Senator Obama or Senator McCain ?

[Hugo_M]

I belive Senator Obama is the best president USA can have!

 

Any comments or questions or answer about Senator Obama or Senator McCain?

Edited September 25, 2008 by HugoOlivaresMila

[qirin]

I belive Senator Obama is the best president USA can have!

 

Any comments or questions or answer about Senator Obama or Senator McCain?

 

 

I wasn't very impressed with Obama during the democratic primary, but my respect for him has grown as this campaign has unraveled. in the past, I would have voted for him just to vote against McCain, but now I feel like he is someone I actually feel like getting behind.

 

but ultimately, I think john McCain winning would be the worst thing that could happen for the world right now. I think that he is too firmly entrenched in the business and political elite of this country. I think the best ad the obama campaign has run was the one where they showed McCain's comments about the need for reform in washington alongside clips of george bush saying the same thing in 2000. I think all of McCain's statements are hollow and meaningless, and that he, if elected, will act as nothing more than a puppet for the same neoconservative elite that has bush on a leash.

 

George Bush has run this country into the ground in the service of a very few. the US economy is in shambles, tens and even hundreds of thousands of iraqis and aghanis have died, tens of thousands of americans have died, and this country has been stripped of the smattering of social services it once had. and yet in the middle of this mess, Dick Cheney, Henry Kissinger and a small number of other people are going to walk out of this presidency with a whole lot of money stowed away.

 

one point that I feel Obama has not made strongly enough is that the republican party is in essence the party of greed and corruption. the history of the united states has, in a large part, been the history of a conflict between two powers. one is a small, wealthy ruling elite composed almost exclusively of white men, that has held sway over the country through control of the stock market and commodities exchanges, the banking system and fraternal organizations like the Ku Klux Klan and, more recently, country clubs and golf resorts. they represent the same kind of social order that has held sway in societies all over the world since the agricultural revolution.

 

the people who founded this country, however, put into place certain limitations on the elite, and it is through the exercise of these rights that another group has managed to win hard won freedoms. the right for women to vote, the end of child labor, moves towards racial equality, equity in taxation, the widening of social programs, the establishment of labor unions, all came about through the blood and sweat of this second power, and through restrictions placed on the so-called "free market." this second group is made up of people who have little wealth or status, but who have triumphed through their force of will, the organization of the masses, and through the power of democratic institutions. these are people like Benjamin Franklin, Rosa Parks, Susan B. Anthony, Caesar Chavez, Martin Luther King; in other countries they have peers in people like Mahatma Ghandi, Salvadore Allende and Nelson Mandela. these people are the real heroes of our age.

 

the business elite will go about doing what they do, just as nations will gone fighting wars and people will continue to lie, murder and steal. but it is the purpose of government not to restrain or control the people, but to limit its own power, and the extent to which it can become the tool of those who wish to use it to hoodwink and defraud the populace. under the banner of "less regulation," the republicans actually support a greater extension, or rather reintegration, of the power elite into government, while the democratic parties attempts to regulate the economy and promote social programs are in fact an attempt to limit the power of the real governors, the oligarchs who are not elected but who seek to extend their power through deceitful promises and outright lies.

 

in this instance, good conscience and self-interest point in the same direction for all but a very few. a vote for Obama is a vote for the right of the people to self-govern, and a vote for McCain is a vote to backslide deeper into the clutches of a selfish and ignorant elite.

Edited September 27, 2008 by qirin

[h.uriahr]

We are screwed either way.

[qirin]

We are screwed either way.

 

well I won't argue with that, but I think either way we are also slightly less screwed than we were when bush was in office.

[Spiritual_Aspirant]

I belive Senator Obama is the best president USA can have!

 

Any comments or questions or answer about Senator Obama or Senator McCain?

 

 

I'm sorry but I disagree. I think Hillary would do better. But since I support democrats, I'd have to support Obama now. But if Obama doesn't win, Hillary can run again in 2012.

[Bob_9]

I regard all mainstream politicians as simply 'economy managers' committed to maintaining a system which cares nothing for the ordinary people. They are in my mind 'the enemy'.

[tealady]

I'm leaning towards the:

 

"Screwed Either Way"

 

opinion.

