Today is May 20th.
This date is significant because it heralds the end of political ads blasting into my living room via the television. Today, we vote.
I will state right from the start that I am already voting for Obama for the democratic candidate. I have been attacked, begged, and pleaded with to vote for Hillary, mostly by members of the opposite sex. I don’t think I am being sexist in voting for the candidate I like the most, and I think that a lot of women are approaching this the wrong way. Don’t think you are betraying your feminist movement by not trying to get a woman into the White House. I am also sick of hearing how Hillary “has won the popular vote”. You do realize of course, that Obama didn’t even run in Michigan, nor did Edwards (who was still in the race at the time) because all the candidates KNEW it wouldn’t count? If you only added Florida back into the mix, Obama still would have the popular vote lead. I also have a couple friends that sheepishly look at me and tell me they are voting for Hillary. The reason, mostly, relates to the person they are currently dating. It’s disgusting.
I don’t think Hillary would be a bad president. I would still vote for her if she won the primary. But I disagree with her on some items in her current platform, and I also have not been very happy with some of the things she supported before running for president (media censorship).
With Obama, it’s almost like people refuse to believe that we can actually run our government and country successfully, and we would rather shoot for a slight improvement with Hillary that we all think we can get, than a huge improvement with Obama that we aren’t as sure about. That doesn’t make any sense to me, and thinking like that will only continue to hurt America in the long run.
Also please don’t tell me I should vote for Hillary because:
- He can’t win the vote of “working class people”. That is a bullshit term people use instead of “uneducated”, or “lower income”. There are plenty of well-informed working class people out there too… I don’t think he has lost their vote just because they “work” way more intensely than the rest of the U.S. So fine, he won’t get a ton of votes from the religious conservatives, the high school drop-outs, etc. Am I supposed to be disappointed that Obamais supported by people I respect more? Am I in love with the general population of Kentucky? West Virginia? No. Yes, I know I just made some blanket statements that will be incorrect in many cases. But that’s not really any different than talking about the “black vote” or the “working class vote”.
- There is a high risk of him being assassinated. This just shows how screwed up the United States is right now. At best, people that say this have been watching too much 24. At worst, they are morons. Given that I do not care about the opinion of morons, this can be discounted.
- Obama has been unfairly attacking Clinton! Seriously? This only started coming up when it became evident she was actually losing the primary. This is politics. Bothsides are going to throw shit and hope some of it sticks. It’s our jobs as voters to educate ourselves in the real issues so we can make an informed choice. On that note, why do you think people with higher levels of education mostly vote for Obama? Hrmm.
- Experience. You can hire experience. I don’t feel like going into a ton of detail on this since I have to get going soon, but the president lays out a general mission statement for what he wants to do, and how he wants to do it. If he has a weakness, he can always hire someone with experience to help him with those issues. His main goal is to steer the ship in the right direction, not worry about the proper stitching technique for sails (never a bad thing to know though).
- Person XYZ is supporting Hillary. Please, just make your own choice.
And honestly a lot of this can be applied in the other direction too. If you feel that Hillary can turn America around, and do a better job of it. Vote for her! Don’t vote for Obama because your family/friends tell you to, or because people say you are being racist. Just make an informed vote.
