As a rational human being, I have finally reached a breaking point. Televised debates, stump speeches and economic hilarity have completely shattered my psyche. There are no major differences between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain. There is no change. There is no experience. Our world is upside down, and the truth is a lie.
One issue is the financial credit crisis. McCain wants you to believe pork barrel spending is the anchor sinking our nation. Obama wants you to think that he’s the paradigm of fiscal responsibilitiy after eight years of George W. Bush’s tax cut and spending policies. They both claim to reduce our national debt. What both candidates won’t tell you is that their budget plans increase the national debt. The difference is to whom they wish to pander. McCain speaks of the greatness of the American worker but wants to keep tax cuts which favor the wealthy. Obama wants to increase taxes on the wealthy and cut taxes on the middle and lower incomes. Neither plan fixes our economic crisis. It pushes the issue onto a new generation and hopes for the markets to fix themselves. Ironically, easy credit has allowed wages to remain stagnant and consumption levels to increase. Savings have evaporated and have been replaced by abstract notions of credit scores. I can see the day when the American Association of Retired Persons hands out AK-47’s to its members for the purposes of fending off bank men.
Foreign policy is another important issue. McCain considers the war in Iraq as the central and instrumental front on the “war on terror.” Obama has never supported the war in Iraq and wishes to withdraw troops. Of course, he wants to transplant those troops into Afghanistan and an unstable Pakistan, which he considers more of a threat to American security. Both candidates wish to continue American interventionist policies in the Middle East, Central Asia and South America. American democracy does not work everywhere and tends to anger when forced.
McCain’s proposal to create a league of democracies in order to cut out the influence of Russia and China from the United Nations Security Council is a dangerous idea. The entire point of a group such as the United Nations is to come together to discuss differences and negotiate solutions. What McCain proposes would be as absurd as if a political party created their own senate just because they don’t have a majority and can’t pass the laws they want. Another audacious idea is the attempt to pose Obama as an anti-war candidate. He’s only anti-war in the sense that he’s against a specific war on the grounds that it is ineffective and not that invasion was an illegal injustice.
You could continue what you’re doing right now. Keep your ear buds in, and vote popular at the moment. Or you can crack like I did. Voter apathy won’t fix anything. Before it gets better, you need to get mad.
