I Don't Normally Do This But...

As many of you know, I don't particularly consider myself to be politically minded. I do consider myself to be liberal both fiscally and socially and I think that after attending UW-Madison it is pretty obvious that I plan on voting for Obama on November 4th. Until this summer I would very rarely think about politics for fear that my rising anger would cause me to mutate into a green behemoth and lay waste to all that was around me. The thing is, whenever I think about politics I become extremely pissed. When I dwell on the fact that an entire party (and yes I will place all self-identified Republicans in one group) bases one of its planks on denying the rights of others because they believe that group to be morally inferior, I think it is understandable that my blood boils. Now I know when it comes to gay rights, the Democrats, as a whole, are not that much better, but I feel that they are more likely to shake my hand with one hand while not stabbing me in the back with the other.

I don't claim to be highly knowledgeable on the present political climate but over the past few months I have been trying to become informed. Prior to this road to discovery I assumed that when you boil everything down both of the parties are fairly similar. In today's election the outcome is determined by the undecideds. What this means to me is that each candidate must be as moderate as their parties' diehards will allow. Which is why I find it laughable that McCain claims to be a maverick. I won't argue that in the past he hasn't at times fought against his own party to get things he believes should be done done. But to become his party's nominee he has inherently agreed to carry their standard to the epic battle on November 4th. I won't be so presumptuous as to think the Republican party was tricked into choosing a nominee who would daring enough to go against their interests.

With Obama, I truly do have hope that he will change this country for the better. I do think that regardless of his international experience, the sole fact that we will have a Democrat in office will help America's cred with the rest of the world. One of the attacks that has been used against Obama is that he is out of touch with regular Americans because he is elitist and an intellectual. First of all, McCain is married to a former pill popper who is heir to a beer fortune; that seems to be more elitist than Obama and Michelle who met in law school. Second of all since when is ignorance and stupidity qualities we want in our leader? I want the person who holds the highest office in the world to think once in awhile.

It has taken me a very long time to reach a point where I would risk writing a political post on my blog. As with starting this blog, I am highly self-conscious when it comes to what I write. When I first started this blog, I thought to myself that to have a blog means that you must think you are interesting enough to have people read what you say. Once I overcame that I decided that I would keep this space light-hearted and not delve into anything of substance. Times have changed though and regardless of what people will think about what I have just written, I belive that it was time for me to have my say. Have at it.