going. People should struggle. It's been that way for all time.
Socialism is when the government controls all monetary transactions on behalf of the people. I believe that the republicans recently have taken more steps in the socialist direction then any politician in the history of the U.S. I don't believe that socialism is an issue in this election. Both parties are leaning towards it regardless of what they say.
When it comes to the big issues though there is a difference between the candidates. I'm looking at where they stood in January of 08 as I believe that both candidates have publicly adjusted some of these views since then and their original views may be more revealing.
Roe v Wade Obama supports, McCain does not support. I'm on the fence. There are times when abortion is appropriate and Roe-v-wade allows for those times in addition to others.
Education, Both candidates support similar reforms in addition to No Child Left Behind
Energy and Oil Neither candidate support additional drilling in ANWAR or off shore in Jan of 08. Both have moved on this subject since then. This is an issue that I have with both candidates. I am a member to the T. Boone Pickens army and believe that comprehensive energy reform is the answer to many of our future issues including the middle east. Neither candidate actually has any idea how to solve this big issue. Their handlers have had the play lip service to energy but neither actually believe in it.
Guns, Obama supports additional gun bans. McCain does not. I am a member of the NRA and a gun owner. My wife is editing a book written by a holocaust survivor. In that book he speaks about how in the beginning of the nazi power struggle some saw what was happening and wanted to fight back but the government had banned all personal weapons so the only people with guns were the nazis. I'm not suggesting that we're going to be the next Empire or anything but I do believe that we will experience difficult times in these last days and I want to have in my possession the tools and knowledge to protect my family from those who would destroy it. This includes assault rifle style of arms which are designed to defend protect and intimidate. Which is what I need them for.
Immigration- Both support a path to citizenship for Illegals and a border fence. I support both these views. But this is a bigger issue to me then anyone except Sharif Joe is making it.
Iraq- Obama apposes the war and supports troop withdrawal McCain believes the inverse. I'm on the fence here and actually see both sides. We do need to get out of the mess we are in there but we need to do it in a way that is supportive and respectful to the people who we have ditched to their own problems with the Soviets before. Most people don't understand the history of the U.S. in that region very well. I don't assume to have a clear picture myself but I respect that we have had a hand in making it the unstable place that it is and we have had a hand in creating the fierce hatred by our past actions. Besides. all those who believe in the second coming of the Savior understands that there will be a lot going on in this region in the time to come regardless of our political views. If we pull out and it destabilizes the area bringing the second coming sooner I guess I'm ok with that but I still think that we need to do it in a respectful manner and I believe that McCain would actually do better at this. Even though he comes across as a bit of a war monger.
Minimum wage- Obama supports and increase and McCain does not. I've never been a support of the minimum wage.... well since I was 16 that is. I'm a free market capitalist even though we screwed up the housing and lending markets I think that in most areas free market capitalism gets it right. Besides I believe that the minimum wage is supporting illegal immigration.
Same Sex Marriage- Neither support same sex marriage and neither want a constitutional amendment to ban it. Obama supports civil unions and McCain supports something like civil unions. These guys are both taking a politically safe middle ground on this subject. I'm actually a little torn here and wish that I actually had any idea where they each stand on this.
Taxes- Both of these guys are going to raise taxes. I believe that the small business people will be hit the hardest and it's tempting me to scale back some of my own business ideas. It just isn't possible to do the things that we are doing today without raising some capital. This is depressing but I believe that Obama has a more feasible plan.
Finally the VPs Biden is a career politician and comes across as slimy as ever and it's fun to see Obama have to tell him to sit out campaigning when he says stupid things. Pailin is awful. She has been portrayed by the McCain camps actions as a weak stupid woman who can't speak for herself. There are more effective choices he could have and should have made.
I still don't know who to vote for. I believe that Arizona will turn out to be a swing state even thought the poles don't show it to be there are a lot of people here who really don't like McCain. I'm trying not to be a pawn to the media but I have a doubt implanted in my head about Obama and his past/present relationships. Both sides are pushing to either downplay or up play these relationships but I don't know if I believe Obama when he simply brushes them away as nonsense. It just feels fishy to me.
So what it comes down to for me is guns, iraq, energy and free markets. This would put me in the McCain camp but then I just feel like he's a grumpy old man who does some stupid things.... which reminds me of a current president who I'm not very happy with. So do I do as the politicians do and buck my beliefs for someone who appears more intelligent and much more polished?
That's my struggle.
