My Voting Strategy – Loyalty

I spit on this election.

I see your Pavarotti and raise you one te Kanawa

Rough translation:
Oh daddy dear, if you don’t let me have the man I love, I’m going to throw myself into the river Arno and kill myself.

It’s a beautiful temper tantrum.

In the meantime while we wait…

…for the “Voting Strategy Posts”

Nessum Dorma – No one is sleeping tonight.

My Voting Strategy – Balance

Never could I have imagined this year that I would be voting for a Republican let alone a straight Republican ticket. I have been a Democrat my entire life. One of my early memories of politics occured the night Reagan beat Carter in 1980. I was eleven then, but I’ll never forget my Dad punching a hole in the wall when it was clear Carter was going down. If nothing else, that made it clear to me that voting Republican just wasn’t done in our house. So, for good candidates and bad, I’ve voted in every Presidential election since 1988, and I have always gone with the Donkey. Well, this year I’m not going to vote for that Jackass.

When Riverdaughter asked us to explain our voting strategy, I thought about the one word that would sum up my reasoning. The first word I thought about was “pain”, as in “I want to inflict pain”. Pardon me, but I am still really pissed at the way Obama, the DNC, and the media behaved during the primary. When they, along with almost the entire congressional black caucus, decided to paint the Clintons and by extension their supporters as racists, I knew that Obama was evil and the DNC was carrying water for the devil. When they disenfranchised the voters of Florida and Michigan, I realized their many years of crying about voter suppression amounted to nothing more than political posturing. They didn’t ever care about voters. They only ever cared about getting their way. When they attacked Joe the Plumber for daring to question “that one”, more anger rose in me and it won’t be abated until Obama is defeated. So in Hammurabi fashion I want to see the Democrats hurt the way they have hurt and humiliated their good and loyal constituents.

However, as I delved deeper into introspection I realized that simple revenge, although sweet, was not the real reason I was voting McCain. I had always thought I was an issues voter, and maybe I still am, all other things being equal. Unfortunately, this year things aren’t equal by a long shot. Obama is untrustworthy. He has gone back on his word more times than I could mention in one post. He told everyone he supported the DC gun ban, yet mysteriously had always opposed it once the Supreme court ruled against it. He said he would fillibuster FISA if it contained telecom immunity. He not only didn’t fillibuster. He voted for the measure. He said he would take public financing for the election. Again, he lied. On and on flow the untruths, the half-truths, the obsfucations. Given Obama’s habit of lying, how can someone possibly vote on “the issues”? When you absolutely do not trust someone, where do you go from there? Not far, in my book.

So, really I could leave it at that. Many relationship experts say that once the trust goes, there is nothing left to salvage, but in my opinion there are two bigger reasons to vote for McCain/Palin and against Obamanation. The first is the future of women on the presidential ticket.

To quote a line from one of my favorite movies growing up, 9-5, Obama is a “Sexist, Egotistical, Lying Hypocritical Bigot “. He used sexism to put down Hillary in the primaries, and he is currently using it against Palin. I’m sure everyone has seen the latest ad from the Dems. It offers no reason to disqualify Palin from service as VP except that she is a woman. Palin, who has more executive experience than any of the other candidates, has been the subject of some of the most vile displays from Obama and his supporters. Even some so-called “feminists” have joined in the attacks. Ladies, if McCain/Palin loses, you can kiss goodbye any chance of seeing another woman anywhere on the ticket for the next 12 years. Sexism as a weapon will have been proven very effective. It will have shown that the most qualified candidate, Hillary, could be flattened by it, and that the most popular Governor in the entire U.S. could likewise be pushed aside. These are high stakes. I, for one, do not want the ugliness of the Obama’s tactics to be repeated in every campaign for the next decade.

So far, I’m voting to inflict pain on the DNC, to block a serial liar from being in the white house, and to repudiate the sexism in this campaign. But the one word that I keep coming back to is Balance. I want balance in our government. Statistically, it looks like Dems will pick up seats in both the house and the senate. I want someone in the white house that will counter these Majorities, not give in to their every whim. I believe the most egregious of the excesses we witnessed in the last 8 years came from the Republicans controlling the congress and the executive branches, and no willingness from the congressional Republicans to put a check on Bush’s power. They simply gave him anything he asked for.

