A Night Unremembered
13 years ago
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Picking and choosing
I have a "union thug" friend who sends me all sorts of union and Democrat flavored emails, including ones offering Obama 2012 bumper stickers. He does this because he knows how unlikely I am to vote for Obama. He likes tweaking me. We play golf together fairly often and he's a much better player. I tell him that's because his union work gave him lots of time to play and practice while I had to actually work for a living.
The interesting thing about him is that this Obama support is so out of character for him. You see, he's a pretty conservative guy socially and fiscally. I have run into this a number of times. For instance, a black co-worker in Jacksonville registered and voted Democrat all his adult life in spite of the fact that he favored prayer in schools, was pro-life, and was opposed to tax increases on anyone. My understanding of this is, shall we say, incomplete.
I think we often vote in conflict with our best interests. I once voted for Carter. I thought he was a better choice than Ford. I was likely right. Not that he made a better president. Now, Carter annoys the heck out of me. Not his association with Habitat for Humanity (a very worthy cause) but his commentary on foreign policy. If he has been making any noticeable commentary on domestic policy, I am unaware of it.
I worry about support for Obama. It seems to me that the support should be very weak. Much weaker than I see in the mainstream media. Could they be distorting the facts? It seems to me that to want to re-elect Obama, you must:
Like 9% (or worse) unemployment
Want a rise in Islamist regimes in the Middle East
Think bailing out Wall Street was a Good Thing
Believe more countries "like" us than they did a few years ago.
And believe there's no inflation going on
The problem is that I am not very pleased with the GOP's potential candidates to oppose him. There is much talk about the GOP base is searching for the "anti-Romney". I think that's true. One of the problems with the GOP today is that they are searching for another Reagan. There isn't one on the horizon nor, as far as I can figure, hiding in the political bushes.
I am not talking about the charges concerning Cain or Newt's baggage, or the weirdness of Bachmann, or the strong Libertarianism of Ron Paul, or anything we've seen and read about the rest of the field. I am saying none of them fires me up, not that any of them frightens me.
We often find ourselves voting for the "lesser of two evils" and that saddens me.
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3 comments:
I agree with the closing statement, have believed that to be the way for a long time now.
i think that the "lesser of two evils" approach and decision matrix is what the majority of people do on a consistent basis, but referring to your other post, where does one define good and evil and their starting points and grey areas?
i honestly thought last election that the best choice for america was clinton president and obama vice president. not sure how it would have worked out, but that was my gut.
this election, so far, nothing is firing me up as you say.
Neo, I think that has always been "the way" in elections and even prior. The people would choose a "champion" (or king or whatever their equivalent was), knowing whoever they chose would be both good and bad. The hope is that the bad will impact them less than the opposition.
Paul, that is the real question, isn't it? How do we, individually and as a group, define "good" and "evil"? We always, I think, want clear and concise definitions, absolutes. But reality is not that simple. The real choices for president (and vice-president) are made during the primaries. And I often wonder if those choices are made unfettered by undue influence.
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