| | |  Editorials | Opinions | September 2008 
An Open Letter to Independent and Undecided Voters
 Gary Kamiya - Salon.com
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| | You're sick of politics as usual and just want results. Should you pick McCain or Obama? | | |
This is an open letter to those American voters who are not affiliated with either major political party, or who have not yet decided whether to vote for Barack Obama or John McCain. There are millions of you, in every state of the country, men and women, from all races, classes and ethnic groups.
Each of you has his or her own reasons for not registering as either a Democrat or a Republican, and for not yet having decided whom to vote for. It's impossible to sum up such a diverse group, especially because by definition you are, well, independent. Some of you are relatively apolitical, whether out of disillusionment or simply because you have other more pressing concerns in your daily lives. Others of you follow politics, siding sometimes with Democrats, sometimes with Republicans, sometimes with libertarian figures like Ron Paul, and sometimes with none of the above.
But there are a few qualities that many of you share. You are fed up with the choices offered you and sick of partisan rancor. You are disillusioned both with the Bush administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress. Many of you are conservative on fiscal policy and liberal on social issues, which is a big reason neither party exactly fits you. Mainly, you want someone who will actually deliver - on the economy, on foreign policy, on domestic programs. And you don't care what his or her political label is.
Because you hold the key to the election, both John McCain and Barack Obama have been assiduously courting you. But you're not sold on either candidate. You like the fact that McCain has a reputation as a maverick and an independent thinker, but you're not sure if he doesn't just represent more of the Washington status quo. As for Obama, you don't know much about him and all the mania about him only makes you suspicious.
As the endless campaign moves into the home stretch, the noise from both sides and their supporters grows deafening. You're sick of the hyperbolic, us-against-them commentary that dominates our political discourse. What follows is a list of the main issues facing the country, and an attempt to compare, in as neutral a way as possible, how the two candidates stack up on those issues.
THE ECONOMY
McCain
First, there's the overriding matter of simple competence. By his own admission, McCain knows little about economics and has little interest in it. His ignorance has been reflected in the numerous confused and inaccurate statements he has made since the financial crisis exploded, including saying that "the fundamentals of our economy remain strong," then clumsily saying he meant America's workers; falsely blaming the meltdown on "abuses within Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac"; incoherently blaming the crisis on nameless "greedy" individuals (we all know that Wall Street functions on greed - greed is not the problem) and saying if he were president he would fire SEC chairman Chris Cox (which the president lacks the power to do). McCain simply does not inspire confidence as a capable manager of the incredibly complex U.S. economy, especially at a time of unprecedented collapse.
Second, there's the fact that the Republican Party has betrayed true conservatism. McCain, Bush and their fellow ideologues claim to be conservatives, but in fact their ideology is profoundly unconservative. Because McCain and Bush are so fixated on cutting taxes for the richest Americans, while simultaneously insisting on vastly increasing spending, they have saddled the country with a ruinous, record debt, much of it owed to China. True fiscal conservatives strive to keep taxes low, but understand that nations, like individuals, must live within their means. That's the root meaning of "conservative" - you conserve what's valuable. By spending like drunken sailors while starving the government of money by cutting taxes on plutocrats, Bush and McCain have passed a crippling debt on to our children and grandchildren. This is the very opposite of conservatism - it's more like "spend it now and pass the buckism."
Third, and most important, there's common sense: You don't reward failure. At this moment, with the U.S. suffering through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and saddled by the largest debt in our nation's history, with wages stagnant, credit tight and food and energy costs soaring, why would anyone support a candidate whose beliefs and policies are identical to those of George W. Bush? Let's assume you are fiscally conservative - meaning you tend to support lower taxes and deregulated markets and are wary of big government. At first glance, this would seem to make a Republican candidate a more attractive choice. But, in fact, the labels "Republican" and "Democrat" don't mean much anymore when it comes to the economy. As the current crisis shows, Republicans are as prone to engage in big-government regulation as Democrats.
The bottom line is all that matters, and the Republicans are largely responsible for that bottom line. The crisis happened on the GOP's watch, and it was a direct result of their beliefs and policies. One of McCain's top economic advisors, Phil Gramm - who said the country was only in a "mental recession" and called Americans "a nation of whiners" - was one of the authors of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that deregulated the banking industry and was largely responsible for the current meltdown. By encouraging speculators to take excessive risks without fear of penalty, the Republicans are largely responsible for financial disasters such as the one we are now experiencing - and for the earlier savings and loan debacle that tarred McCain. Whatever your personal economic views, it simply doesn't make sense to reward the Republicans for their failure.
Obama
First, it should be said that the Democrats, too, bear some responsibility for the current mess. It was President Clinton who signed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Second, no president is going to be able to wave a magic wand and clean up this mess overnight. But the Democrats have always been more concerned with the welfare of American workers, and less ideologically driven than the Republicans. That mixed, practical approach led to the creation of one of America's great institutions, Social Security. Not surprisingly, McCain joined Bush in trying to privatize part of Social Security, which McCain called "a disgrace." Americans overwhelmingly rejected that misguided attempt, but McCain still embraces the same failed ideas. Obama, by contrast, stands in the moderate, mainstream American tradition, one that recognizes the virtues of free markets but also recognizes that total deregulation ends up benefiting not average Americans but the super-rich - who are now being bailed out at taxpayer expense.
If elected president, Obama would not be able to restore the glory days of the soaring stock market and the housing bubble - those factors are out of his or any president's control. But he would be far more likely to steer a safe and centrist course. He would encourage entrepreneurship and initiative, but regulate excessively risky practices like the unchecked mania for subprime loan-based securities that led to the current collapse. He also understands that the U.S. is inextricably tied into the world economy, and that simply mouthing bromides about the glories of the "free market" is no longer meaningful in the age of globalized capital and impossible-to-understand financial transactions like derivatives.
In the end, you should ask yourself a straightforward question. If you believe that you've done better financially under Bush than Clinton, you should vote for McCain. If you don't, you should vote for Obama. |
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