I had high hopes for the Dem congress in 2006. I thought they would begin to check Bush, and we would see a return to balance. However, quite to my dismay, the Dems continued to give Bush everything he wanted. Now, if the congressional Democrats can’t say no to a Republican, a Republican with a 30% approval rating, I might add, how in the hell do we suppose they would put a check on Obama? They won’t, and they won’t want to because it will be a quid pro-quo. The congress will vote for everything Obama wants, if he signs what they pass. That is a recipe for a repeat of the last 8 years.

Can you imagine any oversite of “the one”. Hell, he couldn’t even take a question from Joe the Plumber without ordering his goons in the federal and state bureaucracies to search out all the dirt on him. What Dem congress person would go up against that, especially now that the President can spy on you legally without a warrant? No, my friends, I do not want Obama and cronies to run our country into the ground the way George Bush has done.

So, to counter this, my strategy is to vote a straight Republican ticket. I want to inflict as much pain on the Dem party as I can, see the most trustworthy candidate in the oval office, elect a woman VP, and dampen the political pendulum’s oscillation. It’s only one vote in millions, but it’s mine. The media can call me racist. Clinton can “strongly urge me to reconsider”. My father can punch as many holes into walls as he wants, but I’m not going to be intimidated. The spirit of Democracy is with me, and she’s crying for balance.

Barack Obama’s grandmother passed away today

HONOLULU – Barack Obama‘s grandmother, whose personality and bearing shaped much of the life of the Democratic presidential contender, has died, Obama announced Monday, one day before the election. Madelyn Payne Dunham was 86. Obama announced the news from the campaign trail in Charlotte, N.C. The joint statement with his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng said Dunham died peacefully late Sunday night after a battle with cancer.

On behalf of all of the Conflucian and PUMA family, despite our work and convictions, truly and unabashedly send our condolences to the Dunham/Obama/Soetoro family and Obama supporters.

I Guess I Just Wasn’t Looking: A Voting Strategy In Hindsight

Like many of the directives handed down this campaign age (because it’s been too damned long to be just a year), I missed that memo that we should take the time to write about our voting strategies. Yes, I thought it was interesting to see such a consistent thread of thoughts from several different people, but, then again, Barack Obama happened so maybe I’ve adapted and learned not to question-much of any aspect of human behavior, actually.

 

            That’s the last in a long line of me just not questioning anything anymore and accepting questionable things as truth.  Why? Not because it’s easy but because it’s easiest.  If I had to ask myself why any number of intelligent, noteworthy people have thrown themselves on the altar of His Holiness, I’d be very tempted to throw myself off the top of some altar since there is clearly no method to that madness.  I’m smarter than ACORN’s average voting nine-year old but this election wouldn’t be the first pseudo-intellectual “joke” that I just didn’t get. I thought it must have been me.

 

            Probably was.

 

Monday: My Voting Strategy- Honor

Wikipedia defines honor like this:

the evaluation of a person’s trustworthiness and social status based on that individual’s espousals and actions. Honour is deemed exactly what determines a person’s character: whether or not the person reflects honesty, respect, integrity, or fairness. Accordingly, individuals are assigned worth and stature based on the harmony of their actions, code of honour, and that of the society at large. Honour can be analysed as a relativistic concept, i.e., conflicts between individuals and even cultures arising as a consequence of material circumstance and ambition, rather than fundamental differences in principle. Alternatively, it can be viewed as nativist — that honour is as real to the human condition as love, and likewise derives from the formative personal bonds that establish one’s personal dignity and character.

If anyone had told me a year ago that I would be casting my vote based on character instead of issues, I would have thought they were crazy.  But then again, a year ago, I was still a respected member of the DailyKos community.  I got booted off that site right about the time that the first accusations of racism were hurled at the Clintons by the Obama campaign.

