A Letter for McCain Supporters' Eyes Only
If you're voting for McCain and you've clicked to read this I promise this will be pain free and fast. First off, I respect you for voting tomorrow. Right away you've set yourself above the apathetic millions and clearly you care about this country.
Before you punch, click or fill in your ballot for John McCain I would like to have a small one sided non-argumentative conversation with you as a person who also cares whether this country continues to grow and flourish or not.
If you're not going to vote for Barack Obama because of the emails and rumors that he is a terrorist or hangs out with criminals or is a Muslim please do not let that be the reason.
This begs the first question: why in the hell should you listen to me? Well my answer would be, why not? I have no tax breaks or corporate interests to be supported by Barack Obama. In fact, as someone who makes over 250k a year I will pay more. So why would I lie or shill for him unless I truly believed he is the right choice?
And remember, there were a lot of us who said very early on that Bush was up to no good and that the Iraq war would be a mistake. If you voted for Bush in the past why not at least listen to another point of view? If you're one of the twenty something percent who still think Bush has done a good job then I'm guessing you aren't reading this anyway.
The bottom line is that I believe no one wants a bad leader on purpose so clearly you were given some bum information if you voted for Bush. That's okay. You were doing the best you could. But don't rely on that very same information all over again. Whether it be FOX news, emails or friends or family.
Which brings me back to the rumors and emails about Obama. They are false. Not only are they false, they're crazy false. They are. And it would be a tragedy for anyone to make a decision based on those kinds of dark ugly lies.
It's also possible you are voting for McCain because he is "pro-life." I ask you to please remember that there is not one person in this country who thinks abortion is a "good" thing. The only reason any of us think that it should be open as an option to women is because if it wasn't, then people would do it anyway and they be hurt and assaulted by creeps offering illegal abortions. That is literally the only reason. The way to stop abortion is to offer sex education and protection. For that reason there were fewer abortions during the Clinton administration then during the Bush tenure.
If by chance your religion is against protection or sex education then I ask you to question that stance and any group that resists educating kids about how easy it is to have a baby. After all, is there anything more precious than a baby? Nope.
I'm almost done. Stay with me (or stay against me but please keep reading).
If you are a person who is voting for McCain because you think Obama is a communist who wants to redistribute the wealth, I know you are smarter than that. Bush already gave obscene tax breaks to people like me and Warren Buffet and we are saying it's not fair. Why would we work against our own interests? The answer is simple: because fair taxation makes the whole country stronger and if the country isn't strong our money ends up disappearing anyway (see massive stock market crash currently in progress). Bush redistributed the wealth and McCain has been very clear that he will continue to give tax breaks to big corporations and the wealthy in the name of trickle down economics. He really truly has. It's a big fat fact.
I also know that from years of Corporatists and fundamentalists turning the word "liberal" into a code word for gays and hippies and commies you think that blue staters all want to corrupt our country and have people marrying dogs and smoking crack and burning Christmas trees. Here's the real truth we're pretty much just like you. We really, truly are.
And finally if you are not voting for Barack because of the color of his skin, then there may be nothing I can say to you. But I just ask that you really consider this decision. Can anything good come of a backward way of thinking like judging someone based on skin color? No way. And I think in your heart of hearts you know that is very true. The world is changing and if we think and act like it's the 1600s then America will slip hard.
That's it. Thank you for reading. Now let's send a message to the world and our children that the United States learns from it's mistakes and can change when necessary. Remember, you're alone in that voting booth. You don't have to tell your McCain loving friends who you voted for. And chances are one or two of them will secretly vote for Obama. And as a reward for reading this a 30% off coupon for Dave & Busters is being sent to your home.
On a separate train: anyone from California looking for help with how to vote on the Props, check this site out. It combines the stances of six different organizations.
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When people say 'judging someone by their skin color', what does that mean? does that mean that brown skin is inherently bad and that a few of us have 'slipped through the crack' and have turned out okay? i'm just not sure what that means.
