Who do I vote for in 2008??
Fri Dec 21, 2007 at 10:01:38 PM PDT
In 2004, I voted for Al Sharpton in the California Democratic primary. At that point, it was a foregone conclusion that John Kerry would be the party's nominee but nothing excited me about him. This may not sound like much, but when Sharpton faced a question in the debates about gay rights, he said something similar to "I don't care who you sleep with, I don't care about what you do in your bedroom, now let's stop messing around and get to the issues that matter to those two men or women when they go about their daily lives!"
He was not sidestepping the question. To the contrary, his remark (which I am sure I butchered) was meant to convey the notion that gay marriage was simply a wedge issue used by the Republicans to distract the voters from the majority of issues that the Democrats dominate. I liked Sharpton's direct approach, his ability to rise above the noise, and I answered his call to "provide me with delegates at the convention" so that the other Democrats HAD to listen to his views.
But I digress . . .
I generally like each of the candidates running for the Democratic nomination this year. This year, however, I'm limiting my vote to the three candidates who I believe actually have a chance at winning the nomination . . . and I think you know who they are.
The problem is that I like all three of these candidates nearly equally, and they don't differentiate themselves strongly enough on the issues that are the most important to me. I like Barack Obama because of his unique background, his devotion to the law as a scholar and a legislator (disclosure: lawyer here), his intelligence, his youthfulness, and his long opposition to the Iraq War. I like Hillary Clinton because she is a trailblazer and I would love to see this country governed by a woman, she has had an extremely difficult personal life (publicly) and has remained successful and strident despite it, and I think she's pretty close to me on most domestic issues. I like John Edwards because I think his domestic policies would be the most oriented toward aiding the middle class and poor (although I generally strongly distrust simplistic, populist economic policies), he has finally seen the light on Iraq, and I believe he has the best chance to win the general election.
The issues that matter most to me are, in the following order (I will pontificate on Iraq . . . on the other issues, I will simply say that I would like to support the candidate whose position is the most liberal):
- Iraq. I was in Italy with my brother and my best friend when the U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003. I will never forget the German students staying in our hostel with whom we watched the U.S. drop bombs on Iraq on an old 9 inch television in a crappy kitchen. They asked "why is your country doing this?" and "do you agree with your president?" It was difficult to try to explain that many Americans were against this war and this president's actions, even though I shared in their disgust at what we were watching. As we traveled throughout Italy, we faced more and more questions about just what the hell the U.S. was doing, and we knew and agreed that it was clearly very wrong. When I returned to the U.S., I was an outspoken critic of the U.S.'s actions in Iraq, and to my shock and dismay, most Americans carried on as if there was no war going on at all, as if there were no bombs being dropped on innocents in Baghdad. The obliviousness of so many Americans was shocking when compared to the attitude of the Italian people, who were ardently and very vocally against this war. Over the past 5 years, I have continued to speak out against this war. Now, however, I believe that there is no easy answer to the problems facing Iraq. We have broken this country, and it is our moral obligation to fix it, whether that means providing financial aid, assistance in providing security, or something else. What I certainly do not believe we should do is immediately withdraw our troops and wash our hands of this mess. I think we need a comprehensive plan, something akin to the Marshall Plan, to assist in Iraq's recovery.
- Universal healthcare
- Raising the minimum wage
- Doing more to protect the environment (e.g., reducing pollution, required use of renewable energy, HUGE taxes on drivers of trucks and SUVs who do not have a documented, reasonable need for such vehicles, etc.)
- Immigration reform (e.g., providing a sensible path to citizenship for the millions who have been living in the shadows for years, securing the border and easing restrictions on obtaining visas)
- Gay rights (marital equality would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath)
- Education reform
So who should I vote for, and why?
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