I finally chose Obama.
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It’s been a tough decision. First, I went with McCain. Then, in a flip-flop that would have made John Kerry proud…I chose Obama.
It was a tough choice but I finally chose Obama.
I am speaking, of course, about which wallpaper to use on my laptop. (What did you think I was talking about?)
Here’s the story. I am a conservative. I believe the government that governs least, governs best. In other words…government should stay out of our lives as much as possible. Freedom, liberty and life are important rights that should be protected.
So McCain was not my first choice for President. Not because he doesn’t support these basic tenets, but because there were other candidates who supported them more…and had the records to prove it.
Getting psyched up to support McCain after the primary has been tough, but I have been determined to do so. So I downloaded a McCain wallpaper for my laptop. Now the image was right there in front of me, encouraging me to feel good about my candidate.
It’s a great photo and no doubt the voluntary exposure to the advertising has helped. But it hasn’t been working as well as I thought, so I tried something else.
I downloaded an Obama wallpaper and it’s been doing wonders. Conservatives, keep the contrast in mind. If you’re having trouble getting on board the McCain bandwagon, just listen to Barack offer his ideas.
Behind that soaring rhetoric is an economy-busting tax increase that will be the largest since World War II. Don’t listen to his 95%-of-American-families-will-get-a-tax-cut argument. He’ll let the Bush tax cuts expire, raise taxes, then give families a tax credit or some nonsense. And that still won’t cover the cost of his programs. He’s overpromising and you and I will pay…and pay…and pay. When we’re done paying, our children will pay. The most massive increase in the size and scope of government in American history.
If you value the economic freedoms we’ve had to fail or succeed based on our own choices, then let his Blueprint for Change make you get excited for McCain. Whatever it takes, eh?
June 12th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Very funny. Thanks for the link. I now have my own Obama wallpaper. My co-workers are wondering what’s going on because I’ve always been a conservative leaning independent. Not exactly an Obama type. I’m going to let them keep guessing, though.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
I took your advice and downloaded the McCain wallpaper for the same reason you downloaded the Obama one.
June 19th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Nothing like focusing on what you’re for, rather than what you’re against, I guess.
I have astronomy photo of the day on my desktop–A new one automatically comes up every day as the background. They tend to be both amazingly beautiful, and … I rather suspect they expand the scope of my vision, in some sense.
Wow–Checkmate. I’m sorry. Having to look at McCain’s face every time you look at your desktop. Yikes. His visage is almost … metaphorically representative of his soul. Not to be *at all* disrespectful. But surely it’s arguable that the horrifying things that happened to him in North Vietnam left scars beneath the surface as well–scars that, much like his physical ones, can never be fully removed. In a sense he *has* to believe in the myth of redemptive violence. To do otherwise would surely be altogether too painful for him, considering the price he’s paid in service to that myth. Hence the contrary-to-all-rationality insistence that by *staying* in Iraq, we can “win”. It’s *so* related to the continued insistence by some that the only reason we “lost” the Vietnam-U.S. war is because we left.
Chad
You’re actually absolutely right in one sense. It’s true that Obama would move us toward a more … European style democracy, one which would give up, for instance, a certain amount of … social mobility, in exchange for deciding to take better care of the least of these. I think perhaps you would insist it’s better to maintain the possibility of enormous personal wealth with the attached possibility of denigrating poverty, while Obama, and some of us, would perhaps argue that it’s better to lower the ceiling on wealth a little, with the attached possibility of raising the floor on poverty.
Of course, I’m no economist. But my understanding is that the French system, for instance, involves a much smaller multiple, in terms of wealth, between the richest and the poorest, than our own system, but that French citizens never have to worry about, for instance, how they are going to pay for the expenses surrounding giving birth to their child, or having regular dental checkups, and so forth.
June 19th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Benjamin,
If not for what you call “redemptive violence” you would not have the freedom to write your opinions. So while you mock it and speak against it, there is an inherent irony in your remarks.
Please do not lift up France as an example of economic prosperity. They are a shining example of mediocrity that is supported economically by the stronger free markets around them.
And in what world is it fair to ask someone who is smarter or more talented or a harder worker to give the fruits of their labor to someone who is less so on all counts? That’s like taking first place away from the kid at the spelling bee and saying “you got all the answers right but we’re going to share first place with all the losers as well.” Talk about a direct flight to demotivating excellence.
To your primary comment, Obama’s entire campaign is a metaphorical screen saver of Bush. So high horses aren’t allowed on this subject.
June 19th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
By the way, the Obama and McCain wallpapers only lasted one afternoon. I can only stand so much of politics so I quickly dumped them.
Here’s my wallpaper now.
June 19th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
“If not for what you call “redemptive violence” you would not have the freedom to write your opinions. So while you mock it and speak against it, there is an inherent irony in your remarks.”
Would it be fair to understand you to be saying that freedom is only reachable via the perpetration of violence?
Are we then to understand that the Jesus described in the gospels was not free. Or otherwise, that he was a perpetrator of violence?
If he was not free, are we then to seek or revel in the “freedom” which he did not possess?
Just asking questions.
June 21st, 2008 at 4:28 pm
I think you know the answer to your own question, Benjamin.
You can achieve personal and spiritual freedom anytime anywhere. The redemptive GRACE and truth of Jesus can liberate us from the bonds that our own sin, failures and circumstances have forged.
Jesus addressed this directly in John 18:36. He drew the distinction between the spiritual and the physical when he said that if His kingdom were “of this world” then his servants would fight. But His kingdom was not, so he would not.
There are many, many examples where the Scripture draws a distinction between your personal behaviors and the public responsibility of government.
One of the most notable and well-known is the “turn the other cheek” mandate. Scripture also demands that government punish wrongdoers. Jesus also said that no one can break into your house without tying up the man of the house because no man is going to let his family be harmed.
In other words, if someone offends you personally, return a peaceful response. But this does not change the mandate of civil government to provide protection, and even engage in war to eliminate evil where it threatens others’ safety.
No pacifist I’ve ever met truly believes in non-violence. They all have a line which, if crossed, will spur them out of their stupor and they will fight for their rights…or someone else’s if provoked enough.
Of course I never met Ghandi so my life experiences are, as your friend Russell once said, quite limited.
July 6th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Redistributing grades somewhat the way Obama would redistribute income:
http://imaginarypolitics.wordpress.com/2007/10/06/fair-grading/
Off topic, I know, but I thought you’d find it funny…
July 7th, 2008 at 12:24 am
Very funny, Jan.
But some people think that those who get good grades have more to give, and that those who get lower grades are inherently worthy of passing…even though they play their Xbox rather than study the night before a test.
If Obama wins and actually implements his “Blueprint for Change” he will steal half my income. Half. There is no place on earth that this is fair. And it’s all coming from a pinko commie liberal who gave a whole 1% of his income to charity before he started running for president. I am pretty sure that everyone I know is more charitable than that. I think my wife gave more than that to breast cancer research alone last year.
Everyone knows government can’t do it cheaper or more efficiently than the private sector and charities, but by starting a government program the Democrats create another constituency.
They don’t want people to have independence from government, they want DEPENDENCE to solidify their voter base.