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Why I am Voting for Obama
We have this year a historic race for the office of president and also one that is more exciting than those in recent times, with two dynamic contenders, one of whom will guide our nation during a very trying and difficult time while we face serious challenges within the sectors of global economics, national security, and domestic issues. The contenders for the office of vice president are themselves very interesting, especially Governor Sarah Palin, who has gone from being a dark horse pick to a leading fixture of this election and a person whom some claim is in fact a bigger draw than the man running for president on the ticket with her, Senator John McCain. I want to talk about Palin a bit, I have written about her in this space before, but I want to re-address my feelings about her. She's certainly an awe-inspiring political figure in that she went from a small town's mayor to a state-level board chairwoman to governor of that state and as Alaska's governor, Palin has provided a strong leader who also is able to communicate to the common person (I hate that term but will here at least employ it) as one of our own. These are the very reasons that McCain picked her as a running-mate and they are valid reasons beyond a doubt. As for McCain himself, I cannot think of anyone else who better embodies what a true American hero is nor anyone with so long and steadfast a service history in national politics. That all said, I am voting for Senator Barack Obama. I am a Republican who, up to now, has voted in national elections for Republicans though I have voted in some cases for Democrats in local elections. I am a Republican because I believe in smaller government, I believe in the power of private enterprise to bring strength to our economy and the adverse role in Federal regulation to such industry, I believe that the government more or less needs to stay out of private lives with the exception of providing essential services. I, like many Americans, do not want my taxes to be higher than they already are. Nor do I want to see the monies that are collected in taxes diverted to programs that accomplish little more than waste dollars in droves. I trusted George W. Bush to share my views and to bring about the good I saw in our party as a manifestation for our entire great nation. Instead, after 11 September 2001, President Bush focused on a myopic and poorly-guided attempt to disrupt international Islamic terrorism by invading two nations. The war in Iraq was a conflict built upon false concepts, or at the very least really flawed ones, from the start. That war, and its continued legacy deserves a lot of focus in consideration of the election of the next president. Why did we enter Iraq? The first reason was to search for weapons of mass destruction which we believed the government of Saddam Hussein to hold and yet those investigations both prior to our invasion and even once we had total access to the country turned up next to nothing supportive of the original concept. Then, the purpose and reason of our war there and continued occupation shifted to one of monitoring and stamping out terrorism . . . despite the fact that other nations in the Near East such as Egypt have certainly bred more home-grown terrorists than Iraq. If we wished to invade a nation reasonsible for 9/11, then why not our good friend Saudi Arabi? Osama bin Laden is Saudi, after all, and most of his henchmen are also. The Saud family has long been shady at best and our relationship with this nation is based on mutual need over any real friendship or common (non-economic) goals. Did we really, seriously, base a war that has claimed the lives of countless American servicemen and women plus many Iraqi citizens on lukewarm and incomplete reasoning? Sadly, it appears so. I cannot believe the reasoning given by Bush and Co. that our presence in Iraq is "fighting terrorism" when there is very little real proof that this occupation is changing the landscape of Islamic terrorism anywhere other than possibly in Iraq itself (where it was in fact never a major problem until we invaded). I don't read just what the Gainesville Sun or Time Magazine publish on the war (which has become nothing much really, anyways) : I read nearly cover-to-cover Parameters, The Naval War College Review, and other major military publications. I read most of what the RAND Corporations and Brookings Institution publish on the war. That is, I read the very same articles that our generals and admirals read. If it's non-classified, I probably am reading it. From this intensive experience of following the war and our global efforts at counter-terrorism, I am very concerned to report that our tactical approach is very much lacking and we are, due to the trajectory the Bush Administration has taken, investing critical military resources in Iraq that would be better kept at home until we actually need them. John McCain claims he would keep up our efforts in Iraq as long as needed. He claims that while he differs with President Bush on some key issues, he still retains much of the approach set forth during Bush's first term in office. Sarah Palin, for her part, has displayed that she doesn't even know what the Bush Doctrine is despite this being the key piece of political thought steering much of our continued efforts in international relations currently worldwide. So we have a man who is stubborn to stay a course set in error and a woman who doesn't even know exactly what that course is, and they think they can lead our nation? Barack Obama on the other hand, admits and notes where we've made grave errors in the past eight years and in years prior and while he cannot have all the answers, he is firmly set upon finding those answers and working in tandem with Republicans and Democrats alike to accomplish these goals. He and his running-mate Senator Joe Biden understand that we require more funding and effective efforts to homeland security and international intelligence-gathering to fight terrorism. We also need to affirm the good name of our nation worldwide with other countries and peoples whom we've offended or alienated. We need to show terrorists they will not be tolerated and show our friends that we will embody the very concepts of freedom and growth our nation has always believe in, and we will stand up for freedom in other nations, also. However, our first duty is here at home to bring back our economy, make our nation safe from threats both terroristic and criminal, and build our educational and energy infrastructures into ones that once again are the envy of the world. Make no mistake: Obama is not soft on terrorism, nor is he a Muslim, nor has he a shady past, nor is being a community organizer a less than noble start for a person in politics (no more than being mayor of a small city). However, he is worldly, he has an empathy for peoples of other nations and cultures while a loyal sense of duty to the people of this nation. He is someone who can meet with any world leader and talk with reason and gravitas about serious issues and try to see their point of view while remaining strong in his own. He is more than just a great speech-maker or a point of inspiration, he is someone who is the catalyst for real change. Obama has my vote and I hope he will win. I also hope when he is president he will appoint to key positions a diverse and talented array of leading (if oft-overlooked) Democrats and Republicans alike. I would like to see him bring back President Bush's intrepid Gale Norton and place her at the helm of Justice, I would like to see for Defense someone from the current ranks of flag officers who knows the tactical planning at hand in Iraq and elsewhere. To deal with what will certainly be an ongoing period of a tough economy, I would much like to see Obama bring in leaders from both parties and from private industry to advise on how we can once again get American back to its historic economic strength. In response to the situation in oil production and energy we face, we need both pragmatic short-term and long-term solutions to providing our own energy resources. Some fear that Obama will be a tax-and-spend president of the liberal stereotype but none of his speeches nor his official press releases would suggest this: in fact, Obama has displayed a clear approach to serious solutions to our nation's most pressing problems while also understanding that Americans cannot afford to contribute more from their paychecks when most of us are already facing some degree of fiscal hardship. I encourage everyone reading this article to look into the actual stance of both Obama and McCain and think long and hard about where the past eight years have taken our nation. Where do we want to be four years from now? MIKE WALKER is a journalist based in Gainesville, Florida. He contributes to this and other news media on the topics of Southern, military, architectural and social history and also on ecology and sports. He may be reached via email at: cloudrace@prontomail.com |
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