You see that is just the point! I have always been a democrat! I loved Bill Clinton, I hated Hannity and Rush. It took the kind of underhanded, back stabbing, of people who claim to be democrats that have stolen my party. I have no party left! It has morphed into some sort of wildy left God hating, Constitution hating, value hating, working man hating, group that I dont even recognize any more. When the secret service starts showing up at a persons house just because she did not want an Obamabot calling her cel phone, something is wrong! When the person who wants to be your president hangs out in Kenya with his cousin and campaigns for him on the taxpayers dime and later this cousin is responcible for Christians horrible deaths, something is wrong. I used to not think about black and white, I thought we were all doing fairly well. When I heard the vile things coming out of that church, and the people laughing, and stomping and cheering his words and I heard that this is where that man went for 20 years with his wife and children, I knew something was wrong.
Then I read about the communist Frank Davis that he hung out with, and drank and did drugs with and I was convinced something was very wrong.
Yes, call me one of Murtha's rednecks if you will, but there are more of me than there are of you!
No, you are like the dinosaurs and are becoming extinct. We are just trying to make it easier for you to accept. Democrats are still the party of the people, for the people and by the people. Republicans are the party of the "titled" rich and corporate payback.
Obama received far more corporate money than McCain's campaign, and there are more millionaire Dems in congress than Republicans. The ultra-rich are trending Dem, in general.
So...
Did Obama get all of his half a billion plus in campaign funds from the "people?"
That's a lot of clams for the working class to have coughed up if that's the case...
Which is isn't...
Your telling me Obamas not corporate backed?
You'd have me believe rich folks don't back Obama?
I guess work really will set us free.
Good luck tomorrow. Have a good night.
You know, Bill Clinton was furious when Obama's campaign implied that he was racist. As he well should've been. It made me mad, and I'm a Republican, but I know there is not a racist molecule in the Clintons' bodies. Nor in mine. And I resent that some people will think me a racist for voting for McCain.
BS. There are "racist molecules" in everyone, no matter how open-minded they are, and regardless of race. My godchildren are black and I am white, and they tell ME to be more careful when walking or driving through certain areas. I do the same with them. Did you hear Obama speak about his own grandmother?
Psychologists say that the first step in solving a problem is to be aware of it. If we don't, as a society, confront our ingrained attitudes about race, religion or whatever else, how in the world will we ever come together on anything??
As for who somebody hung with eons ago, I couldn't care less. We all have our early skeletons, and I certainly wouldn't want to be judged by mine. Obama has his Wright and McCain has his Hagee, so that's a wash. I had a thing with a person who is now the editor of a conservative magazine, but that makes me neither a writer nor a conservative. MLK Jr once went ot a meeting of the communist party and some people, including my own father, labeled him a communist. Shouldn't we be open to hearing opinions other than our own?
Labels and past associations are largely meaningless. What counts above all else is the ability and strength to lead the country in a good direction. It's not all about "me"; it's all about us.
I'm not sure if you're a racist or not. But I think your voting choice is foolish.
You have fun with that.
Move to Wasilla you will feel right at home.
Bravo, Adam McKay! Your "Letter" is well and reasonably put.
And surely you knew beforehand that you'd be barraged with counter-arguments. Self-justification is rarely objective and even more rarely demonstrable by logic. So it is with many of the responses found here, among the McCain/ (Bush) faithful, who keep asserting that Johnny Mac won't govern like Bush (he just lets his campaign be run by the same ol' boys who helped out W); that McCain will make a good Commander-in-Chief (though his military record veered between impulsive and imperious, and the Navy showed little hurry to promote their celebrity POW or to give him major responsibility); that he would make a "great CEO" (though McCain rates his own "maverick" qualities highest). Almost none of these claims would be persuasive, unless you're determined to see McCain as somehow better than he's shown himself over the past months. Which says "more about the acolytes" -- as another poster pointed out-- than about their candidate.
And about those saying they "can't vote for the lesser of two evils"-- I suspect that you guys won't be happy with anyone who doesn't think, talk, appear more or less exactly as you'd like to, yourselves.
Trying to persuade the people who make up the 'Republican Base' to vote for Obama is like trying to persuade malignant cancer cells that they should become benign or they will kill their host. It's a waste of time.
The 2008 Presidential election will define how widespread the American cancer is and whether the the patient can survive.
If McCain wins, the tuned-in world audience will conclude that the American Experiment in Democracy is a failure because of a flawed method of choosing its highest leadership.
