Jesus has been tugging on my heart recently about this upcoming presidential election. I have been in support of one candidate for a couple of months now, but friends and family on the other side of the fence are screaming for me to come join them. I am not one to be easily swayed by unfounded arguments, and I feel like most of what they have presented are just long-held traditional values and nothing more.

I have been struggling particularly with this idea of “redistributing the wealth” as Obama has been quoted saying over and over. At first I supported the idea, because Obama is sternly against corporate greed and corruption of executives. Makes good sense, but I recently heard a convincing story against his plan, involving a waiter that wasn’t tipped because the customer “redistributed” his tip to a homeless man outside who is in greater need of the money. Your initial reaction to that kind of story (as was mine) is “that was a jerk thing to do” since the waiter did his job, earned his tip, and got nothing for it. But I understood the point and the relevance to Obama’s wealth plan.

So enough jibber-jab, here are my collective thoughts from both sides:

Arguments for Obama’s plan:

1. Wants to tax higher-income households because they are the ones more capable of paying a higher tax.
2. Fighting corporate greed by taxing them a higher percentage.
3. Redistribution of wealth is indeed a socialist idea. But he isn’t talking about taking wealthy citizen’s money and giving it to low-income families. He is talking about funding the federal government by taxing the nation’s wealthiest sources.
4. Higher taxes on businesses will force them to run more efficiently (that’s the idea, at least. Many will probably just as soon layoff employees rather than cut executive spending).

Arguments against Obama’s plan:

1. It’s not fair. For those that work hard and earn great wealth, they should not be “punished” by being forced to pay higher taxes.
2. Many low-income individuals are at the bottom simply because they are not motivated to better their situation. Therefore they should not be “rewarded” with lower taxes.
3. Corruption is probably equally as prevalent among low-income individuals than it is in big business, but big businesses are the ones that make headlines.

In essence I feel like raising taxes on big businesses will probably result in cutting jobs, raising prices, and outsourcing labor internationally. But that is because they will NOT cut executive salaries, reduce wasteful spending, or improve their processes. I would rather love to keep business taxes low, but I’m too skeptical of the executives running the firms. Read Alston D. Pete Correll’s Commencement Speech from August 2005 and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

If McCain seemed like he was more concerned about corporate greed and fixing that problem, he would make me feel better for voting for him. But I just can’t do it.

And I hate that it is the presidential election season, because due to my roommates being VERY involved in politics, I have watched far more commentary than I care to remark upon. And as a result, I have become pretty opinionated about the topics that are most important in my mind.

So this post is simply to apologize to my readers. It is not my intention for this to be a political blog at all. But I only post when I feel very strongly about something, and until after November there are a lot of people out there that say things that make me (a logical pessimistic realist) want to make sure that everyone has their facts straight.

So, I’m sorry if you hate politics. I’m right there with you.

You can view the email message (keep in mind that email is a significant source of political propoganda) here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/huntleybrown.asp

And here is my response to this email:

A lot of those liberal issues are things that probably are not going to change in the next 4 years, and maybe never change. e.g. abortion rights, same-sex marriage, human cloning. And in the long-run, though I don’t support any of these ideas, I think that eventually society will be corrupted enough that they cannot be stopped from becoming legislated in a non-Christian manner. But not in the next 4 years. Probably not for 20 or more.

My second (and final) point is about McCain’s character. I don’t believe he is a Christian. Just listening to him the way he attacks Obama throughout his campaign, I feel like he is turning off a lot of Christ-followers (and I’m not even mentioning the threats to Obama during GOP rallies) just because he isn’t behaving very appropriately. And I don’t know if anyone follows Jekyll Island news (a small island just off the coast of Georgia… if you’re not from around here, you will not have heard of it) or not, but lately there has been a lot of controversy over some things taking place there involving corrupted politics and favors to the politically-connected. Reports are that members of McCain’s campaign (one chairman in particular) are directly involved.

