Lest we forget.

[tim]

Seven years ago, about 3000 people died in a terrorist attack in the United States. Ever since, at least 87,000 civilians have died in Iraq in a war that the US started as a misguided attempt at retaliation or a cleverly calculated use of pretext. The war has met with little domestic protest, and in 2004, those who thought it was at least a little bit important to stop it failed to gather enough of a majority to elect a president who cared at least a little about ending the killing.

But let us put aside our past failures. This year, we have a chance to redeem ourselves. It would be wrong to say that anyone has absolute confidence that Barack Obama can or will end the war, but he is at least unbeholden to the corporate interests that keep the war going. And thus, we have no reason to believe he won't make a good-faith effort to stop the killing.

This is an area of moral certainty. If you're American, are you going to do everything you can to elect a leader who will shift our resources away from killing foreigners and back to healing our sick, employing our unemployed, cleaning our environment? Or are you going to assume that history is something that other people make and politics is other people's problem?

This is not the year for namby-pamby platitudes about how you should support whichever candidate makes you feel the warmest and fuzziest inside. If you're American, and you're not giving your time to talk to your fellow Americans about why they should support Barack Obama, then -- in a far inferior tack, but one suitable for those with crippling social anxiety or without physical energy -- you can at least write a check. If you can't write a check, and can't talk to people, then [nondenominational-deity] bless you. I'm guessing that's not so for most people reading this.

If you were going to tell me I should leave my politics out of this day, then don't. Leaving my politics out of it means leaving my politics out of it so that there's more room for your politics to fit into it.

To those of you who are eligible to vote in the United States: Nonvoters, McCain voters, I'm not asking you to defend yourselves and so I don't need to hear your defenses. Please, just go sit in the corner for a while and think about why you hate your country so much.

Comments

[rjmccall.livejournal.com]

Given that, definitionally, no system can be biased in favor of the less politically powerful, and given that a one-man-one-vote republic like the U.S. does not directly grant more power to any specific person outside of the government, what's your empirical standard for deciding that a specific set of changes are too imbalanced? I mean, if I took all your proposals and implemented them, poorer people would still be less politically powerful; when do you stop?

[catamorphism.livejournal.com]

I don't have an empirical standard and I'm not sure why you're asking for one. I will lobby (to the extent that I can) for my opinions to be implemented as policy, as will other people who might disagree with me. Whoever mobilizes the most resources towards their goal will win. I don't have an "empirical standard" for deciding who to vote for, either; it's more of a process of making the best decision possible with mind and heart, based on whatever information I can gather within reasonable limits. My approach to public policy is the same, only I don't get to make decisions about it directly.