[doc benway]

Overall, I think we really have one large political party in terms of the country being run for the benefit of corporate and elite interests. The major difference between parties, in my view, is the choice of Supreme Court appointments. Ironically, the party that represents Christian America is, by far, the less tolerant, less charitable (I mean real charity, not giving to your church), and less compassionate. My efforts at cultivating compassion have me squarely in favor of Obama. Also, I hope that his candidacy and election could help heal the continued racial divide in our country which continues to be a source of shame and misfortune. When Michelle Obama made her statement about feeling truly proud of her country for the first time, I know exactly what she meant and I'm proud that she had the courage to say it (and, no, I'm not African American).

[Hugo_M]

Edited September 29, 2008 by HugoOlivaresMila

[Aetherous]

Yea screwed either way. I'm thinking of moving.

[Taiji Bum]

Yea screwed either way. I'm thinking of moving.

Cool. Move south a few hundred miles and we can practice taiji together.

[gendao]

Edited October 1, 2008 by vortex

[Eric23]

Yea screwed either way. I'm thinking of moving.

 

You know folks, there are other political parties functioning in the USA. I personally have voted "none of the above" for the past several elections. I sincerely believe that my vote was not thrown away either.

[Aetherous]

Good point. Who seems good to you this time around, then?

[Eric23]

I've been registered as a Libertarian for years. They have selected a 3 term congressman from Georgia, Bob Barr as the nominee for president. I really wish the Ron Paul revolution had caught on.

[Lozen]

I usually lean right, but Sarah Palin is downright scary. And I really love Obama.

[DrumR]

I belive Senator Obama is the best president USA can have!

 

Any comments or questions or answer about Senator Obama or Senator McCain?

 

A Stark, Realist, Approach.

If Mr Obama were running for "President of the World" the opinion of the world's inhabitants would be worthwhile to consider. Fortunatly or unfortunately the USA is not the world. To best understand the internal politics of the USA one should be a Citizen of same.

 

A brief History.

While many may argue the above point, an area to consider may be found in the birth of the USA. The USA divorced itself, not only from English Rule, it had also freed itself from European Influence... Unlike many European Nations, the Citizens of the USA have been practicing Representative Republican Democracy, however flawed, long before the end of World War Two; over 100 years before that. While France, the first Ally of the USA, had flirted with Democracy for a time, it had fallen under the influence of an Emperor.

 

England, from whom much custom and influence of law pervades the USA, did not put into place many of the reforms suggested to its Parliament during Cromwell's time. Yet many of those reforms, which are considered mainstays of the US ideals, were implemented shortly after the successful, from the US point of view, Revolutionary War. A point of fact, even as late as the 1900's some of those suggested reforms from the time of Cromwell remained as un-adopted by the English Parliament.

 

The Arrogant American.

Here is where many people of other nations to not understand the US perspective on life itself. Americans are known as being Arrogant. But I should not have to point out that the dividing line between arrogance and supreme self-confidence is a fine one. Americans, both as individuals and as a whole, do not believe that there is anyone who is better that they; but, on the other hand, they are of the belief that Americans are NOT better than other Peoples. They do, most assuredly, hold to the belief, as a whole, that theirs is the better governmental system.

 

Americans can rise from the depths of poverty to become leaders in the community and just as easily fall from the heights of wealth and social standing to the depths of poverty. There exists no formal social institution to prevent this rise or fall. Americans as individuals do not "bow their head nor bend their knee" to anyone. Americans need not obtain anyone's permission to follow their dreams and to make of them a reality; nor do they see any problem with this attitude at home or abroad. For Americans have not been raised with the experience of asking permission from some Duke or King, Commissar or Dictator.

 

From the American experience; if there is something that needs be done, and one can do it, then do it they shall - at their whim - with not so much as a thought of "Lord such-and-such may I." Remember, the American that you speak with today just well may be the "Heir" to the highest Office of that Land in as little as 4 years time - and this without having to wait for someone else to "pass on" of old age, be poisoned or assassinated, or there having transpired major military coup.

 

A Perspective from the Tao.

Yet had the original query concerned itself with the qualifications of the previously named candidates for the Office of President of the United States of America, then one would gather that to remain somewhat on the topic of Taoism that the question of "How would the studies, inspired of the Tao Teh Ching, evaluate these perspective candidates?" may have been put forth. Perhaps some mention of the desired characteristics of a ruler may be found spoken of in the second half of the Tao Teh Ching (TTC) and, perhaps, armed with this instruction, one might be able to analyze, from those teachings, which candidate may be considered as the "better" of the two.

[Hugo_M]

Well Obama going to be president soon and McCain is not in the list