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Why you should vote for Obama

Jill

If you’re reading Feministe and you’re American, you’re probably planning on voting for Obama anyway. But The New Yorker lays out all the reasons why that vote is so important; it’s the best juxtaposition I’ve read of Obama’s policies with McCain’s. Read it, pass it on, etc etc. The closing lines:

At a moment of economic calamity, international perplexity, political failure, and battered morale, America needs both uplift and realism, both change and steadiness. It needs a leader temperamentally, intellectually, and emotionally attuned to the complexities of our troubled globe. That leader’s name is Barack Obama.

28 thoughts on Why you should vote for Obama

  1. I am not voting for Obama because I do not think Obama is the best candidate (Go McKinney!). McKinney has a strong record of standing up for civil rights and fighting for government accountability. I know people will give me the typical argument of “but McKinney has no chance of winning, so you might as well not waste your vote.” To those people, let me ask this question, if McCain were ahead in the polls by a massive margin (say 40 points) would you then vote for McCain or not vote at all?

  2. while my politics are a little more complicated then just being somewhat conservative, I think it’s fair to say I fall to the right of your average voter (not to mention your average feministe reader). The idea of the democrats controlling both congress and the white house scares the hell out of me.

    That said, I’m voting for Obama. The reality here is that the GOP has, in eight short years, erased not jet and enormous budget surplus but also any claim it might have it might have once had one the title of fiscal conservatism, restraint, or basic human decency. There is no entitlement Obama could propose that would cost half as much as this damn “war in terror”, no policy half as intrusive to individual liberty as the suspension of habeus or the assault on personal morality, no sign of weakness half as destructive to American power as the weakening of the military and the compelete dismantling of hard won soft power.

    The choice in this election is not a choice between liberal and conservative, communist and fascist, or even socialist and fascist. This year we choose between a rational, thoughtful and an impulsive, reckless one.

  3. Anyone who votes for McCain is NOT A FEMINIST. Sorry to be blunt, but if you vote for McCain, you aren’t voting for feminist issues. You will instead be voting for a sexist, misogynist man. And that IS NOT feminist. Period.

  4. I totally support voting for McKinney… if you’re in a blue state where Obama is definitely going to win, or in a red state where he definitely won’t. The reason I don’t think it’s a great idea of vote for her in a swing state (or in one of the usually-red states that may go blue this election) is because it does effectively work as a vote against Obama. Our system is set up to only support two parties. Yes, a two-party system sucks, but in a winner-takes-all electoral system like we have (as opposed to a proportional representation system that you see in many other countries), two parties are the natural outcome. voting third party is not going to put a third party on the map. Supporting a third-party candidate in a state where the outcome is a foregone conclusion is a good thing — it shows the party in power that voters are looking for them to be more liberal or conservative or whatever the case my be. Supporting a third-party candidate when you think both mainstream party candidates are horrible makes sense. And supporting a third-party candidate in an election where you don’t really care who wins and/or where you want to do harm to the mainstream party you would otherwise support may also be rational.

    But if you live in a swing state, and if you think that the results of the election matter, and if you want to do something other than just stick it to your usual party, and if you think Obama is significantly better than McCain even if he’s not as great as McKinney, voting third-party may not be the best decision. It’s not the same as “If McCain were ahead in the polls by 40 points would you vote for McCain or not at all,” unless you think that Obama is a bad a candidate as McCain. If that’s the case, then see above. But read the New Yorker article I linked above. Obama is a solid progressive candidate. If you recognize that he’s much better than McCain, I don’t think it makes sense to vote third-party, absent the circumstances I described earlier in the comment.

    Of course, all of that said, it’s not my business how you vote. Vote what ya feel. That’s just me $.02 on third-party voting in general.

  5. I am not voting for Obama either. I will be voting third party (Nader or Barr). After listening to the debates and reading their websites, I’ve come to the conclusion that both Senators are not strong enough and really don’t have the forward thinking ideas needed to help this country move in a direction independent of the rest of the world.

    William, I respectfully disagree that any entitlement programs Obama enacts (if he gets elected) with cost less than the two wars were in now. Welfare and Medicare come to mind. Also, the alleged surplus you mentioned helped fuel a very bad recession for nearly two years (1998 – 2000). This economy does not and will not work if the government stops or withholds all discrentionary spending. Spending is what drives our GDP.

  6. I HOPE that William and Angela are not in a swing state.

    “After listening to the debates and reading their websites, I’ve come to the conclusion that both Senators are not strong enough and really don’t have the forward thinking ideas needed to help this country move in a direction independent of the rest of the world.”

