Law Students

On the Eve of the Election

By Pete

one of the major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary; anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.
~ Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Tomorrow is election day. One thing that I’ve believed for a long time is that people who don’t research the issues should stay home. Voting is not your civic duty. Your civic duty is voting RESPONSIBLY. Acting foolishly is worse than not acting at all, and I have a lot more respect for someone who says “I really don’t know…” rather than someone who just votes based on their general feelings or what letter the person has after their name.

I’ve also been watching the candidates rather closely, and there’s one thing that I can’t get past: both of these candidates are terrible.

To be certain, my views align better with McCain’s than Obama’s, but I refuse to vote against Obama and that’s what John McCain has turned his campaign into. He wants us to vote against the other guy, rather than asking us to vote FOR him. Of course, as Republicans go, the true fiscal conservatives are on the endangered species list and McCain is no exception.

To be certain, he’s said all of the right things. I have a hard time finding things on his campaign site that bother me but, more than anything, it just doesn’t seem like the same John McCain is running for president as has been in the Senate for so many years now. Why re-make yourself now unless you’re desperately trying to win an election? And if that’s the motivation, what does that say about his principles?

Anyone who wants the job of President that badly should be automatically disqualified.
~ Hunter S. Thompson

Further, while I’m not as disappointed with Sarah Palin as it is popular to be (although I still haven’t been able to figure out why, exactly) I certainly don’t think she was the best option he had, and it makes me wonder how McCain would handle the number of appointments that he’ll have to make during his term. Sarah Palin is a gimmick, and while that might be fine for a 4-year stint as VP, it’s not fine when it comes to appointing judges and justices… and I’m not confident that his picks for his cabinet would be any better.

As for Obama… where to start? How about this… which adequately sums up pretty much every Obama supporter I’ve had the “pleasure” of talking to about the election (3-4 minutes is more than enough to get the gist):

What’s more… how do you run on a platform of “changing Washington” and then select, as your VP nominee, one of the single most “Inside Washington” politicians you can find? Joe Biden also has two admitted cases of plagiarism to his name… and this is the guy we’re going to put “a heartbeat away” from the Oval Office? No, thank you.

Bottom line: there’s no there there, ya know? All of this hype and support… it’s based on… “hope”. Really? Can I pay back my student loans with that?

That’s before we talk about the huge tax hikes he’s planning and his support for the death tax — easily one of the most immoral and unjust taxes in the history of the country. Ridiculous spending increases. His history of being a major player in the pork game.

He’s pretty much like every other Democrat who has run for President in the past 20 years except that he has better speech writers¹.

I decided back in the primaries that I wasn’t going to vote against anyone this year. I decided that if I didn’t find a candidate I felt good about who had a platform I was comfortable with, I wasn’t going to cast a ballot. It is my firm belief that not voting is legitimate form of political expression, in much the same way that senators themselves can vote “present” on bills that come up for vote.

I’m not voting for President tomorrow, but here’s hoping that two years from now we don’t really regret whichever one of these self-serving charlatans we manage to elect.

1. Oh, and he’s black, but I’m sure that has nothing to do with his popularity at all, right?

Full post as published by PeteHoliday.com on November 03, 2008 (boomark / email).