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9:08:00 AM EDT
A Dirty Presidential Campaign
MORALITY AND THE LAW CXLI
By Stephen Ellis
THE COMING PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
Nobody asked me, but…
I really hope I’m wrong, but I believe the forthcoming Presidential campaign will be the dirtiest campaign in the history of the U.S.A. There really isn’t any need for the campaign to be full of smut and outright lies, but, on the internet, you can already smell it coming:
Now that the tentative presidential candidates have been selected for both major parties I’ve already started receiving e-mails stating that Obama is going to appoint an all-Black cabinet or that he’s going to be sworn-in with his hand on the Koran; that Obama is a Muslim sworn to exterminate all non-Muslims; that Obama will favor the Arabs over Israel; etc.
I’ve already received e-mails stating that McCain’s war record is phony; that he’s planning for the USA to set-up and maintain bases in Irag for the next hundred years; that at least another 4,000 young Americans will die in Iraq if McCain is elected; that if McCain is elected, war with Iran or North Korea is a certainty, etc.
This is not campaign rhetoric, these are out-and-out lies designed to put fear into the voters.
The truth is that we know all about McCain’s war record and his having been a prisoner of war in Vietnam. We know all about the Christian church Obama has attended (and the sheer idiocy of some of his Pastors), etc.
Both men are good men and neither has lied to the public (that I know of). The choice is simple: If you want four or eight more years of George W. Bush’s policies, vote for McCain. If you want anything but that, vote for Obama. This time the choice is very clear: each candidate has already set forth what his program will be as President: take your choice! As long as we can prevent the voter fraud that took place in Florida and the tampering with voting machines that took place in Ohio, we should be able to elect someone the voters want.
It never ceases to amaze me how many people I’ve spoken to who have decided not to vote. A lot of Hillary Clinton’s supporters tell me they will not vote for Obama and have already decided not to vote at all. How many times do we have to be taught the same lesson? In the last two Presidential campaigns and in the last California general elections, public office has been won by less than 50 votes. If you decide not to vote, it’s exactly the same as voting for the candidate you like the least.
Then, undoubtedly, there will be some third-party candidates. Ralph Nader (a man I formerly respected) has already announced that he plans to run again. Nader’s third-party candidacy clearly gave the 2000 and 2004 elections to George Bush. A survey showed that almost 85% of those that voted for Nader would have voted for Gore and/or Kerry if Nader had not been a candidate. Had the Nader votes gone to Gore in 2000 or Kerry in 2004, Bush would never have been President and we would all have been much better-off. How much better-off we will never know, but, to me, the Bush-Cheney administration has been the most corrupt and generally the worst administration in the history of this nation. Will Obama or McCain be any better? Who knows?
Nader is, probably, a good man with a hopeful agenda. But, a vote for a third-party candidate is, right now, a “wasted” vote. No third-party candidate can possibly win (Ralph Nader, Ross Perot, etc.), but a vote for a third-party candidate can help elect the wrong person as President. There will come a time when a third-party candidate will capture the imagination of the people and have such strong national support that he/she can upset the two national political parties…but that time and that candidate have not yet arrived.
The result is that we actually only have a two-party choice: either a vote for the continuation of Bush’s policies or a vote for change from Bush’s policies. There will be a lot of campaign rhetoric about such things as the prisoners at Guantanamo not having the right to know the crime(s) with which they have been charged; the right of the government to “listen-in” on any/all telephone conversations without a court order; the relationship between us and our allies in Europe and Asia; our relationship with Israel and the Arab world; the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; the potential war between us and Iran and/or North Korea; universal medical care; the shrinking value of the U.S. dollar; the weakening U.S. economy; unemployment; etc., etc., etc.
But the truth is that every voter will either be voting for or against the policies of Bush over the last eight years. Whichever way you believe, please vote for or against it….but please vote!
As I said…nobody asked me.
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Good advice. The public still can't seem to understand that every vote counts.
9/21/08 4:07 PM