    If you’re in a swing state, you are now voting for McCain. Anti-feminist, indeed.

  7. “After listening to the debates and reading their websites, I’ve come to the conclusion that both Senators are not strong enough and really don’t have the forward thinking ideas needed to help this country move in a direction independent of the rest of the world.”

    Just out of curiosity, which third-party candidate are you supporting? Because I don’t think McKinney is trying to make us “independent” from the rest of the world.

    And as a sidenote, the idea of American independence from global consensus and belief is increasingly silly, IMO. The fact is that we are more influential overseas than any other nation on earth. The things that the American government does have far-reach impacts. If you’ve traveled at all in the past year, I’m sure you’ve noticed how engaged people all over the world are in our elections (particularly in Europe, Australia and the Middle East). I’m not saying we should open up our elections to an international vote, but our government’s actions have such deep and important international influence that I think it’s a tad irresponsible to not take that into account when voting, or to support people who think it’s a good idea to just shut the rest of the world out.

  9. (I don’t mean the above as an attack. I am actually curious as to which third-party candidate is promoting American separatism from the rest of the world, or if I’m just misunderstanding).

  10. I’m not a regular reader of this publication (as my name might indicate) but I came across this while searching through some news sites and I must say that I’m glad to see that a good percentage of you are not planning on voting for Obama. If the Democrats truly wanted our confidence this year, they would have nominated a qualified person, not Obama.

  11. Jill, I’m considering Nader or Barr. And what I mean by “independent” is that I would like for our country to start thinking for itself again.

  12. Oh whoops, you said that above. Sorry! That’s what I get for not reading.

    And I hear what you’re saying, but who do you think has been thinking for us? As far as I can tell, we’ve only been thinking about ourselves, to spectacular detriment.

  13. I’m not a regular reader of this publication (as my name might indicate)

    I’m sorry, did I miss the “No Steves Allowed” sign?

    Oh… you mean because you’re a dude and this is a lady-blog. It’s too bad your penis doesn’t make you better at math, because two people out of a readership of hundreds of thousands does not “a good percentage” make.

  14. @Steve – so are you insinuating that we should do something to ensure a McCain-Palin administration and/or that it’s a better qualified ticket?

    I’m no Obamamaniac. He wasn’t my first choice (actually, he wasn’t my second either) and, right now, I’m dealing with the BS the right-wing is using to get the Jewish vote within my own family. When I watched Obama speak at the 2004 convention, I knew I was watching a future POTUS. When he threw his hat in the ring 2 years ago, I thought it was too soon and have been concerned about his lack of patience in achieving this goal. I’ve also been concerned about some of his pandering to the religious right over the past year (though the irony that the candidate that can quote Christian scripture and use it in an appropriate context is the one the religious right rails against as anti-Christian). That being said, I was heartened by his selection of Biden as a running mate. I’ve been pleased by his thoughtful discussion of issues (I may not always agree with him, but he does show comprehension & appreciation of the issues).

    Obama has shown he can grow, Biden is qualified for POTUS; neither McCain nor Palin have show they can grow or are willing to do so (quite the opposite, in fact). Despite the polls showing things are good for Obama, I can not and will not throw away my vote and face the possibility of a McCain-Palin administration. I never thought anything could frighten me as much as BushCo until Sarah Palin joined the ticket.

  15. Jill, please don’t get me wrong, no one I’m voting for is promoting “separatism”. (Although a little distance doesn’t; hurt).

  17. What do Nader and Barr have in common besides being third party candidates? They disagree on most issues besides the war?

    Barr wants to abolish the income tax, eliminate Social Security as we know it, withdraw from the UN, and put the free market in charge of the environment.

    Nader supports a more progressive income tax, expansions of entitlements, active international involvement for peace, and obviously, strong environmental protections.

    I’m honestly wondering – what keeps you teetering between Nader and Barr and not Nader and McKinney?

  19. Voting McKinney here as well–not in a swing state–and Cathy has perfectly articulated my reasons, so I don’t have to! Thanks!

