Bloggin' camaro.
I don't view myself as an actively political person. While I am very strong-minded in my beliefs, I don't think I purposely try to bait people into debates about the government, mainly because I don't know nearly enough to carry myself correctly. But after watching both Barack Obama's nomination acceptance speech last week and John McCain's tonight, my mind is seriously blown at why people would want to vote for the candidate representing a political party made up almost entirely of rich, old, white people (if the crowd at tonight's RNC in Minneapolis are to be of any indication of the "diversity" of the GOP). I actually found myself yelling at the television tonight when McCain went into his spiel about how the current government wasn't working for them and how "we need to bring change and reform to Warshington" (yes, he said, "Warshington").
HEY, JOHN MCCAIN AND ALL OF HIS SUPPORTERS: The people in power for seven of the last eight years were REPUBLICANS! Republican president, House and Senate -- these are people in your own party. To accuse them of looking out for themselves instead of America is to accuse yourselves of the same thing, because you're the ones who nominated and elected them into office! How can you reform and change what you're an active, willing participant in???
Ugh. Anyway.
If you're someone who honestly wants to cast your vote for McCain, I hope your reasons are solid, concrete and well-researched, as much of what his campaign is spewing out regarding Barack Obama and his policies is misleading at best (otherwise known as "outright lies"). As much as I would love to elect another old, rich, white man (and a book-banning, secession-supporting, creationism-believing woman), I'd rather support a candidate who believes in progress, reform and change -- not just the buzzwords, but the policies he outlined in his historic speech last week (something McCain completely shied away from tonight -- I didn't hear a single policy come out of his mouth. Maybe it got lost under the incessant "U-S-A! U-S-A!" chants...).
Barack Obama, I believe in you. I hope you don't let me down, but I don't think you will. I'm pretty sure the American people agree.
(I apologize for the rambling nature of this blog; as I wrote above, I do not consider myself an actively political person, and as such, I don't feel like I'm very good at articulating my points. Hopefully you got the gist of what I was going for.)
And now, to leave you with a song -- this is one of my favorite songs of all-time, although listening to it now, I feel like the narration is akin to the Republican party: Ignorant, borderline incoherent and unintentionally hilarious.
HEY, JOHN MCCAIN AND ALL OF HIS SUPPORTERS: The people in power for seven of the last eight years were REPUBLICANS! Republican president, House and Senate -- these are people in your own party. To accuse them of looking out for themselves instead of America is to accuse yourselves of the same thing, because you're the ones who nominated and elected them into office! How can you reform and change what you're an active, willing participant in???
Ugh. Anyway.
If you're someone who honestly wants to cast your vote for McCain, I hope your reasons are solid, concrete and well-researched, as much of what his campaign is spewing out regarding Barack Obama and his policies is misleading at best (otherwise known as "outright lies"). As much as I would love to elect another old, rich, white man (and a book-banning, secession-supporting, creationism-believing woman), I'd rather support a candidate who believes in progress, reform and change -- not just the buzzwords, but the policies he outlined in his historic speech last week (something McCain completely shied away from tonight -- I didn't hear a single policy come out of his mouth. Maybe it got lost under the incessant "U-S-A! U-S-A!" chants...).
Barack Obama, I believe in you. I hope you don't let me down, but I don't think you will. I'm pretty sure the American people agree.
(I apologize for the rambling nature of this blog; as I wrote above, I do not consider myself an actively political person, and as such, I don't feel like I'm very good at articulating my points. Hopefully you got the gist of what I was going for.)
And now, to leave you with a song -- this is one of my favorite songs of all-time, although listening to it now, I feel like the narration is akin to the Republican party: Ignorant, borderline incoherent and unintentionally hilarious.
posted by Scott Heisel at
12:43 AM
8 Comments:
Scott, I love your blogs and your music taste's but I think you missed McCain's point ENTIRELY!!! He is criticizing Bush and people in Warshington (I did think that was funny) who are corrupt by the system. He thinks it's too corrupt a system, and Palin (despite a very right wing ideal set) is a true outsider, someone totally not corrupt by the system and from a different culture than you (Scott) may used to. Remember she's from Alaska, rural Alaska. I don't know where you grew up, but it is hard to understand rural America when you didn't live there (and vice versa for urban America) McCain took a risk calling out the Dbags in his party (Romney anyone?) who are more into spending than the dems. As far as the war goes... well I don't want to get into that now, but we spilled some milk in the kitchen (Iraq) and it's our responsibility to clean it up.
McCain said about as many things as Obama for what he's going to do to change, Nuclear power for one (the only choice for me living in rural Pennsylvania, where the sun don't shine and the wind don't blow) and obviously (like all Repubs) keep taxes low. He mentioned getting bad teachers out of teaching (FINALLY someone says that) and that with lower taxes American businesses can hire in America.
They may be rich old white guys, but fiscal conservatives have been running the show since pretty much the 50s, (minus JFK and Clinton).
And before someone says Clinton had a money surplus in his term think this way, he was lucky. Cold War is over we can stop spending a ton on the military (in retrospect a bad idea, but at the time the best idea) and companies like Microsoft and Apple were getting products into homes for the first time. Surplus just came with the timing.
