Why I am voting for Obama – The American Dream
It is my belief that the appeal and draw of the American Dream is the single greatest asset this country has. The promise for a better life for yourself and more importantly your children draws the best, the brightest and the most motivated to this country from all over world. This influx of willing workers is the foundation that has driven our economy, diversified our culture and made us the most tolerant nation on Earth.
Therefore, protecting and growing the American Dream is the most important thing that we as a nation must do. Ceding this quintessentially American identity to another country will be a blow from which the US won’t and shouldn’t be able to recover from.
I’m voting for Barack Obama because he is the candidate most likely to protect and grow the American Dream. In later posts I will breakdown why I believe his policies, professional choices, and personal accomplishments have given him the tools to accomplish this task. This post is going to focus on WHY he wants to do it.
Nobody is going to be anti the American Dream, especially a politician. The question is will you allow yourself to be distracted, to take a shortcut, to compromise in the wrong way when you have a chance to make a difference. I think the answer for most people is yes, unless the reason you have for making that change is deeply personal. No Presidential candidate in our history has had more personal reason for defending the American Dream than Barack Obama.
Obama’s candidacy carries many personal burdens with burdens with it. The burden of doing right by his mother’s memory (who died at 52 of cancer and accelerated by a lack of health care). The burden of being the first of the “Next Generation” of politicians. The burden of having more individuals donate to his campaign than any campaign in the history of the world. The burden of not disappointing millions of people who he brought back into the political process or introduced them to it. The burden of being the first African American candidate. Perhaps most importantly though, the burden of ensuring that the path he walked, that of the American Dream, is afforded to later generations.
Accepting the responsibility of these burdens is a heavy weight. However it is not without reward. When presented with a chance to quit, to make the wrong choice, to make the easy choice these burdens often times give you the strength to carry on and do the right thing. Anybody who is an eldest child wanting to set an example for their siblings might have an idea of what I speak.
I think John McCain is as good a man as you can expect a politician to be. That isn’t to say he is without character flaws. He and Obama have plenty and we can try to tally and count them to determine a winner. What can’t be argued is that John McCain was born into American political aristocracy. That he hasn’t walked the American Dream and that defending it can’t be as personal to him as it is to Barack Obama.
As always, comments are welcomed and encouraged.
10 Responses to “Why I am voting for Obama – The American Dream”
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I commend the reasoning behind your decision to vote for Senator Obama. I do, respectfully, disagree.
As yourself, I agree that both candidates have the American Dream and best interests of the country at heart. I’d argue however that McCain hasn’t been born into the political aristocracy, but rather, the military aristocracy, as I’m unaware of any of his ancestors that held any important political position outside of the military. He also wasn’t very rich, and only became so through marriage.
In any event, I’m not a huge fan of the McCain nomination, but feel the policies he has will do less damage to the country than Obama’s. This is simply due to the nature of Obama’s policies being a redistribution of wealth, which is a slap in the face to the American Dream in my mind as it basically says that “We’re for the American dream until you succeed, then we’ll tax the heck out of you” which, from my perspective, takes away incentives to succeed if the government will reward you for failure.
Anthony - It sounds like your vision of the American Dream is limited to financial success….What a terrible shame….
“A Slap in the face to the American Dream”??
Has there ever been such an abused phrase as “The American Dream”???… i think not.
I read into it as simply the opportunity to lead a successful and satisfying life.
Government exists purely out of the need for public works/programs. Public works require funding. Funding requires taxation of the people.
Be careful Anthony - Voting with selfish intentions will have long term side effects for your children.
Anthony-
Thank you for the thoughtful and well written comment. I appreciate when people make valid points and don’t just resort to name calling.
You are correct to note that he is from military aristocracy. What I should have made clear is I believe when you reach the upper echelons of the military the line between military and politics blurs. At the very least you have access to the political establishment and the benefits that accompanies that. I never implied that McCain grew up with the wealth he enjoys now, just that his roots are from what could be considered a, ‘ruling class’.
