Tuesday, September 23, 2008

I Vote "Present"

Today, I avoided a political debate with some of my Facebook friends by saying I was going to follow the lead of former State Senator Barack Obama and vote “present.” As much as I wanted this to be seen as intellectually bold, I know the others probably saw it as cowardly.
The argument stemmed from a blog outing a longtime advisor and Senator McCain staffer as gay. The blog went on to rationalize that the Senator’s choice of Governor Palin as his running mate somehow made this staffer’s sexual orientation a campaign issue. Whew, the blog made my head hurt.

A friend posted the article and said the “Angry Left” (whoever they are) and the “Religious Right” (all of them, I guess) were bent on getting everybody else to conform to their views and their views alone. While my friend may or may not have a point about these groups, neither group wrote the blog. It was written by a single blowhard with a satellite radio show. I was not going to wade into this mini debate with my friend, because his argument is nearly as flawed as the original blog.

I cannot defend the blogger who used the personal life of a man who has nothing to do with the McCain campaign for his own gain. However, I refuse to fall into the trap of saying the satellite radio bigmouth represents some political group. He is simply a guy who throws mud balls for a living.

The presidential campaign is like this too. One side fuses together a past vote, action or inaction of the opposition and makes an inflammatory statement how these things makes the other guy unqualified to lead. The other responds with an attack on the left or right and generally goes on to blame the media, some large group or misdeed of an entire political party to explain why the other guy is unfit to be president. The campaigns of Obama and McCain are desperate to paint a clear picture – we are the good guys and they are the bad. Listen to them and you begin to believe there is no middle ground.

Come November 4, present will not be a ballot option and I do not want it to be. The problems this country faces are real and daunting. I am frustrated the daily political discourse seems to suggest Americans need to pick a team. You are either Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, right or wrong. One side is patriotic and the other seeks to destroy the country.

Senator Obama and Senator McCain have very different views about leading this country and how they will make decisions as president. I do not remember a campaign when the candidates appeared to hold such diverse opinions about what the needs to be done and how the job should be performed. Seems to me we would all be better off by discounting the generalizations and pointless mudslinging, and engaging the candidates (and each other) on how to solve the tribulations and take advantage of the opportunities which lie in front of us.

In my last blog entry I called on the campaigns to focus on the issues. In fairness, the campaigns are feeding us what we want. Call me a coward (or maybe I am just tired), but I am going to try vote “present” when it comes to the name calling, finger pointing and “gotcha” games for the next forty some days. Maybe, if we all tried to do this the campaigns and media folks would to.

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