Bush 2000
Bush 2004
McCain 2008
Not a system that can meet the needs of our endangered planet in the 21st Century,
Well said! Thank you!
Seriously. Do you really not think that what the world thinks of the leader of the US has a very real impact on how successfully that leader deals with global issues? Don't get out much, do ya?
shut up
"If McCain wins, the tuned-in world audience will conclude that the American Experiment in Democracy is a failure because of a flawed method of choosing its highest leadership. "
I don't care what the "world audience" thinks, and I think it's very odd that a candidate would spend almost $1 million on a campaign event--in Berlin. We have the oldest democracy in the world, and we don't need input from Europeans who have been at this for only 100 years or less.
We could improve things by requiring ID to vote, but other than that, our "flawed method" works ok. Do you want to abolish the vote or something? Is that what Obama supporters have in mind? Disenfranchising people they disagree with and installing a President for Life?
"We have the oldest democracy in the world, and we don't need input from Europeans who have been at this for only 100 years or less."
No offense, but you need to do a little research. The U.S. was recently ranked 17th among democratic nations, well below many of those European nations you dismiss.
Sometimes folks new to a game can play the game better...
Julie, maybe you should travel or read more. What school district did you go to that teaches the United States is the oldest democracy in the world? Somewhere in Texas, maybe?
Wrong - have you have taken a Western Civ class? I advise you to reread your history, if you ever read it in the first place. FYI - the French Revolution occured only 20 years after the American.
> We have the oldest democracy in the world, and we don't need
> input from Europeans who have been at this for only 100 years or less.
Uh, JulieSA, just what do you consider a democracy, and exactly which year do you think the USA became one?
1776: White Protestant males
1787: White property owning males
1830: White non-property owning males
1870: Black males (theoretically, see 1965)
1920: Women (1890 Wyoming)
1940: Native Americans
1965: VRA amendment bans literacy tests, poll taxes
Please learn some history or shut up -- or both.
America is the oldest Democracy in the world? Then what is Athens? Chopped liver? (Athens is in Europe by the way....)
I guess we need to fund the public school system a little better.
VOTE OBAMA '08!!!
Actually, contrary to the idea that Obama can't be this or that due to tenuous associations with this or that. Again I point out Palin addressed seccessionists this year, her husaband never left the group AIP, whic is despicably anti-American. No nuance, no contexts whatsoever. Is it that they are white leads you to not care a whit about them?...
But besides that there are many instances of just such "change" in people that actually were once "bad" people
The Nazis who ended up in this country helping NASA and the Defense Department; many of the Black Panthers who became clothing designers, conservative politicians, many of today's neo-cons who were once branded communist sympathizers, socialists and unrepentant liberals by McCarthyit
Associations rarely mean anything.
So that simplistic argument holds absolutely no water, even if we were talking about actual bad beliefs which is the wrong headed basis for this guilt by association crap. What is this Stalinist Russia, guilt by association IS UNAMERICAN, wrongheaded, inane and untenable as an argument against someone. Period. Next subject
Will this never end?
"Associations rarely mean anything."
The motto of the new democratic party. You should put it on a flag or something.
yeah, i pal around with Liddy for ammo advice! NOT
G. Gordon Liddy.
Next.
I am a respublican and I support John McCain for what I have heard him say in "his own words". Likewise, I am opposed to Barack Obama because of what I have heard him say in "his own words" as well. If republicans evaluate Obama on that criteria alone they will make a good decision. If Obama wins and he begins to govern from the middle then I'll support him. But if he and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi see this as a golden opportunity to walk all over the right, then we'll begin to do to the Obama presidency what the left did to the Bush presidency. Although I have to admit we won't have the help of the MSM like the left did. Good luck to you.
You actually think that the left is responsible for the miserable failure of Bush's presidency, when the Republicans were in charge of both branches of Congress for six years?
Have another sip of kool-aid.
The republicans were not in charge of both branches of congress for 6 years -- remember Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschele? He was in power when the democratic led senate passed the Iraq War Resolution and the Patriot Act.
We didn't do anything TO the Bush presidency. He did it to himself every time he opened his mouth to speak. The man has the intellect of a 7-year-old. I dare you to TRY to make Obama look stupid. Go ahead. I dare you!
