Election 2008

Not sure who to support in this election anymore. Although I think I'm registered as a Democrat (not even sure at this point), I'm decidedly anti-partisan at this point. I've voted Libertarian, Democratic, Republican, and even Green (the only one I truly regret).

When I was in high school, I was voted most likely to be a lawyer first and a close second in most likely to be president. Shortly after entering college, I realized that my sense of justice was too strong to be a lawyer. Then I read "All of the Kings Men" and became convinced that no politician can ever rise through the system to change things without being corrupted significantly enough to cloud over their once-proud ideals once they rise to the top. That is why I am highly skeptical of politicians (seemingly all of them, I might add) who espouse the "trouble with Washington" and claim to be the agents of radical change.

It seems that Obama, the widely hailed black JFK, is the favorite of the idealistic youth in our country, but honestly who knows what his platform really is? He's a big fan of rhetoric and not so big on actual ideas. It seems that the Democratic party has run on glittering generalities and the anti-Bush platform for so long that I don't know if they actually have a platform at this point. The only thing I know for sure is that Obama stands for higher taxes... but to what end? I mean I could get behind a meaningful increase, but I am skeptical of nebulous tax burden shifts which are tantamount to redistribution of wealth (on a smaller scale) just because. Why not a flax tax which takes away the cheaters?

Our friend Hilary is flat-out unelectable, as anti-Hilary sentiment is so wide in battleground states that anyone who thinks that she is the next great hope is almost certainly electing John McCain. Hilary also has some crazy platforms, but I don't really want to get into it.

As far as McCain goes, if you had asked me 12 months ago, I would say I would vote for that man unconditionally as a man of integrity who has, as well as anyone, fought the corruption of the machine throughout his political career. But his recent pandering to the radical right in a shameless effort to get votes, as well as his insane hawkishness, have me more than a little bit worried. People have spoken of the McCain/Huckabee ticket as a dream ticket in terms of electability, but I think most rational people realize just what a kook Huckabee is. In short, I don't have a horse in this race and am resigned to playing the lesser of two evils yet again.

Ron Paul is a man I know will never get elected but I'd love to see in office. Ron Paul would tear down a lot of the porkbarrel politics and cut unnecessary shit (too much probably, but that'd be a nice place to rebuild appropriately from). In addition, he would actually stand for freedom (whoa, really?). Yes, I know he's a little crazy, and a lot extreme, but I think he would slow government down a lot to make sure all of our shit was in order. And is that really a bad idea? To make Congress earn legislation and remove unnecessary provisions? I don't think he could ever fully succeed in his ideas, but man I'd love to see him roll back a lot of the damage done and cut the waste.

It's always tough to place a significant portion of the future in one man's hands and our system has not done the greatest job of checks and balances in recent years. In fact, I'm mostly rooting for a divided government, as anyone one party who controls all three branches of government just flat out has too much power (Bush before 2006 anyone?) and can accomplish too much too quickly. Hilary, Obama, McCain, we don't want to see any of them able to sprint ahead with the torch, so let's slow things to a crawl for awhile.