Greater Good

I said I was going to vote today, and for a major party candidate. Let me explain.

In presidential elections, I vote for the candidate, not the platform or the party. I think that some of the greatest presidents in American history have had horrible campaign platforms, have bucked the party line, and had sex with Marilyn Monroe on a giant mountain of cocaine. But that doesn’t take away from their status as great presidents.

That leads me to believe that being a great president is about more than being a good senator or a good governor or a good politician. I believe that being a great president is about having the potential to inspire. I believe that being a great president is about making good decisions even–no–especially when those decisions are unpopular.

You could argue that both of these candidates display these qualities. I wouldn’t disagree with you. In reality, I think my decision would be much harder if McCain from 2000 was running against Obama. I admired that McCain much more than today’s McCain. Today’s McCain has sold his soul to the republican establishment. How? Take your pick: his obeisance to a man who ran perhaps the dirtiest primary campaign in history against him; his affected shift to the right to try to attract the power of the republican base that has been wary of him since the aforementioned ‘dirtiest primary campaign in history’; and, perhaps most obviously, his pandering choice of Palin as VP. *

Obama, however, is untested. I remember a different election when we voted for someone with limited governing experience. He was a “Washington outsider” who was going to change the way things got done. Obviously, this hasn’t worked out as well as we hoped during the past 8 years. But Obama has demonstrated that he has made great decisions. He forecasted many of the problems we are still facing in Iraq. He has demonstrated his ability to inspire with the massive groundswell of grassroots movements that have popped up in the past year.

But none of this is new to any of you. I could also make arguments about the differing policies, and talk about my liberal leanings. But none of that would be new to any of you.

I am voting for Obama primarily because I believe that voting is an act of hope. To vote is to believe, against all evidence, that your voice matters. To vote is to pray that America can heal wounds and solve problems. You don’t believe that can happen when you read the newspaper or watch YouTube videos from West Virginia or receive forwards from family members. But you move past those things and hope that one man can inspire a nation during troubled times. These are the dreams that were realized in Lincoln and FDR. These are the promises of Ronald Reagan and JFK. And I believe that Barack, more than any other presidential candidate we have seen in the past 20 years, can do these things. That is why I’m voting for him.

*This topic has been discussed by my personal hero, Maureen Dowd, and her fellow writing god, David Brooks in the New York Times. Here is Maureen’s essay, and here is David’s.