Who told you that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were radical leftists? Sean Hannity? Rush Limpbaugh? Bill O'Rielly?
Reid and Pelosi may be irrelevant after the election because they are so centrists that 35 years ago or more they would have been classically Republican. Don't believe the right-wing propaganda. Reid and Pelosi are hardly going to "walk all over the right." They have been irrelevant and will continue to be. The rest of us are all hoping that after this election we will have far more effective Democrats leading the House and Senate. Perhaps one of them will be Hillary Clinton.
What did anyone do to Bush? It was those of you who were blinded by the smoke screen of George Bush that should have reason to question your judgment. Liberal is not a dirty word, nor is conservative, but I have seen the most despicable things come out of the camp that represents the right.
As far as McCain goes, which McCain are you talking about? What have you heard him say in "his own words"? Was is the part about the tax breaks and cuts for corporations and the wealthy?
Who cares if you support Obama? Did you care that we despise George Bush?
"What did anyone do to Bush?"
Question is what did he do for you?
You have been safe in you bed for the years after 911 and the economy was clicking right along until the greed and corruption got the best of everyone, democrats included. Your hands aren't clean. Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and other democrats had their hand in the cookie jar too. At least don't delude yourself.
Bush got rid of Saddam. On balance, a good thing. In the end he had his failures like Carter, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Kennedy, Johnson and even Franklin Roosevelt.
The democratic hand wringing and rose colored glasses is just too much for the stomach to bear. And now you want to elect an empty suit to run the country. A sad day.
Obviously you did not understand anything Adam wrote.
I'm curious - what did you think when we had a majority republican congress, along w/ a republican president for 6 years - you do remember that correct?
The problem with the right, is they expect the left to be as evil as they have been - ie: walking all over them. Have you not been living in this country for the past 8 years? why are you so afraid of change? why are you so afraid that something could possibly be even better than what we have imagined. Yes, it could be worse than we imagined - but it could be the same way about McCain too.
What has McCain done in the 20 some years he's been in congress? Why do you think anything he would do would bring about any kind of change.
Obama isn't left of the middle - you are just too right of the middle.
My comment will go right over your head because you have obviously made your decision, but given your reasoning - well, it's just not very well thought out - I think you can come up w/ something much better.
Good luck to you.
Well said!
The ironic thing about elections is not how these candidates talk during the campaign, it is how they govern. For all the dems calling McCain a right win wacko, he will be anything but that if elected. If he is elected, he is going to piss off Republicans from day one as I believe he will move to the left and govern that way. Remember he voted against both Bush tax cuts? Kennedys Medicare bill? spearheaded the Campaign Finance bill? Sounds like a dem to me. I know people throw around the 'voted with Bush 90% of the time' stuff, but there are alot of votes in the senate, and I look at the big ones to see how they really are compared to others in their party.
As for Obama, I don't know how he would govern if elected. Part of me thinks he has to move left to appease the liberals who have been out of power for since 1994 when Clinton triangulated with a republican congress. But part of me thinks Obama is too smart to move left, and I feel he will govern from the center like Clinton, which will piss off libs, remember Clinton signing Welfare Reform? Or Nafta? I still think the best way to govern is from the middle as that is what the american people want, and if Obama goes left I think you could see another Republican congress in '10 or '12, because the independents still decide every election.
McCain may want to go the center - but remember Sarah Palin. She doesn't have a centrist bone in her body!
Obama is centrist in his makeup. He wants to govern and will have the best people of both parties in his government - some of the best of the Republicans have already declared their support for him.
Actually, Palin has been a very bi-partisan governor. She went after Repubs on ethics and spending issues, and she's worked very well with Dems to get things done. Both she and McCain have a record of this, while Obama doesn't.
I heard a female registered Democrat on BBC this morning say she was voting for McCain because too many people viewed Obama as a deity or god. Honestly..
Of all the things that have truly upset me during this l-oooong campaign, it's Hillaristas like that woman who upset me the most. Her arguments are absolutely, without question the complete, utter epitome of stupidity. They represents the voters who think not like citizens- but like consumers. They believe that they are voting for a mascot, not an executive administrator of Federal government.
How can you compare Hillary's experience to McCain's? How can you argue that Hillary has experience equal to McCain, or that she has more experience than Obama? Because she was honorary "First Lady"???
