Candidate Selection Stakes

Political Talk. The Presidential nominating races are interesting but I want to comment on the Democrat side. Admittedly Obama is an appealing guy and I would love to see him walk all over the Clinton machine. I even feel like he is actually an honest guy, a true believer in what he says. He is a stirring speaker with wide appeal and will continue to stir emotions and gather support. On November’s Election Day, however, it won’t make any difference policy wise because there is no difference thicker than a sheet of paper between them. Here are some of the things we are faced with if there is a Democrat in the White House:
• Replacement of up to four Supreme Court Justices in the first four years of the next administration. If a Dem does the picking we will see law making from the bench on a very large scale as a result. The damage could irrevocably divert our country from its Constitutional moorings. In my opinion this is the single biggest danger we face over the long term
• A rapid pull out from Iraq with resulting chaos within Iraq, a cowardly defeat in the War on Terror and international disgrace for us as a dependable ally.
• A certain further weakening of our magnificent military. Remember, Clinton I reduced it by over 25% overall, trimmed our Navy by over 200 ships, reduced the Air Force similarly and cut back many arms renewal and upgrade programs.
• Compulsory National Health Insurance and all the baggage that goes with it
• Higher taxes, specifically rolling back the Bush tax cuts and restoring the death tax.
• Steady progress back towards entitlements and the welfare state
• A higher tax and lower benefits solution to Social Security and Medicare rather than private accounts you own.
• More empowerment of the tort bar
• Impetus to currently pending bills to 1) create comparable worth wage controls, 2) Extreme expansion of sexual discrimination bans and 3) specific bills to overturn recent Supreme Court decisions like limiting damage caps in lawsuits. All of this is co-sponsored by Obama, Clinton and Kennedy and more.
• And much more.
I can’t help but believe that many Democrat voters would not vote that way if they had an ample understanding of what is at stake instead of going with pure emotion. Sadly, we build parties and campaigns around personalities and charisma and lose sight of what comes in behind it.
If we stay home because we don’t like McCain we are essentially casting a vote for the Democrat. The same reasoning in reverse applies to a Democrat who might stay home because they don’t like their candidate.
That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. But do vote.