In case you’re on the fence, I’ve been thinking of some reasons one might want to be an Obama supporter (in no particular order of importance).
1. BIG NEWS
Obama is your man if you respect and trust the principle news media–The New York Times, The Washington Post, The L.A. Times, NBC, ABC, CBS, etc. All have shown a tilt toward Obama and these newspapers already have or soon will endorse him outright.
My2SenseWorth: Over my lifetime, I have found these particular news organizations to be consistently against nearly everything I value and stand for. What are the chances of them suddenly getting it right?
2. BIG PHARMA
Obama is your man if you believe strongly in full government (taxpayer) support of the mental health industry (psychiatry and psychiatric drugs). Obama says this:
“I strongly support mental health fairness. In Illinois, I passed the state’s mental parity law. In the U.S. Senate, I co-sponsored the Mental Health Parity Act of 2007 and have been a strong supporter of the bipartisan Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007. I believe we should prohibit group health plans from imposing treatment or financial limitations on mental health and substance-related disorder benefits that are different from those applied to medical or surgical services.”
If you are in agreement with this, you will be thrilled to read the rest of Obama’s answers to the NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) questionaire. Also on your side are Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.
My2senseworth: The trouble with this is that there is no objective test for mental illness. Psychiatrists decide what is “mental illness” by committee and a show of hands. Official “disorders” include: Caffeine Related Disorder, Mathematics Disorder and Non-compliance With Treatment Disorder.
Psychiatrists admit that they have no cures but drugs are prescribed and administered at great profit. Among other damaging side effects, there is known to be a strong connection between the use of these drugs and violent behavior.
With a Democrat-controlled House and Senate and Obama as President, these laws will be passed and the psychiatrists and drug companies will bleed the country dry, not to mention the damage to every segment of society caused by wholesale dispensing of dangerous drugs to the populace… at taxpayer expense.
3. BIG GOVERNMENT
Obama is your man if you think it is a good idea to expand government programs—health care, housing, education—and pay for it by raising taxes on “wealthy” people. If this resonates with you, you will love the theories of Karl Marx, who famously said “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”
My2senseworth: It is productivity that is the economic engine, not government. It is the “wealthy” business people and entrepreneurs who create the jobs that produce the income for everybody else. The wealthy also buy things with their wealth, which spurs production, creating more jobs.
The Marxist/socialist approach of penalizing success and rewarding mediocrity and failure is not just unworkable, it is destructive. And the more we unearth about Obama’s past, the more obvious it becomes that he is a construct of the far, far left, who is poised to lead our country down the garden path toward reduced individual liberty and responsibility and massive government intrusions.
4. BIG CHOICE
Obama is your man if you believe in abortion-on-demand. He is a real champion on this issue. Not only does he defend partial birth abortion (where the baby is killed by the abortionist just prior to delivery) but, when an Illinois senator he voted, more than once against a law that would require medical assistance for a baby who survived an abortion. Per this position that Obama supports, the baby who survives an abortion is to be set aside and let die.
My2senseworth: I think there is life in the womb from the moment of conception. I think it is the mother’s inclination to protect this life.
Though inconvenient in some cases, I would prefer to see a pregnancy brought to term and the use of adoption as an alternative when the mother doesn’t want the child or is not in a position to raise the child. But don’t kill the child–please.
5. BIG TROUBLE
Obama is your man if you believe our Constitution is flawed because it does not provide for a redistribution of wealth and power. In his view, the Constitution “…says what the states can’t do to you, says what the federal government can’t do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf.” Further “…maybe I’m showing my bias here as a legislator as well as a law professor. But I’m not optimistic about bringing about major redistributive change through the courts.”
That was in 2001. But now, if you are of this mindset, you will be happy to know that, if elected, and with Democrats in charge of the House and Senate, it is likely Obama will be able to appoint two or three new Justices of the Supreme Court who will undertake to help the Congress make the needed Constitutional interpretive adjustments.
My2senseworth: The Constitution has served us well and has been the model for the advance of individual liberty across the globe. It is arguably the best document of its kind in existence. The proof of its workability is in the fact that the U.S. has become the preeminent economic power on the globe. And we are also the most free. That is why millions of people gravitate to this country from all over the world.
Why would anyone want to upset this apple cart in favor of Marxist socialism, the most troubled and discredited political system in recent history by actual test?
Since there is no evidence of this approach ever working for the populace at large, it must be that its high-level proponents view themselves as the elite few who will run things–the Commissars.
6. BIG CHARMER
Obama is your man if you like a good-looking, smooth-talking, feel-good guy for President. If that’s your criteria, he’ll make you proud to be an American, because he REALLY excels at this.
My2senseworth: For the most important executive position on Earth, I’d kind of prefer someone who had actually done something or run something successfully–besides a political campaign–a grocery store, gas station, Amway business, anything.
As a community organizer, Obama spent lots of the government’s (taxpayer’s) money but to no apparent result… unless you count the poor school system and high crime rate in Chicago as plus factors.
7. BIG SARAH
Obama is your man if you are worried about Sarah Palin’s qualifications to be second in line for the Presidency.
My2senseworth: Uh oh! Sarah Palin has had way more executive experience than Obama and he’s running for first position.
There are lots more reasons I can think of but I’m going to end off for right now.
Vote as if the fate of free enterprise and your individual liberty depends on it.
October 30, 2008 at 10:25 pm |
This is well done, Tom. I can’t say I’m in love with the other guy either, but they huge media hype about Obama, and the brilliant marketing campaign which has so many Americans believing that he is their “hope” is just frankly frightening. Thanks for putting this together.
October 30, 2008 at 10:47 pm |
These are all very good points you make, and I have exactly the same viewpoint. I voted by mail two weeks ago, and I voted for the McCain/Palin ticket. As a business owner, an American citizen and a believer that our constitution should be left alone, it was my only rational choice.
October 30, 2008 at 10:59 pm |
Thanks, Tom, for this post. Very tongue-in-cheek of course, but it does get right to the heart of the matter.
I included your post on a “formula for voting” on my blog: http://AFreshOpinion.com.
Bottom line: if you want to dramatically shift American culture in the direction of “America is bad” and we need to fix it by eroding traditional values and the Constitution itself; we need to fix it by apologizing to the world for being the most exceptional nation in the past 200 plus years, a country millions of people flood to (legally and otherwise); we need to fix it by stripping the self-determined spirit of the individual in the workplace…then absolutely vote for Obama.
If it doesn’t matter to you that his KEY mentors and allies in growing up and growing his career, if it doesn’t matter that these KEY people HATE the United States…if that doesn’t matter to you, then yes, vote for Obama.
Obama “change” will bring the most dramatic downturn to our country in living history. It’s not the change he’s promising. Read between the lines. Check out his record and his associations and his experience carefully. It all speaks a lot more clearly than his speeches.
October 31, 2008 at 2:58 pm |
Why don’t you submit this to all the newspapers that you listed? It’s a well written and informative article and they might even run it. Couldn’t hurt to try.
October 31, 2008 at 3:17 pm |
Great article! I copied and sent to all my friends, especially Obama supporters. Thanks for putting this into the correct perspective!
October 31, 2008 at 7:44 pm |
Obama/Biden ‘08!
November 3, 2008 at 12:42 pm |
thanks Tom
Those are words of truth to vote by in my book