  20. Awesomesauce: I’m in Chicago, I could get everyone I’ve ever met to vote for any candidate on any ticket and it wouldn’t change the returns an iota. Although I do wonder why being a conservative who’s voting for Obama makes you wish I’m not in a swing state…

    Angela: I didn’t say the two wars we’re in, I said the war on terror. Between the money spent on false security, the the money we’ve spent on these wars, the money we’ll spend in the future propping up the governments that have been installed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the black hole of spending that is DHS I honestly don’t believe Obama could do worse. I don’t think he’ll do well, and I’m pretty sure I’ll come to loathe his administration, but sometimes you do have to punish the people in power. Politics is about power; when a politician misbehaves your only options are to deprive them of power (so they’ll do something different in order to try to reacquire their power) or killing them. Seeing as circumstances aren’t nearly bad enough yet for violent revolution, that means giving the GOP a beating. Besides, do you really want to chance a Palin presidency?

    Also, I’m really having trouble imagining how you can be debating between Nader and Barr. Their political stances don’t overlap at all, Nader has spent his life essentially arguing that instead of corporations choosing for people the government should, and the LP is just a hair’s breadth away from arguing that liberty means an absence of government. Beyond that Barr is possibly the only person running for president this year who is more dishonest and disingenuous than McCain. Take a look at his voting record and compare it with the LP platform, either 9/11 turned a conservative populist into a Libertarian or he’s a liar.

  21. As a radical, I don’t expect that the president of a 100-million-person nation will represent me – I’m sure radicals will always be a minority. Obama is no radical. In fact, he has explicitly caved on things, like FISA, that I think are extremely important. HIs health care plan is STILL not single payer (which may be ideologically radical but is financially sensible and morally fair), and his foreign policy doesn’t float my boat.

    that said, he is thoughtful and not radical in the other direction (i.e. not a religious fundamentalist, not a total free market cheerleader, not out to abolish women’s rights etc etc). I think our federal government has been derailed by 8 years of radical cronyism not even on the basis of ideology but on the basis of religion and flat-out powermongering (look what’s happened to the DOJ, the CDC, and many of our other agencies whom the president has a hand in heading or influencing – staffed and headed by unqualified yes-men & women, ppl waiting for The Rapture, who support the prez at all costs?)

    We can see the effects of the Bush years on people all around us, and on federal institutions that form the infrastructure of our society. If McCain wins, that stuff will crumble even faster than that bridge in Minnesota (what “no taxes” brought them). McKinney represents many of my views specifically, but this race is too close, and if McCain wins, McKinney may find herself in handcuffs or Gitmo, while if Obama wins, her chances of getting closer to the White House increase.

  22. Mickey, I’m looking to shake things up and not have business as usual.

    William, people can and do change. I’ll take a leap of faith and pull the lever for the 3rd party candidate of my choice. But sure in hell won’t give anything to McBama. As for a Palin presidency…not gonna happen! I understand you think McPOW may not last long in a the WH, but folks said the same thing about Reagan when he was in office, and guess what!? Not only did he serve two terms, the old goat was damn-near 100 when he finally croaked. So, McPOW may very well outlive his VP.

  23. Just let me say this. I’m voting for the one candidate that will not rase my taxes, and give the small busness owners in middle America a tax break. McCain mention having taxes raised to 35% Hell I live in a state that pay 35% taxes now. Give me a break. Mc Cain’s plan for health care, to give familes 5000 to buy health care insurance of there choice Now what can you buy with that. He forgot to mention only if you have good credit. We need to get out of the middle east and leave the arib people alone. that war will go on for ever. no one in history has won a war in the middle east the Christians tryed it, the Muslums tried, the Russans tried, even the Romans even tried to make that part on the region democratic
    government it will not work. The Ritch just keep getting richer.

  24. I totally support people voting for McKinney… no matter what state you live in.

    I do too, just like I support those who vote for Obama in any state. It’s your vote and you know best how to use it.

    I’m not a feminist so I don’t care if people call me an anti-feminist. One of the reasons I’m a recovering one is because there’s too many damn litmus tests to *prove* how feminist you are. I’m voting for who I think is the best feminist candidate, period. For one thing, gee finding out in one article that even though they’re not talking about it, McCain and Obama agree on immigration, doesn’t really reassure me that the raids are going to stop in my county and region any time soon.

    McCain and Obama’s plans for various Middle-Eastern countries and southern Asian countries like Pakistan aren’t very reassuring.

    I work with women on issues that impact women (of course the wrong issues) and I’ve worked on them through Clinton White Houses and Bush White Houses and it’s crap either way. We’ll work on these issues (the wrong issues) and it will be difficult either way just like always, because there are women that Republicans and Democrats both hate or at least wish didn’t exist.

  25. I totally support people voting for McKinney… no matter what state you live in.

    I do too, just like I support people who vote for Obama. It’s your vote, you know how best what you want to do with it. Just use your vote and don’t stay at home.

