I have been following this election more closely than any I have participated in my twenty eight years as a voter. My first ever presidential vote was cast for Jimmy Carter as an idealistic 18 year old in his losing bid against Reagan in 1980.
My reasoning then was he seemed like an honest man and said that when we cast our vote we were choosing not only for ourselves but for those that don’t have a voice and that seemed right to me. Since then I have always registered as an independent so as to leave my options open and have basically chosen what I consider the lesser of two evils -which as circumstance has it has always been a Democrat.
Perhaps part of my need to be more invested this year is my daughter will be casting her first vote and that tugs at my heartstrings in a way I never knew it would. She and her friends are excited about stepping forward and making a choice – and for the first time since I cast my first vote I feel that same sense of excitement.
John McCain was for me – at one point – an honorable man, but in his choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate and his pandering to the fear and hate mongers that are running his campaign he has lost that respect. Our founding fathers said that fear mongering in a time of war is seditious and our modern law labels hate speech as a crime. Telling the world -and the whole world is watching us-that Obama will hand our kindergartners the Karma Sutra and that Obama pals around with terrorists implying the back door will be opened to the forces of evil in the middle of the night and refusing to lay to rest the rampant rumors that Obama is neither Christian (not that that should matter) nor a citizen is fear mongering at it’s best. Allowing people at their rallies to slander Obama as terrorist and communist is condoning hate speech.
Sarah Palin has now stepped forward and said that criticizing her nasty innuendoes is an infringement of her First Amendment rights -her right to free speech is being challenged when her outright lies are questioned. If she can’t get the First Amendment right how much more of the constitution does she not understand? Could she even pass a citizenship test?
Obama is offering us a government that is going to do what a government is supposed to do – offer its citizens the means by which they can participate in creating the systems by which they can better themselves and thereby better those around them – elevating us all as a country and as part of the nation of man that encompasses the world.
On Tuesday my family and I will stand in line as long as it takes to cast our vote for reason and hope in the name of all those around the world who die every year asking for the same chance -please do the same.
Could Palin pass a citizenship test? I seriously doubt it! Check out the sample questions I found: http://usgovinfo.about.com/blinstst.htm. There’s no way she would get a quarter of them!!
Well said, m’lady!
Good thing the Reps picked Palin. If they’d picked someone with half a brain they might have had a chance to beat Obama. Let’s hope they keep her as their leade so they can lose the next election. The gene pool may be deteriorating rapidly but there are still enough educated intelligent Americans who realize how stupid and unqualified she is. Too bad she doesn’t realize it. There might be some hope for improvement.