Wednesday, October 15, 2008

"Undecided"

Nathan here. After watching the last presidential debate tonight, I'd like to share a thought I had after seeing (on Fox News) a so-called focus group interviewed immediately following the debate. Everyone declared themselves undecided, and only five of the people "decided" tonight--all Obama. They gave paltry reasons, having to do with how well each candidate performed or specific issues relating to how they thought a candidate (Obama) was going to solve their personal financial issues.

But in this election, when the candidates are so categorically different, how can anyone be undecided? That's why so many people pick a party and vote the party line for most of their lives; each represent the opposite position in so many categories. When you vote for Obama, you vote for more abortions. When you vote for McCain, you vote for the possibility to one day repeal Roe vs. Wade (which is objectively a lousy judgement). Obama: loose constructionist; McCain: strict constructionist. Obama: more taxes for more government programs telling you what you must do and "spreading the wealth" for "the people behind you"; McCain: take a hatchet to government waste and reduce taxes on you and the people that pay your salary.

Bottom line: do you want more government or more personal responsibility? Do you want new "rights" so people can do whatever evil and immoral thing they want, or do you want the rights the Consitution actually confers so that the Judeo Christian values that made this country great will thrive? The sides really are really different! And it's easy to see which is which... either way you choose, I don't think there's any excuse for remaining undecided.

2 comments:

Bethany said...

Well, dude, for what it's worth, I'm not undecided.

And you're right, the choices "really are really different," and it's good to be reminded of that. You and Evan should talk--he's been voicing similar laments about refusals to face the real, that is, substantial, differences between candidates.

Mailleraye said...

Well writ!
--Mallory from Bradley class