A friend of mine supported Kucinich in the primaries. She IM'd me the other day to talk about her frustration with the current choices — she likes neither Obama nor McCain. She asked me to tell her why I supported Obama. I talked about his ability to work with split legislatures, his mediative style, and his respect for individual rights. She was pleased at my response — "everyone else just talks about hope and change and stuff" — but I knew I hadn't won her over. After a sleepless night thinking about Palin, I constucted the following letter to her, which I sent this morning (slightly edited for anonymity).
I'm not a confrontative person, as you can tell by the letter — I use a soft touch, and just hope it works. You might find the letter too gentle.
But if you think it might be helpful in persuading a friend, feel free to steal any of my verbiage.
I've been thinking a lot since we had our political chat last week. I can certainly understand your reluctance to vote for someone you don't feel shares your ideals. And normally I'd leave it at that; I am respectful of political views other than my own. But I want to ask you to think a bit more about voting for Obama come November, if for no other reason than this: [your state], while leaning Republican, is a tiny bit competitive this year (polls show McCain has just a 4% advantage). If you abstain, and McCain/Palin win the presidency/vp, you may have contributed to an anti-choice Supreme Court, who will spend the next ~40 YEARS (because they get lifetime appointments) eroding our civil liberties, one by one. If you vote Obama, you at least have taken a step against that terrible possibility.
But I know voting for "the lesser of two evils" isn't very appealing. I can't satisfy you in every way about Obama, I know, because he doesn't even match my own views 100%. What I like about him most is the respectful and effective way he works, and what he has managed to accomplish in split legislatures, both in Illinois and the US Senate. But his views and commitments are, in my opinion, at least 80% what I am looking for. If there are any questions I can answer for you about him, I would be happy to do so, and promise to do so honestly — won't whitewash his less appealing platforms.
In the Senate, Obama has introduced and gotten passed bills such as:
S.AMDT.3073 to H.R.1585 To provide for transparency and accountability in military and security contracting.
S.AMDT.41 to S.1 To require lobbyists to disclose the candidates, leadership PACs, or political parties for whom they collect or arrange contributions, and the aggregate amount of the contributions collected or arranged. (one of his big bipartisan achievements if I remember right)
S.AMDT.524 to S.CON.RES.21 To provide $100 million for the Summer Term Education Program supporting summer learning opportunities for low-income students in the early grades to lessen summer learning losses that contribute to the achievement gaps separating low-income students from their middle-class peers.
S.AMDT.2692 to H.R.2764 To require a comprehensive nuclear threat reduction and security plan. (another one of his big bipartisan achievements)
Anyway — let me know if I can answer questions. I will respect whatever decision you come to, but just ask you to think a little bit about the implications of abstention and whether it's possible for you, in good conscience, to vote Obama. If the answer is no, I promise not to hassle you. And you don't have to tell me what you decide.