Character.  How very Republican.  This campaign season has left many of us scratching our heads and has challenged our self image and party identification.  In our confusion and consternation at the way the primary season has played out, we have struggled to explain to ourselves why it is we can not vote for Barack Obama.  Are we secret racists?  Is this a character flaw that we did not previously understand in ourselves?  Are we really Reagan conservatives and Republicans?  Are we stupid and reactionary?  Are we voting with our vaginas?

I have searched my conscience for an answer to these questions and found the accusations hurled at me to be untrue.  I have always been a Democrat who voted based on my principles and I am not ashamed to post those principles at the top of this webpage.  They’ve been there since the beginning of the primary season.  I haven’t changed.  I am no racist, Reagan Republican.  But I am deeply offended and hurt by the betrayal by my own party.  I have concluded that a candidate who attempts to crush the self esteem of his constituents is the one with the character flaw.

Barack Obama is a man who promises to uphold the privacy of individuals and their right to be left alone but then votes for a FISA bill that strips individuals of that right and exposes them to the intrusive eyes and ears of their government and corporations.  He says he wants to “spread the wealth” but then lobbies for the passage of a bailout bill that is little more than Robin Hood in reverse.  He claims to run a positive, post racial, transcendent campaign but then cynically uses the issue of racism as a weapon to silence his critics.  He suppresses the votes of 2.3 million voters in Florida and Michigan and accepts delegates he did not earn, including 4 that were his opponent’s.  He does not hold the media accountable for the misogynistic frenzy it has engaged in on his behalf.  He allows Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin to be defined by their vaginas and not their accomplishments or their minds.

Barack Obama has not demonstrated the type of character that our best presidents have possessed.  All presidents are human and subject to the impulses that come with human nature.  When the damage caused by a lapse in character is limited to a few individuals or “out of character” for the president himself or when the person appears to have learned from this lapse, the indiscretion can be forgiven.  But when the indiscretions are persistent, vindictive, opportunistic and systemic, they can not be overlooked but must be deeply ingrained features of the individual who practices them or allows them to practiced on his behalf.

Barack Obama has shown throughout this campaign season that he lacks honesty, respect, integrity and fairness.  He is a man without honor.  And a man without honor can not be trusted to uphold the principles he claims to espouse.  He can not be trusted to fulfill his promises, even if the conditions are favorable to him.  He can not be trusted to stick to the positions on the issues that he ran on.  His followers’ faith in him is seriously misplaced.  He is a dishonorable political opportunist.

Tomorrow, I go to the polls and for the first time in my life I will not vote for the Democrat at the top of the ticket.  I remain undecided as to whether I will vote for John McCain, a man who reminds me of my father, an honorable man.  He has earned honor the hard way and I admire him for this.  He is not a perfect human being.  He has a short temper and has been indiscreet in matters of the heart.  But he appears to be able to learn.  I disagree with him and Sarah Palin on many of the issues but I can not say that either of them lack honor or character.  I will make my decision in the voting booth as to whether this is enough.

I will gladly vote for Linda Stender for my congresswoman and for all women, regardless of party that I can find on the ticket.  Getting to the 30% Solution of women in public office will help to rub off the harsh edges of the human condition for all Americans.  And I will work for party and electoral reform starting November 5 to ensure that a person of honor represents my party in 2012.

Once the primaries were over and Hillary Clinton suspended her campaign, the issue was no longer about her.  It was about the dignity and self-determination of 18 million of her voters and reclaiming what was taken away from them.  Until we are heard and our intentions accorded the respect and authority that they deserve, the issues must take a secondary place.  We are fully enfranchised citizens or we are not.  And if we are not, nothing else matters.

My Voting Strategy – Just Say No To Derangement

A Rabid Obama Supporter

Riverdaughter asked us to all to come up with a single word to describe why we are voting the way we are on Tuesday.  That’s really a tough assignment because there are lots of words to choose from.  I considered “principles,” “honesty,” “integrity,” “ethics,” “experience” and “shame” because those are all things Barack Obama lacks.

I thought about using “liar,” “fake,” “phony,” or “unscrupulous” because those are all things that Obama is.  I was going to use “hubris” because that is Obama’s favorite sin, but then I saw this and realized that my word had to be “derangement.”