First-time diarist here, so please bear with me.
This morning, my e-mail inbox included a message from a long-time friend of my family's who I have known since I was about 3 years old. She was friends with my mom back when they were both hippies in the early '70s and as she's gotten older, she's still seemed fairly progressive in her thinking.
So it was with much surprise that I read her e-mail this morning, sent to me and a whole bunch of other people in a mass distribution list of her friends and colleagues, etc. Her message was also forwarded from another e-mail that was supposed to be a humorous piece taking digs at Obama for being a socialist. That e-mail was somewhat offensive, but innocuous enough that it doesn't need to be re-published here (I think we all know what this type of garbage looks like).
Here is the text of her e-mail, with my "Reply All" response included below (I've changed her first name out of respect, although I just lost a little bit of that for her this morning):
Her original e-mail:
As you all know I am undecided still, but want those of you who have told me your opinion to read mine as of today.
I watched Obama's inframercial yesterday and when he got to the end and said HE WOULD change the world I felt fear deep inside of me.
It seemed grandiloquence and narcistic to say the least. I have been worried about Obamas affiliations with terrorists anyway.
Not saying that all the people I have know in the past were of the highest quality but as I aged I have disassociated myself from those
who are violent, disrespectful of our country and greedy. "birds like feathers flock together" If one has no interest in a persons philosophy
we move on to be stimulated by those we have things in common. Yes a person out of curiosity investigates the truths and principles of other
beings to understand oneself better and also some associate with those who can give them the opportunities of success without considering
the consequences. This too is alarming when we are expected to make a decision about things that are hidden.
I believe both McCain and Obama are lying to us about taxes, the war and our economy.
So now we are faced with the decision of electing a friend of the Bushes or a friend of terrorists.
Please vote
Mary
My response:
Mary -
I consider you a great friend of mine and my family's - I really respect and admire you, and I'll continue to do so despite the fact that I couldn't disagree with you more on this issue. I'll also note there are a few other friends of mine out there who see things similar to the way you do, so none of what I'm about to say is meant disrespectfully, I'm just going to stick to the issue at hand.
I think McCain and Palin have very unfairly and inaccurately painted Obama as a socialist and one with ulterior motives based on alleged ties to "terrorists," and unfortunately it seems to be having the desired effect on some people from the viewpoint of the McCain campaign. They seem to be trying every trick in the book - they're trying to connect practically every bad thing or person in recent history to Obama (hell, they even go way back in using Karl Marx). Notably however, these attacks are not connecting with millions of other Americans and even many of whom are Republicans (note that two endorsements alone came from people who served in the Bush administration). Even George Will, Bill Kristol and Norm Coleman, among many other Republican voices have voiced their disappointment in the negative tone and tactics of the McCain campaign.
From what I have observed, nobody trots out the fear-mongering like the extreme wing of the Republican party does, and McCain's campaign in particular is bringing it to a new level. I think they're doing it because they're desperate and worried about losing the election, but of course that's just my opinion.
It's been pointed out that the same board Obama served on with Bill Ayers in Chicago also had Republicans on its board of directors. Every time McCain has tried to associate Obama with a "terrorist," one only has to look up the non-partisan website factcheck.org to see that the accusations are either disproven entirely or shown to be deliberately misleading. This latest batch of crap about ties to Khalidi from the PLO is once again mitigated by the fact that when McCain was chairman of the International Republican Institute in the '90s, he distributed grants to the Palestinian Research Center which was co-founded by Khalidi, including one for $450k in 1998.
So Obama has associations with Bill Ayers, McCain has his associations and is still a supporter of G. Gordon Liddy. People who are worried about Obama's supposed terrorist ties need to also be reminded that 9/11 happened when Bush was President, and it occurred one month after his administration received an alarming letter warning him of Bin Laden's plans. Was he keeping us safe from terrorism? There are other examples, and I'm sure anyone near a search engine can do some interesting fact-finding. You might find some facts that support your own opinion, these are just the ones that I've found myself. Whether I'm doing it to support my own opinion or not is open to interpretation, but I sure as hell know I'm much more comfortable with who I'm voting for on Tuesday than with the other guy.
Re. the socialism angle. Let's see... Obama wants to give a tax cut to people making under $200k a year, and people call that socialism? I honestly don't get it. 95% of the people in this country make less than $200K a year, and we're all so worried about protecting the wealthy from a slight tax increase. I think people also need to be reminded that the Government bail-out plan is socialist in nature, and that had the approval of both Democrats and Republicans, including both McCain and Obama. I honestly wonder how we've gotten to a point in this country where we view a slight tax increase for people making over $250k as socialism. As Obama has said in his speeches, when the middle class is doing well, that means everyone is doing well. In addition, the National Tax Policy center actually analyzed both candidates' tax plans and developed a chart that compares the two. No matter what anyone's opinion is of which candidate is better, I urge people to at least just take a look at it and ask themselves, which candidates' tax plan would personally benefit them more. Here is a link:
http://chartjunk.karmanaut.com/...
Another question I have is, how come we don't hear much about what McCain's plans are? I haven't seen him rolling out many proposals, I've just seen him attack, attack, and attack some more. In my opinion, he's the one who is a loose cannon between the two candidates. Also, if McCain somehow dies while in office, I think voters have to ask themselves if they really want Sarah Palin as President of our country. That's a pretty legitimate question people have to ask themselves. I'd also like people to consider that one campaign talks about uniting the country, and the other campaign divides us into two different teams ("Real America" and "Fake America").
It just amazes me that people think Obama "must be up to something" because he talks about hope, change, and being positive, and wanting to make everyone believe in the American Dream again. To me, it's a sign of how cynical we've become as a society. We see a charismatic candidate who wants to act as a force for positive change that will get our country back on its feet and get it back to being respected around the world, and we say "no thanks" to that? How can we say no thanks to this guy? I am aware the dude doesn't walk on water, he has his flaws, and he won't be able to keep every single promise he makes, but what candidate has been able to do that? I'm not going to have Fox news and people who forward e-mails like the one below tell me that I shouldn't like my candidate and what he stands for... the fact that they're trying to exaggerate him as "the chosen one," etc. just indicates to me they're jealous that their candidate doesn't have the same qualities. I've seen Reagan made into an icon just as much on the Republican side.
At least I'll know that if elected Obama will get up and work hard as President every day, and his team will be bipartisan with people like Joe Biden and Warren Buffet, etc. at his side. What everyone should be more afraid of than an Obama presidency is living through a continuation of what the past eight years have been like under Bush, with a President and Vice-President who are even more unstable than the previous two were.
It's up to our country to decide what direction it wants to take. Guess we'll find out on Tuesday.
Respectfully,
Hank