Noli Me Tangere

poli-sci

I listened to the "kids" trading election wisdom this morning in music theory. They were, by and large, excited about the process but a little fuzzy on the details. I didn't tell them I probably wouldn't vote, in part because I feel kind of bad about it. This is no kind of example for old people to set for our youth.

George Carlin was on NPR this afternoon, and he said something that I think contained a lot of truth. In explaining his decision not to vote, he said that it doesn't matter who gets elected, the same groups of powerful people will still run the country. Couple this with the fact that I don't really identify with either party, and the fact that Bush will carry Georgia anyway, and you've got a recipe for a pretty thick layer of political apathy.

Most of the people that I know will be voting for Bush. I voted for him last time around and I think he is a good man and a decent leader in some ways. But I've grown concerned about some directions he's taken us. This is why I'm conflicted today:

1) There's a very uncomfortable irony in the fact that the "pro-life" party has killed 100,000 civilians in a war of dubious legitimacy (dubious in terms of consensus at home and abroad). I cannot, in good conscience, throw my support behind this. And maybe the war is, in fact, necessary. I certainly leave that option open since I don't have all the facts. But to sell it incompletely and manage it poorly are failures in their own right, and frankly, Bush's clumsy refusal to admit mistakes is at best, poor leadership. At worst, it's dishonest and immature.

2) I'm open to correction on this, but I tend to think that environmental issues compete with other forces for political concessions. Typically, we think of the environment as a good thing that conflicts with a) money and b) industry; we take care of the environment until it's expensive, or it hampers business. If this is the case, I cannot, for the life of me, understand why the "christian conservative" position seems to favor profit over creation. I'm not advocating nature-worship, but evaluation of priorities. Is the american church not wealthy enough? Is that the problem? I believe the government needs to be vigilant about these matters because I know that the heart of man is short-sighted and selfish, and he will take and take, even to his own detriment.

3) As much as I find comfort in the knowledge that our president subjects himself to a higher power, I'm concerned about the face of christianity the rest of the world sees. I'm concerned that as he is known as an evangelical, he's also thought to be stubborn, arrogant, warring and uncompassionate. Bush seems to me to be well-intentioned, and I believe him to be mostly sincere. But as an ambassador for America, and for Christ, I find him lacking. Being unpopular for your faith is one thing; being unpopular for your leadership is quite another, and I hate that his political positions are taken to be 'christian' positions. This is why mixing religion and politics is a dicey game; it's not so much bad for politics as it is bad for religion, and given a vote between the two I'll take bad politics any day. I almost think a godless Kerry administration would clarify things a bit.

4) Deficit. I'm more Green Spandex than Greenspan, but this just seems bad.

I come down hard on Bush because I feel as though people expect me to vote for him, because I'm middle class, white, christian. He's one of my own, and if he's going to invoke Christ, we need to hold him to a few things.

And so I turn to Kerry, who has done much less to worry a voter, but proportionately less to earn my vote. He strikes me as opportunistic, hopelessly political and generally uninspiring. I also have lower standards for him, since he is less vocal and purposely vague about his 'faith'. In the end, it comes down to this: do I have any real reason to believe that his presidency would be markedly better than Bush's? No, not really.

There is one factor that I think is unique in this election, and that is the likelihood that the next president will appoint several new justices to the supreme court. I tend to lean conservative on judicial matters, and to think that Roe v. Wade came down to a single vote is mind-boggling.

Plus there are other important things to vote on, as Zellyn will probably point out. So at the last minute, after all this political indigestion, I'm beginning to realize I should vote. I'll regret it if I don't. But alas, I cannot find my registration card. And maybe, if I'm the kind of person who is either unwilling or unable to allocate a special 4-yr storage space for my voter registration card, maybe I don't deserve a vote. It's too late for me, but you still have time. Please. Vote for me.

Posted by aokie at November 1, 2004 07:16 PM