So, I done it. Got up at 6 and headed downstairs and stood in line very briefly, had my spanking new voter registration verified, got in the booth and pulled the levers. I still have very little if any confidence in any of the politicians for whom I pulled those levers, but I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised. MUG Newsletter had a nice concise list of reasons to vote this morning called "Tro da Bums Out!" It's as good a set of reasons as any; here it is:
- Iraq
- The Economy
- Katrina
- Guantanamo
- Renditions and Torture
- Abandoning the Kyoto Treaty
- The Patriot Act
- Fighting the formation of the 9/11 Commission
- Veteran Care at Walter Reed
- U.S. Attorney Firings
- Valerie Plame Outing
- The National Debt
- Ignoring Afghanistan, Israel-Palestine
- Stem Cell Research
- Darfur
To this I would add:
- Blatant Corruption
- Undisguised Greed
- Rampant, Illogical Deregulation
- The Imperial Presidency
- The Aging Supreme Court
- Science Illiteracy
- Anti-intellectualism
- Censorship
- Bigotry and Misogyny
- Fear Mongering
- The Utter Disregard for Human Rights and Civil Rights
- EDIT: Domestic Spying (how could I forget this one?)
- Religious Hypocrisy
I add the latter only because Bush himself brought it up. If ever a man who claimed to be ordained by God has failed to live up to his mission, George W. Bush has. His lack of empathy and compassion is an embarrassment to anyone who belongs to a Christian religion. He not only has no compunction about sending people off to be killed simply to secure a source of oil for his cronies, he has no guilt over abandoning the people who elected him and pay his salary when the shit hits the fan. Not to mention that he's a delusional loser. Who else, in his last days in office with the economy in utter meltdown, could be described this way:
Bush's mood remains buoyant and his attention is focused on the global financial collapse. In private meetings with business leaders, Bush has made a point of saying that he is happy the crisis happened on his watch so the next president and a new economic team do not have to grapple with it.
Where he gets the idea he can actually fix this problem in the next 76 days, I don't know.
So I guess you could call my vote as much a repudiation vote as an endorsement vote. I do like both Obama and Biden, but they're both politicians. When it comes right down to it, they all are. That's not where the real change comes from. That comes only from within ourselves. No vote in the world is going to change that.
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