Phil
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6 comments:
Here was my problem. I didn't like either candidate. Obama came off,to me, as a man who thought himself more important than anyone else and would smirk and chuckle at Mcain during debates to (from my perspective) make Mcain look like an idiot. Mcain just couldn't ever seem to answer any question ever posed to him at all. Which in a way supported Obama's attitude toward him. Obama is a great orator. Mcain is not...but neither was Moses. I didn't like either candidate but had to vote. I HAD to vote. So, I had to make sure that the one I absolutely couldn't trust didn't get my vote. I wish that I could have voted for a different party all together but that would just mean that my vote didn't count at all. Good luck with your choice. It wasn't an easy one to make, for me.
HI Phil - well, I'm in the same boat as you. Usually at this point you'd see thousands of motorists with either "this guy" or "that guy" on their bumper. You see a few, but not very many, which is telling me that most people are having the same problem as me. I am a lifelong, right-wing Republican. My grandfather would be proud :) Obama is the most dangerously left-wing liberal in recorded US history. Obviously I won't vote for him! But I can't in good conscience vote for McCain either, because he really isn't a Republican. No one is! (Well Romney is and he would have had my vote in a heartbeat.) NOW LISTEN UP folks - I'm no genius when it comes to politics, but it seems to me that you just have to do the math. A vote for ANYONE other than McCain is going to be a vote FOR Obama. I've done some reading up on all the other candidates, too, and while bits and pieces of them sound good to me, no one fits my view exactly. So for me, I guess McCain is it, even though he's old and talks like an old man - you know, forgetting, not sounding so together, verbal gaffes, a bit 'slow', etc. but I DO LIKE Palin, and hopefully she will be allowed to balance out 'the old guy' ;) (I, too, think he could have chosen a better VP running-mate, but "oh well"!!)
This IS EXACTLY what the church wants us to do - read, study, pray and ponder who we want to lead us - and then vote your conscience.
Good luck, my friend - Laurie
I just read a lengthy editorial (21 parts) from Investors Business Daily called the Audacity of Socialism found here http://www.ibdeditorials.com/series8.aspx
I do have some serious issues with Obama but I can see why some are tempted by what he has said. However I don't think that he is honest is what he says. I agree with Lori that a vote for anyone else then McCain is a vote for Obama.
We have had socialistic presidents in the past and they didn't destroy the country but I don't think that we've ever had anyone like Obama before.
Hello my friends...especially you, Phil the father. If this election is not one of the biggest signs of the times, I don't know what is. I'm scared to wake up next Wednesday at the thought of either of these men being the "President Elect". But wait, eight years ago election day lasted like 5 years. Bush, no, Gore, NO WAIT, it's Bush, wait, let's have Billary stay. You get my point. The constitution will hang by a thread and the priesthood will save it.
Let me sum up my comment by quoting Obama, the great orator, "Um...well you see...ah..ah..um..well when you ah...um...ooo...spend three trillion dollars on ah...um...the economy will ahhhh...um...uh really suffer...and ahhhh...eeer.. well hope will ahhhh....ummm. really step up and uhhh who cares who your friends are and uh...uh.. and well uh...so let freedom ring loud and clear for ahh...uhhh all the world to laugh at.. uh.. I mean uhh...uhhh...respect because uhhh...my wife said she is proud of uhhh....
Any way. Good luck in your decision. It's been a tough one for me. Yup, you bettcha.
Michael
I'm glad you are weighing the issues and the policies of each individual cantidate. I have no problem with people voting for either person, if they've researched it and find that they support their views.
Nothing annoys me more than people who are rabid about their political party, and support them blindly without really knowing what they are voting for. In Utah, that is many republicans, and when we lived in WA, it was many of my uneducated coworkers who were blindly Democrat.
Good luck in your choice.
Hey Holly and Phil! I saw a link to your blog from one posted on the Crystal Gardens Yahoo! site. You have really thought out all the issues and taken a lot of time on this post. Nice job. I just had to comment about this:
"I'm a free market capitalist even though we screwed up the housing and lending markets"
I think the housing market was a true capitalist market until all the government programs that insured loans and made it possible for people with bad credit, no credit, no job, low or no down payment, to get loans. I read an article in the Wall Street Journal (?? I think) about how the housing boom would have been much smaller if all these loans for risky borrowers wouldn't have been available. They were only available and given because the government interference with the market. Sorry I don't have the link to the article.
I think the media has created this big idea that the Bush Administration is responsible for the mess, when in fact they tried to reform it in 2005. It was under earlier administrations that the major bills requiring lenders to give loans to risky borrowers (and the gov't would insure them) were made law. Sorry for the long comment! I enjoyed reading your thoughts.
Peggy
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