    I choose to vote for the most feminist candidate, period. Funny that to many, that makes me less feminist. Funny, because I don’t call myself one anymore anyway.

    The insistence that if I don’t vote with the crowd means I’m voting for the bad guy and thus anti-feminist just reminds me of why I am a recovering feminist because of all the damn litmus tests to pass to be a *real* one. I’d rather not call myself one and work with women on issues, including women who will still be despised or resented no matter who wins b/c there’s women who both Democrats and Republicans hate or don’t care what happens to them.

  26. William, people can and do change. I’ll take a leap of faith and pull the lever for the 3rd party candidate of my choice. But sure in hell won’t give anything to McBama.

    I have no problem with voting for third party candidates; I supported Browne in 2000 (I was foolish enough to believe that nothing could be worse than 8 years of Clinton) and Badnarik in 2004 (though I admit a big part being able to do that was knowing my vote wouldn’t count). All I’m saying is that Barr isn’t what he represents himself as being, and if you think he’d be much different from a McCain presidency on anything other than the drug war (maybe, if you believe what he says and not his record) you haven’t bothered to do your research. I’ve followed LP politics for most of my political life (up until this election) and Barr is at best a publicity stunt and at worst a temporary refugee from the GOP. He might have some small interest in limited government (when it suits him) or free market policy (although he doesn’t seem to understand why), but he has always been atrocious on what ought to be the core of any libertarian’s political philosophy: individual liberty. Its not a coincidence that with Barr at the helm the LP has shifted it’s focus from social liberty to fiscal conservatism.

    The bottom line for Barr is that he has been a drug warrior his entire career, he wasted an incredible amount of taxpayer dollars going after Clinton for lying about getting a blowjob, he voted for PATRIOT, he authored the Defense of Marriage Act and now only apologizes because he feels it restricted state (not civil) rights, he’s a strong opponent of abortion rights, supported amending the goddamn constitution to ban flag desecration, voted to ban gay adoptions, voted against habeas for death penalty cases, and is in favor of military tribunals. Heres a more comprehensive list of his record: http://www.ontheissues.org/Bob_Barr.htm

    I’m still not sure how you could be vacillating between Barr and Nader, though. They are diametrically opposed on virtually every issue and even if you take both candidates at face value (something frankly stupid in politics) their visions for what America should be and plans for how to get there are not just different but wholly incompatible with one another. I understand having anger at the essentially identical Democrat/Republican dyad but surely you must have some basic ideas about what direction the country ought to be going. Also, the fact that we’re three weeks from the election and you’ve yet to read up on their websites (much less delved into the details of their political philosophies or history) is troubling.

  27. Ironically, it is McKinney that’s stopping me from voting for McKinney. I’m currently doing a research paper on her for one of my classes, which has led me down the road of reexamining the many “irregularities” during the 2000 and 04 elections, which she helped to expose, plus the shenanigans pulled by repubs in her own state to knock her out of her seat in 02. When all is said and done I barely trust my vote to be counted let alone others in my state, so I’m literally afraid for Obama to lose one vote. Here in PA Obama has a double digit lead last I checked, but as I see more and more articles about Republicans using foreclosures to deny the vote as well as trying to demand dress codes for god sakes, I don’t trust this election to be held fairly, and Obama is going to need every vote he can get.

    Secondly, I think there’s a fair argument to be made that the Green Party as well as the likes of Nader (ugh) only seem to get any attention (small as it is) during Pres elections with as high a profile name as they can get than fall back into obscurity. I think it might be more productive to support the Green Party at the grassroots level so they can become more active in local elections and become a stronger force in electoral politics.

    I was a Hillary supporter and it took me a long time to come to terms with Obama’s candidacy. But I think I’ve come to the realization that if Obama gets into office and is the most ineffective president in history, things will still get better than they are now. And I will feel safer, not from the zomg the terrorists are under my bed fear, but from the fear that my country will hurt others in my name, because they can, and they will slowly chip away my rights as a human and a woman, because they can. I think Obama’s going to try to make things better, and I’m willing to give him a crack at it.

    Also if anyone is interested in learning about McKinney’s role in the 00 and 04 elections as well as how she got totally screwed in her own district, the film American Blackout is a great resource. I believe she’s also coming out with a book this year. I’m so proud of her for getting back on the mat and I hope she’ll take one more whack at her congressional seat in the next election cycle, because she’s done some phenomenal work in congress.

  28. William, I respect your opinion regarding Bob Barr, however, I don’t feel the same way as you do. I’m also well aware of his political history, I live here in Georgia.

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