Originally Posted by
GeoFisher
... this was a long, bitter, hard fought campaign. The campaign itself divided us over and beyond how much we were already divided. It's going to take more than flowery speeches on both sides to calm and unite us. It's going to take action -- action that shows he's going to get the right things done while showing enough restraint not to go overboard with the changes. Barack Hussein Obama really has his work cut out for him to start fixing some of today's problems and unite us at the same time. Time will tell whether he's up to the challenge.
The root of some of the bitterness can be found in some of the reasons people have given for voting for Obama (and Democrats in general):
1) We're fed up with Bush and therefore will vote for anyone who is running against him and anyone who even appears to have been associated with him.
Change for change's sake can be very dangerous. The Russians gave up the Tzars for Communism. The French gave up their Royalty and ended up with years of tumoil, beheadings, and general unrest. The Germans rushed Hitler into power because their economy was in the toilet. History is littered with examples of situations where people demanded change for change's sake and ended up with something at least as evil, if not worse. I'm not saying that's what's going to happen here... but, voting just because you want change can be very dangerous and foolish. John McCain would have brought change as well. Maybe not as drastic a change as Obama, but change none-the-less.
2) The economy *****, it's all Bush's (and the Republican's) fault. If we want to fix it, we need to vote the Democrat's in.
No doubt, the economy *****. But, it has been shown that many of the seeds for today's economy were planted during Clinton's administration. I'm not saying that the Republicans haven't played their part. But to be fair, all the blame can't be completely heaped on them or on Bush. Apart from where & when the seeds were planted, it's also true that Congress has been controlled by the Democrats for the last 2 years. There's more than just the President running this country. If the only reason for voting for Obama is because you consider Bush and the Republicans to be fully to blame for today's economy, then you are a fool. On the other hand, if you really studied what each intended to do about the situation, and concluded that Obama was the best to do it... and truly believe he will follow through... then, you voted responsibly.
3) Bush and the Republicans really screwed things up, I'm willing to see what the other guys can do for 4 years. We can always vote them out if they don't do any better
See 1 and 2 above for some of the argument against this. Just remember, a lot of damage can be done in the span of 4 years. Damage that is difficult to undo. The last 4-8 years should have convinced people with this attitude of that fact.
4) Loss of American jobs to overseas workers is all the Republican's fault. We need a President who will stop it.
Loss of American jobs started well before Bush came to office. Downsizing of American corporations, and shipment of jobs, were in full swing in the 90's, under the Clinton administration. The auto makers, steel mills, and many others were in trouble well before anyone even heard of Bush or Clinton. Clinton is credited with "creating" lots of new jobs. My observation is that most of those jobs were lower paying, retail type jobs. Meanwhile, higher income jobs like engineers, computer scientists, even manufacturing jobs were being lost and shipped overseas. Nobody in government is really responsible for this. The culprit is us and our thirst for low priced consumer goods. The only way our businesses could compete with foreign companies (on price), who could rely on cheap labor, was to start utilizing that labor themselves. So, we lost the jobs that were really generating the wealth in this country.. and temporarilly increased the jobs that were selling cheap, foreign goods to fill our seemingly insatiable appetite. Does Wal*Mart ring any bells?
To vote for Obama simply because you want to stop the flow of jobs overseas is definitely foolish. If you truly believe he can do something about it (short of relaxing child labor laws, allowing sweat shops, etc), you voted responsibly.
5) Obama is black. Since I'm black, I'll definitely vote for him!
I find it interesting. Obama is actually half-white, as well as half-black. Yet, his blackness has been emphasized while his whiteness has been barely mentioned. Now, I know this is historic anc all, and does indeed represent a welcome change from where we were during the 1st part of the 20th Century. But it also shows that racism has swung the other way. NBC was interviewing some blacks last night who said they were going to vote for McCain. They reported that they'd been accused of being traitors to their race. For a black to vote for a black candidate, simply because he's black is just as bad as a white voting against a black candidate simply because he's black. There can be bad black politicians just as there are bad white politicians. And, good politicians of every race as well. The same is true of females -- to vote for or against a woman simply because she's a woman is very foolish indeed.
6) Obama is a better orator than McCain. He can really get a crowd excited
How a person walks says a lot more than how a person talks. If you were swayed simply because of the talk... you're in good company. Hitler talked a good talk too. Don't get me wrong... I'm not trying to draw any comparisons between Obama and Hitler. Just that they both had/have a knack of getting a crowd excited. A more recent, and benign example, would be when Jesse Ventura became govenor of Minnesota -- mostly because he espoused "Change" and was also able to get people -- especially young, first time voters, excited. His term as Govenor was not the change Minnesota needed. Tellingly, he only lasted one term.
Voting just because a person's speech makes you feel excited and good is foolish and dangerous. If you heard the talk but also examined the walk and came to the conclusion that Obama was the right choice for you... then you voted responsibly.
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I could give lots of other (lame) reason's I've heard over the last few months for voting for Obama (and could list some lame ones for voting for McCain as well. Oh sure, in any given election, there are always those who vote for a given candidate or issue for the wrong reasons. It just seems that, this time around, there was a lot more of that, and a lot less looking at what the person really stood for... and what he/she was really capable of doing.
It's that overall feeling, that Obama was elected for the wrong reasons, that leads to the frustrations and attitudes expressed here this morning. Those feelings won't subside until people see the walk.
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