I plan to address differences in policy and why I think Obama’s are superior in later posts. The point I was trying to make here is that expectations Obama brings to the office will empower him to achieve more than he could on his own. McCain doesn’t carry similar expectations into the Office with him. In fact his own party doesn’t even have high expectations for him.
I likely would have voted for Obama prior to his support of FISA. Both he and McCain supported the bill. Obama withheld his vote to appear as if he did not, but he gave it his full endorsement.
I find it interesting people are still talking about the redistribution of wealth as a concern about Obama. We are seeing the greatest redistribution of wealth we have seen in the history of this nation…from private citizens to corporate banks.
After FISA, neither gets my vote because neither has proven themselves to be the kind of person to uphold and defend the Constitution.
Obama can’t possibly deliver on all that he is promising so as to bribe for votes. Let’s face it most of us want something for nothing. He is telling us what we want to hear. However some of us face the reality that we have to earn what we get. Beyond providing for a common defense the US government is very inefficient in providing anything else. It dosen’t make any money. If it were in business it would soon be bankrupt. So where does the money come from? It comes from you and me. Corporation and small business pay a lot tax you say and they will pay more under Obama. Well they really don’t- you and I pay their taxes. Successful businesses price their products with the expense of taxes as a component. Raise their taxes and guess what? If they want to stay in business they raise their prices. Then who pays the increased price?
Obama wants Change alright. He wants to change capitalism into socialism. Why is Obams’s political path so full of people who hate the USA and hate it’s capitalist system? Maybe the money is coming from people like billionaire George Soras divided up into $200 chucks for which there is no accountability. Maybe its coming from the Middle East where the Muslims would like to see Obama win. Why did Obama choose to escape the scrutiny of Federal election funding?
There’s an old saying “A garden owned by many will soon be choked by weeds”. Socialism dosen’t work long term. Russia is the largest example of it. The possibility that; the most Left leaning candidate to ever run for President, may be elected; scares me to death!
Jerry, the system we’re under right now isn’t capitalism either. Bush has spent more in the last 8 years than any democrat ever did. Also, capitalism implies that it’s survival of the fittest. The bail-out represents corporate welfare where people whose businesses should not have survived still will. I’m for a free market with some oversight, otherwise greed and short term decisions will always rule. As I’ve said in another comment, if you want to see what happens with no regulation, no middle class, huge government debt, and politicians owned by big business and the wealthy, look no further than our neighbor Mexico. Even China’s capitalism is leaving thousands sick and their land polluted. People there just get rich quick then move somewhere with environmental regulation for their retirement.
Jerry-
I would actually argue that the government isn’t very efficient at delivering defense either, we pay A LOT for our military (and I don’t think there is anything wrong with that). There have been some studies done that show that the government provides efficiencies in some areas such as personal protection (police, fire), transportation (roads) and utilities.
Anecdotally when I lived in LA my power bill (run by the municipality) was ALWAYS cheaper than that delivered by private companies. At times mine was HALF what they were paying and no it wasn’t government subsidized. I will look at making an in-depth post on this in the future.
I thought your post went a little off track when you started throwing around accusation about who Obama associates with or how he has been funded. I was a little offended because I am one of the donors who has never given to a political campaign before and has anteed up for his. Just because you don’t want to believe he has more popular support financially than any other candidate in history doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
LaterSkater, I’m with you. I was going to reply to Jerry that we don’t actually have true capitalism in our country, but you made the argument for me.
Regardless, Obama is the clear choice for me. I cannot stand another 4 years of similar gov’t. And, let’s face it, no matter what McCain says, he’s still a Republican and he supports dumbass W., so it’ll be more of the same.
I forgot to mention the more important point about McCain . . .as I’ve stated before - it is highly irresponsible of anyone to vote for McCain because that puts the truly incapable Palin way too close to the presidency. That alone is reason to NOT vote for McCain/Palin.
Please NOT 4 more years of the Same…PLEASE VOTE FOR THE BEST MAN>>>Obama will run this country the way it should be run. McCain can take his bridge to no where elsewhere and Palin can head to her snow-mobile. That team is REALLY SCARY!!!!!