I enjoyed watching the presidential and vice presidential debates.
In the final presidential candidates debate last night, Senator McCain did his best to distance himself from the current president and executive branch (and who wouldn't?). Senator McCain told Senator Obama that if he wanted to run against President Bush, he should have run four years ago. I can see the value in that argument.
Using that same standard, though, eight years ago Senator McCain did run against the then-Governor Bush for the office of president. Eight years ago, the Republican Party decided that Governor Bush would make a better president than Senator McCain. Four years ago, Senator McCain had the same option to run against President Bush in a Republican primary but didn't. Why not? We can only assume he didn't because either he approved of the job that President Bush was doing or that he thought that he wouldn't have a chance running against President Bush because the Republicans of America would overwhelmingly support President Bush over himself.
Now we're in an interesting situation. Senator McCain is a runner-up - a second-place choice - and he is being promoted as better than what we have now. When did everything change? When did the tables turn? When did right become wrong? When did Senator McCain become a better presidential candidate than George W. Bush? Maybe things haven't changed. Maybe he still is a number two. Maybe four years ago he did support President Bush and his plans and policies. Maybe he still does (by his own reasoning).
I think it is a fair question to ask, "Are you better off now than you were eight years ago?" If not, do you really want to vote for someone that wasn't as good as the person that got us where we are?
To me, the biggest story of the past eight years (and maybe a bit longer) is the betrayal of the conservative base by the GOP. The ideals of all the conservatives I know have minimal overlap with the current Republican Party's ideals. Republicans are no longer small-government conservatives. They are big-government, borrow-and-spend, police-state, fear-mongers, inventing new bureaucracy, new federal branches, promoting record budgets, record deficits and stripping constitutional rights. This is pretty much the opposite of what most of the conservatives I know want to see.
True conservatives have been disenfranchised by their own party. If they truly value conservative ideals, they will punish that treatment and support true conservatives. Libertarians like Bob Barr and Ron Paul line up better with their ideals. I think that this is something that conservatives and liberals can agree on. The Republican Party needs to die so that a truly conservative party can replace it, and we can finally get some real balance and testing of ideas in this country.
The system isn't broken. We are the system. We drive it on election days. We drive it when we run for office. Use your power this Nov. 4th to support a candidate you can truly believe in. Don't compromise yourself or your ideals.
Personally, I think Senator Obama has the vision, charisma, tact, respect, optimism, and leadership this country needs in a president right now. He will be getting my vote.
