Looking for My Candidate: Barack Obama
Jan. 16th, 2008 12:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redneckgaijinAnd I've found him...
... although he's less than 50% aligned with my positions, and I had to back off my gun-rights stand to accept him.
This exercise has demonstrated yet again that I don't belong in either political party.
On the other hand, it's demonstrated something else, one actual positive good that I can attribute to George W. Bush: there is a definite difference between the big two parties now, where there was not even ten years ago. The Republicans have united and defined themselves under a single banner...
... and, if we're very lucky, the banner they've united under, the flag of Bush and his imperial presidency, will lead them to their utter destruction.
Unfortunately the Democrats are not so united, not in their legislative membership anyway.
As for Obama, the main reason I prefer him is one consistency in all his positions: unlike most Democrats, who prefer mandates and micromanagement of individual lives, Obama wants to allow American citizens to opt out of his programs if they wish- voluntary, not mandatory, healthcare; voluntary, not mandatory, public and military service; voluntarey, not mandatory, efficiency and environmental improvement. Obama supports individual freedom more than his opponents- particularly Clinton and Edwards, neither of whom have any use for individual freedom in their ideal societies.
So, gotta go by the local Democrats and get a yard sign...
... although he's less than 50% aligned with my positions, and I had to back off my gun-rights stand to accept him.
This exercise has demonstrated yet again that I don't belong in either political party.
On the other hand, it's demonstrated something else, one actual positive good that I can attribute to George W. Bush: there is a definite difference between the big two parties now, where there was not even ten years ago. The Republicans have united and defined themselves under a single banner...
... and, if we're very lucky, the banner they've united under, the flag of Bush and his imperial presidency, will lead them to their utter destruction.
Unfortunately the Democrats are not so united, not in their legislative membership anyway.
As for Obama, the main reason I prefer him is one consistency in all his positions: unlike most Democrats, who prefer mandates and micromanagement of individual lives, Obama wants to allow American citizens to opt out of his programs if they wish- voluntary, not mandatory, healthcare; voluntary, not mandatory, public and military service; voluntarey, not mandatory, efficiency and environmental improvement. Obama supports individual freedom more than his opponents- particularly Clinton and Edwards, neither of whom have any use for individual freedom in their ideal societies.
So, gotta go by the local Democrats and get a yard sign...
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no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 06:39 pm (UTC)Specifically, all politicians compromise their principles. The only question is how often, how severely, and whether they seem to have any principles in the first place. Obama hasn't been in the Senate long enough for us to really get a read on when and how he'll throw ideals to the wolves of political expediency, and I'm not sure I want to find out while he's in the Oval Office. At least Hillary, for all her flaws, is a relatively known quantity (i.e. she never met a principle she wouldn't toss overboard), so you can predict how she'd run things and try to buffer against the worst of it. But we don't really know which way Obama will go once the hard choices land on his desk.
That said, I'd like to see Gravel rated some time, for entertainment value. :)
no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 07:08 pm (UTC)(And as for known qualities, the fact that I know what Hillary is and represents is NOT a plus... especially since, as we've seen with Bush, there is no WAY to buffer against the worst of a bad President's actions.)
no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 07:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 09:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-17 02:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-17 02:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-17 02:25 am (UTC)... and all the candidates with good gun-right positions have other things about them I abominate even more (or, in the case of Bill Richardson, have left the race).