I don't support Palin or McCain in everything, I think Obama has the abortion idea right (make it obsolete not illegal) BUT I doubt Roe v. Wade will get over turned, I doubt there will be a national ban on gay marriage (it's a states issue) and the war is really getting better everyday (not approving of it, just saying we can't leave halfway) And with McCain AND Palin having children in the armed services that says something. I see a lot of reverse criticism on Palin that was put on Hillary, just from different people. Also she fired her ex husband in law because he broke the law (drinking on duty as policeman, driving police car illegally, shooting his son with a taser...) and fired his higher up because he wouldn't do anything about it. (Corruption of power or justice?) Also remember, despite her right wing politics, she VETOED a bill that would ban gay's rights to visit each other in the hospital and such.
With all that said, I do support your choice for the Obama Biden ticket, I'm currently leaning to McCain Palin BUT I need to hear McCain and Obama debate, that will be how I decide.
An excellent response, kapy. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on John McCain's personal politics. The quote that really got me was this:
"Let me offer an advance warning to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me-first, country-second Washington crowd: Change is coming."
John, you've been in Washington for nearly three decades! Why have you waited until now to try and institute change? Sure, he's only one man, and yes, he's occasionally gone against his party (I was actually a fan of McCain's back in the 2000 primaries; I consider myself a Moderate more than anything else), but all this vim and vigor he's coming out with now just seems so manufactured and forced, with no real meat behind it.
As I said in my blog, I believe in Barack Obama. I believe in what he says and what he does. I believe he has a firmer grasp on what America not only wants but needs than John McCain. And that's why I'll be voting for him.
I could not agree more, Scott. I too respect McCain for all he's done for this country. Even Obama said McCain deserves our gratitude - but not our vote.
Of course the incessant "U-S-A! U-S-A!" chants last night were a step up from the nauseating "Drill, Baby, Drill!" of the other night...
I watched the speech on C-span, and when they started the U-S-A it was because there was a protester making a stink. I do think McCain is finally showing who he really is now, but it may be too late after he "sold out" to appease the right wing. I don't doubt Obama's abilities at all, in fact I think he can be an amazing president with the ability to get a nation, and the rest of the world, to rally behind him. Obama may still get my vote yet...
I agree that the "U-S-A" chant was started by a small pocket of people twice to cover up protestors' voices, but you have to figure that's maybe 1% of the people in the building who know exactly what's going on and why they're chanting. The other 99% just followed suit like mindlessly patriotic sheep.
Watch Obama's speech again. He spoke for 45 minutes straight. Count how many times his delegation interrupted him with chanting or clapping. Now watch McCain's speech again. The entire room would burst into applause pretty much at the end of every sentence! It was so absurd to me. McCain's campaign is trying to paint Obama as a "celebrity," but I think with these speeches, we're able to see who has style and substance, and who has neither.
Just a heads up, Wasilla is not rural Alaska. Its about a half hour out of Anchorage(the biggest city in AK and where I'm from). And though Alaska is filled with mostly rural villages and towns, it doesn't mean she has the ability to make decisions for them. As for her not being corrupt, Alaska has one of the most corrupt governments in the country (see Senator Ted Stevens and 6 other Alaskan Legislators investigated and/or indicted). In most of the speaches at the GOP are saying that she qualified because Alaska's sush a big state, but we have one of the lowest populations in the country (something like 1 person per every square mile). This state is only important to the country for one reason, and that's oil.
I agree with Scott, I watched the democrats' speeches and then tried to watch all of the republicans' speeches and just couldn't do it. There just wasn't anything to what they were saying. All the speakers were doing was talking about how great John McCain (or Palin) is. No issues. just hyping some old bald guy to try to make him more appealing to people.
planet lost, I'll take your word on all the Alaska size stuff, since I'm down in the state of PA. I do think it is funny that one of the least populated states is being dubbed as hard to run because it's big. Now oil is rich in Alaska and the big Republican thing is getting jobs and losing our foreign oil dependence.
Now, I do think we need to drill in safe places in the states now so we don't have to worry about the super corrupt places that kill us at the pump. BUT I'd rather instead of normal oil we use natural gas and such, but again the cost. I wish we could all have electric cars, or God even Hybrids, but sadly that takes time, and money in the pockets of the American people. Which we don't really have either of.
Thinking about it it really comes down to how we want to fix our country. Do we take the Teddy Rosevelt Way and make it easier for buisiness's to start up and get the country with jobs and more money made on its own accord. Or we do we use his cousin's approach (FDR for those keeping score at home) and go more socialist and get people what they need now through the government and in time have it sort back to their own way.
The answer will be decided by the American people, and I still don't know which one we need. Plus I love checks and balences in our government, and since all out Supreme Court dudes are Republican (but like 2) and some will retire/die soon, having some more liberal voices to keep the judicial branch in check is a good thing. Also remember this, if we have Obama and a Democratic senate too much will happen that we may not want. (same if it's McCain and the Elephant hearders) BUT if we have a close (like one or two people) of the OPPOSITE party in the house and Senate, I think either president will have to reform and meet in the middle. So just pay attention to your senate and house races, they are just as, if not more, important than the two big boys duking it out.
And just to lay it down, I'm a registered Independent, I think both parties are rediculous as a whole, and both Obama and McCain are two people I really like as far as politicians go.
Oh and Scott I missed your last comment, and wow that's crazy, I didn't notice nobody interupted Obama, that is crazy, considering the utter amount of people at his speech, good point, good point!
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