Thursday, October 30, 2008

Obama or McCain or ??? - Part II


Wow. Thank you very much for all your feedback on my last undecided post. I created that post with a pretty clear agenda and the hopes to join in the discussion. If you are a person that has to have your life neat and orderly, be sure to stay single and childless. Once you are married with kids, everything changes.

Seems OhPrincess1 (soon to be known as OhPrincess-Living-In-the-Dog-House) has gone A.W.O.L. on doing some homework assignments. Remember my little rant about personal responsibility...we are working on those lessons...again. Film at 11.

OhCountess has been pretty much bedridden since Monday night with some really bizarre pain in her shoulder blade. Doctors, which I will someday explain my why I believe biology and medicine aren't really sciences...another post, have done little for this other then give her pills to help her sleep. W00t! W00t! I ain't impressed. She's now doped up and in pain...thanks.

Now - why are we here? Oh yeah, we vote on Tuesday of next week. Yes. If you are a U.S. citizen and not a felon, you HAVE to vote. I firmly believe that you should never utter a complaint about anything if you don't vote. You should shut the hell up and get what you got coming. If you voted for the other guy...complain all day. You are entitled.

I've rewritten this post probably 5 times now. The more I write about one subject, the more I just rant and rant an rant. I think I will be doing follow ups on the different topics I've started and scrapped here.

As cheer_dad suggested, I took the quiz over at Glassbooth.org. I gotta tell ya, I was more then a little surprised by the results. I've always considered myself a little 'l' libertarian. I think the best role of government is to stay out of the way of the people. As V said in the movie V for Vendetta, "The people should not fear the government, the government should fear the people."

My results from the survey were that I most matched Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party, but not by much. You see, it was a 20 point swing from the top to the bottom of my matching. My top match only matched me at 68% and my least match was John McCain at 45%. I always thought my political philosophy was simple, but apparently I'm alone.

I think what I've discovered over this process is that party politics will probably never be in my future. There are just some issues I feel very strongly about and each party offends one of them. I'm pro-choice, but for free market capitalism. I think consumers should drive the environmental movement. Basically, I like my government really small and unobtrusive. When I finally do share all of my opinions on the subjects, I will have offended each and every one of you.

I wrote the last piece with a particular goal in mind. I had hoped that people reading and responding would see just how difficult it is to discuss the positives of the candidate. So many people are voting for one candidate because he's not the other guy. This is a terrible problem and an even bigger mistake.

Our mission as citizens should be to elect the best possible candidates. I know people that will vote the straight ticket. I've never understood this. Why? Why do you do this?
So, where does this leave me? I have no idea who I'm voting for next Tuesday.

A really appreciate everyone's thoughts on this.

9 comments:

dmarks said...

McKinney? Ugh. She's a bit of a Nazi. When she lost an election once, she blamed the collective "Jews" for it. I would imagine that most Greens are not too happy that she leads the ticket.

Heather said...

Like you said, the most important thing is to get out and vote. I don't care who you vote for - that's your decision - just vote! Hopefully you've made your decision before you're at the polls and looking for a coin in your pocket.

OhCaptain said...

dmarks - yeah, until I took the quiz, I had no idea who was running for the green party...trust me, I'll be doing the research before Tuesday.

heather - the last weekend before the first Tuesday in November is traditionally known as the "Great Weekend of Research and Soul Searching". I think I've only missed one election since turning 18 (I've been alive more years since then prior...yikes!). Well if you don't count primaries. Note the lack of party affiliation...

Rian said...

Don't forget about all the other races on the ballot. The top office really isn't the most important one. Big L or little l, you need to pay attention to what is happening closer to home.

You can go to the secretary of state page to download a sample ballot. There are a LOT of elections to worry about. Did you know that if Democrats can gain just a few more seats in the MN house, they'll be veto-proof against Pawlenty?

There's also an issue on our local ballot for the city to set up a 'city court' for local ordinance violations. Sounds like a way for them to increase enforcement of rules I probably don't agree with (jaywalking, building code permits)

OhCaptain said...

Rian - don't forget about the state constitutional amendment to cap the amount the state will spend on the environment and the arts. Wait, it's to expand the sales tax and and legally bind the state to spend the money raise strictly on the environment and the arts meaning they will stop using any general fun money for these projects in the future. This also means we are giving up on the idea of a representational government because they can't just spend the money appropriately in the first place...I think I'm ranting...

Mitchell Cogert said...

Unfortunately my vote doesn't matter since I don't live in a democracy when it comes to voting for a President.
It's a strange land since it's one where it's a democracy when it comes to voting for Governor or Senator or Congressman or anything else. But when it comes to President, well, you're just not smart enough to vote directly for a President.
Yes, I live in the United States where electoral votes matter and not my vote. Since I live in California and Obama has a huge lead...But Oh Captain if you live in Pennsylvania or Ohio your vote is crucial. If you live in Florida ha ha ha...

WeaselMomma said...

In this election cycle neither Major party candidate is appealing to me. Both candidates have platform ideas that bug the Bejusus out me. I do find myself looking at 'the lesser of 2 evils and am voting for the candidate that I feel will do the least amount of damage.

Nellie said...

Since ya know what I think I'll send you to a (very liberal) blog that I enjoy reading...

uppercasewoman.com

She usually makes some interesting points and honestly I usually find that reading the comments is super informative.

Just the other day she did a post to the undecided voters. Go check her out if you have some free time.

How are the girls? The Halloween pic is cute :)

Email me about the wife... what's up with her? Did NKOTB knock her on her ass or what? ;)

Nellie said...

T- check out rudecactus.com also.