Of course her argument is racist. They simply cannot believe that a black man can have the legislative, community organizing, constitutional law and campaigning experience that could ever prove qualifications for the Presidency. Well, I think that Obama's has absolutely the ideal experience for the Presidency.
An extremely long Senate career is NOT- as seems to be the contention over the last two elections- the ideal qualification to be President, and probably should cause voters to hesitate, not to assume that being ensconced in the Senate for 35 or more years is the right paradigm to come from into the White House.
I wont vote for either one of them. Both of them continue the corruption and failed policies that both parties have continued for decades. Neither have addressed the problems with the economy, how they will fix them, or how they will deal with those responsible. Neither have truly addressed the social security issue, how we treat veterans, immigration or health care. Neither have addressed true reform to a broken and bloated tax code. Neither have put forth views regarding our place in the world that the people can get behind: McCain wants to isolate us in many ways and Obama thinks we can police the world while he was raging against Bush for doing it. And neither one of them even begins to comprehend the statement 'we cannot afford it.'
No, I will no longer vote for the lesser of 2 evils and both of these men continue the same false promises and empty rhetoric that we have been hearing for 40+ years. Both of these men will speak of bipartisanship but act very partisan. Both will continually put their party's view and power above the good of the country. Both will not hold those in their own parties responsible for their actions as long as those people can be useful to them.
In that case, write in your vote for Cthulhu '08. Why choose the *lesser* of two (or three) evils?
I don't know where you have been for the past 2 years. No candidate can ever tell you everything they will do because 'facts' on the ground will shift before they even take office. BUT if you have spent any time actually listening you really should know enough to make this decision.
I have no patience for people who won't make a choice - I'm sure you'll be the first to shout foul at either once they are elected. If you can't vote, you should keep silent for the next 4 years. Every vote counts and if about 500 more people had voted for Al Gore in 2000, we would have been spared many of the horrors of the past 8 years.
Vote for Obama and take a chance on the future - otherwise, you have at least 4 years to be sorry that you didn't.
Why don't you just vote Nader or Paul and get it over with?
All you have to do is do a little research. If you don't know what the candidates stand for by now, then you just won't get it.
All the issues you have listed have been addressed multiple times.
You have choices, you can vote for the other people on the ballot, or not vote at all. However, if you don't vote, then you have absolutely no right whatsoever to complain about anything.
Good
I never understand the LIBERAL label.
Liberals got us out of the great depression, rebuilt us after the war, passed the civil rights act, got us to the moon, got Israel and Egypt to stop it already... the list goes on.
Every great step forward of this country has been about the expansion of liberty and rights for its people.
Not the other way around.
I'm gonna be i'll if Barry doesn't win.
I completely agree. Furthermore, something that I think ought to be disturbing for Republicans, is that they've always been the party that benefits from racism and intolerance.
Historically, when people despise blacks, Muslims, Hispanics, gays and women, Republicans benefit at the polls.
There's something very wrong about that.
I thought this was a great post, Adam. These people simply do not understand. They don't get the tax issue at all. This country flourished and the middle class grew, and jobs were created when the wealthy were taxed at a very high rate, much, much higher than Obama's plan. Business interests will always look after their own profits first, if left unchecked -- there's a quote from Thomas Jefferson to this effect, and others, and we've seen that borne out.
As far as health care, I welcome any of these people to be hardworking people, like myself, who make too much for Medicaid and too little to find anything that is affordable and works. So-called affordable health plans cover very, very little. Sorry, but we do need universal care -- yes, that's what we need to work towards -- universal care with an emphasis on preventive and wellness care, not the sick-care model we have today. Of course, we have to fight BigPharma for that -- their profits would go down substantially if the emphasis were on wellness instead of pushing pills.
That's just two of the reasons why McCain is a bad idea. It will just be more of the same -- and America can't afford that. Why, even the AMA -- who totally opposed Medicare -- now wants universal health care.
"If you're voting for McCain ... you care about this country."
