Now, can we please move past identity politics?
Regardless of who wins the election on Nov. 4, an American first will occur. We will either have the first African-American president or the first woman vice president. Thanks to Sen. John McCain’s bold pick of Gov. Sarah Palin as his VP, this election ceases to be about the color of a person’s skin or the gender God has given them, but about the character, talents, and policy positions each candidate brings to the table.
Just as you never base a job hire on whether a person is black, Catholic, Jewish, female, etc. — using those qualities to decide a president shoud not be considered.
I’m not naive. I know that it is…otherwise we wouldn’t be hearing from so many “insulted” Democratic women thinking that McCain is pandering for their vote by selecting Palin.
My hope, though, is that because each ticket now has an identity that will make an American first, we can select the team who will best lead America.
Who will stand up to special interests? Who will eliminate government waste? Who will make prudent national security decisions? Who will have policies that help create the conditions for a prosperous economy? Who will address our social security, health care, and education issues best? Whose ideas will lead us to energy independence?
Those issues matter…those issues are what this election should be decided on. Hopefully voters will now move past lofty and hollow rhetoric, and gender or racial politics, to vote on what’s in the best interest of the country.
As a concluding aside: I ask all those who consider experience at the bottom of the ticket to be a bonus…isn’t that what we have in the current administration? How do you feel about their performance?
Category: Campaigns and Elections
Loading ...
Good point Jim. However, the presidency does not exist in a vacuum. More than anything the Bush presidency seems to demonstrate that you can tell whats coming by looking at the folks the president and veep surround themselves while formulating their policies.
With Bush, it seems obvious in retrospect what the last 8 years should have looked like considering the cadre of the neocon wing of the Republicans that surrounded him. While I’m not fully happy with all the folks who seem to be circling Obama, the folks around McCain really make me concerned, both in the fiscal and foreign policy spheres of influence.
No, because the Dems live for ID politics. They love to not talk about something by talking about it. We are talking about a party who are made up of folks like Jesse Jackson who can, for example, say the N word, attack someone by wanting to “gut [their] nuts out” and say “sorry” and it goes away… While a radio jock, not a political leader, quotes a Spike Lee movie, gets attacked and beaten down until he is fired.
So when the hypocrisy stops, the ID politics will follow.
JR,
Looks like you’ll have to set up another blogsite just for people who’d like to stick with issues. Because you’re right, America now has to make a choice.
The good news is I really believe (and hope) that the majority of the American public has realized that Party is not an issue. Sure, most professional politicians follow the party line in order to get reelected, but I hope we are way past that point.
No matter what particular pet issues you may feel strongly about (abortion, free speach, gun control, taxes), we as a nation have got to come together to fix the things that affect every American.
The economy, energy/national security and health care are issues that affect everyone and we should be getting straight answers from both candidates as to how they plan on fixing them.
Who ever has the better plan has my vote, regardless of party.