So… I don’t know if Obama is a Christian, nor do I know about McCain. If I had to guess, I think Obama is probably not a Christian, and McCain is probably only a Christian when it is strategic to his purpose. And I may not be right about either of them, but I’d rather take my chances on the one that is campaigning with the most integrity. Alas, these are our 2 candidates and so unlike George W, I have to vote for one based on a lot more than Christian values.

P.S. I can’t find a news article related to Huntley Brown’s comments, and I don’t respect email as a credible source, at all.

Disclaimer: I am neither Republican nor Democrat, and I hate illogical, close-minded politics. So here is my $0.18 worth…

I think McCain is too old… not because of the ignorant argument that “he might die” but because he doesn’t grasp the potential of modern technology in small things like… and this is just off the top of my head… alternative energy sources. “Drill, baby, drill” is the policy that reflects the generation-gap between he and I. Drilling is not a long-term solution and so instead of going to war with the Arabs over a commodity, we should work towards something more advanced. Gasoline is old technology.

Palin is really hot, and it is awkward to see her and McCain together on television. I mean REALLY AWKWARD. I think most of the media’s attacks on her are completely UNjustified. However, I do think it’s a terrible idea for the Republican Party to keep her (and other PR spokespeople) away from interviews. It’s sending the wrong message.

I look at families a lot to determine candidate authenticity, and unfortunately O’Bama wins the battle here. I say unfortunately because it’s McCain that is running on personality, not O’Bama. If you watched the conventions, you saw Barack’s children on stage with their mother, and how they reacted to seeing him on the video monitor. I don’t care who you are, you can’t train a 6-year old girl to hog the microphone THAT well and you can’t train her to say “I love you daddy” and make it look unrehearsed, unless it is. That was an authentic moment.

Unfortunately again, it’s McCain’s campaign that is playing the “family values” card, with Palin’s small-town virtues being the Ace in the deck. But she has a 17-yr old daughter that’s pregnant., and where I come from, that kind of thing only happens either when there is non-consensual activity involved, or when the children do not have a moral foundation. Further, with an infant baby (Down syndrome is irrelevant) and 4 other kids, a really good mother with strong family values should not be throwing herself into the hate-hate relationship that is political media. I think she should stay in the lower tiers of government until her household is a little… emptier, so that she can properly raise her children with the small-town ethics that the campaign is asserting.

More to come soon, I have to get to a meeting…

I’m back from my meeting, and want to clarify that I am not implying anything about Sarah Palin’s home life, that I am just pointing out the potential for her familial lifestyle to suffer while being VP, which ultimately weakens her party’s assertion that they identify with the family core.

Continuing my $0.18 worth… I do think that O’Bama lacks a lot of experience to be the next president of the United States. However, as I have graduated from college and entered the “real world” I have discovered that no matter how well qualified a person is for a new position, it requires a certain degree of adaptability for them to become effective in a new role. There is a learning curve to everything, so to speak, and nothing can prepare a candidate for all of the pressures and responsibilities that the presidency brings except for actually being president. Even someone as experienced as John McCain will require a little time to make the proper adjustments.

I dare say that politics corrupts the authenticity that I emphasized in my previous message, and that having a “newer” president might actually be a good thing, because they are more likely, from a psychological point of view, to relate to the average American. (P.S. I don’t believe in the concept of an “average American” because we’re so diverse but you see my point)

My personal over-generalization of the parties:

When you make a Democrat angry, they become douche bags. Irrational douche bags. They yell at, write-off, and interrupt anyone that even slightly contradicts their personally-held doctrine, sometimes even resorting to the argument of “you’re wrong.” I find it hard to WANT to agree with people that don’t maintain a standard of demeanor, especially on national television.

When you make a Republican angry, they usually become illogical and disoriented. They will often make verbal attacks against the other side that have no relevance whatsoever to the issues at hand, or they will become completely incoherent and not make any sense at all. And a vote of “huh?” is not a strong vote to have.

Am I over-generalizing? You betcha! But I hate politics in general, so I’m pretty much the most unbiased non-conformist you’ll ever meet (hooray for the labels being placed on me at this very moment!). But by no means would I place my personal stereotypes on anyone just because of their political affiliation. Although they are fun to play with.