My own non-scientific anecdotal survey does not support your thesis. My discussions and observations conclude that McCain voters, the ones I have met, the ones with whom I have been civil and polite, the ones to whom I have really listened (not easy), care only about themselves and what they think are their own short-term interests. I have yet to detect in them any concern for our country or it's future other than how it will benefit them. I have not even detected concern for the kind of country and world their children and grandchildren will have to live in. The McCain voters and Republicans I have met, and for that matter the Republicans I know well (including senior members of my own family), are self-absorbed, hostile to the needs of others, and totally without conscience.
Quite a uniter you are 1201SLD - it may shock you to find that the vast majority of Obama supporters I meet are naive, ignorant and completely devoid of independent thought. Not really - but I am sick and tired of the so called party of hope and change being so vicious and mean spirited.
"party of hope and change being so vicious and mean spirited."
No, just objective. As for some Obama supporters being "naive, ignorant and completely devoid of independent thought", well, many have been under The Man's heel all their lives, deprived of knowledge and opportunity. President Obama may inspire them and many of the rest of us to become better informed, more skeptical and inquisitive, maybe even critical thinkers. It's all a process of development and improvement, regardless of where on the scale you start. Everyone starts somewhere; the trick is to move forward. I think it is the NNCF line, something like "A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste."
Another reason to vote for McCain: So you can look like a complete IDIOT decades from now when your grandchildren ask you who you voted for during the historic 2008 election that put Obama in the White House and got the country back on the right track.
As somebody who already voted for McCain in Ohio last week, I wish I had another choice. The fact that I have volunteered by knocking on doors and making phone calls, and plan to do both all day tomorrow tells you what I think about Obama. I do appreciate the tone of your article. My reasons for voting for McCain had nothing to do with skin color. I am a registered nurse that works in inner city Cleveland and see the good and bad in the black community everyday. Being around 30 years old, most of my friends are liberals. We get along just fine and have heated political debates, then go get a beer together.
I voted for John McCain for many reasons, but the main reason is I feel he will do what is right. After the Keating Five, he was embarrassed, and rightfully so. He has since tried his hardest to rid the government of corruption. Their are a long list of things I disagree with McCain on, but controlling government spending and fighting corruption is one thing I know I can count on from him. Obama doesn't seem to be able to tell the whole truth, ever. I feel we don't know enough about this man to make him the most powerful person in the world. I sincerely thank you for your tone, and can't believe I read a civil article on HuffPo that didn't think I'm a racist, redneck, hillbilly.
This story sounds made up!
I hear that you have great faith in McCain, but do you have the same faith in Sarah Palin? No matter the age or health history of the person at the top of the ticket, the VP candidate matters these days.
She terrifies me, as her rhetoric gets more and more inflammatory and further and further from any basis in fact. McCain's choosing her should be a dealbreaker for his candidacy.
Ma'am, while I respect your right to vote for the person of your choice, I must take issue with your assertion that he will do the right thing. He had the chance to do the right thing when picking a competent VP who could take over the country if necessary. He chose differently. He had the chance to do the right thing when people were calling Obama a traitor, and calling for his death. He chose differently. I appreciate your honesty about voting for mccain but really, be honest with yourself. He has failed the "do the right thing" test several times.
You feel you don't know enough about Obama to make him the most powerful man in the world. I voted for Obama partly because I know enough about mccain to make sure he isn't the most powerful man in the world.
(And, as a nurse, I guess you support deep cuts in medicare).
Nah she supports reducing the number of people who actually can seek medical care. Because under McCains plan I will have to drop my health insurance and rely on emergency room care when I can't take care of it myself. I won't pay taxes on insurance that I don't use on top of premiums and deductibles.
I worked as a medical lab tech and I can tell you there are lots who are nurses (and doctors) and truly despise thier patients.
McCain may have been embarassed behind the Keating Five scandal but he is not an honest man. I'm not quite sure why you believe him to be more honest than Obama. Please read the Rolling Stone article and judge for yourself.
http://www
While I am not calling you a racist (I don't know you) but being a nurse working in inner city Cleveland does not give you an automatic pass on racism. I have known many a person who dates outside of their race that I would consider true bigots. Their love for that one person does not extend to others of the same race.
And what about Sarah Palin? What on god's green earth would move you to vote for a complete ignoramus who would be first in line for the presidency should 4-time cancer patient McCain succumb to another bout of a malignancy?
i agree with you completely, Adam. Too bad you're limited to just singing to the choir.
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