The Race is Almost Over!

Two obvious events that have occurred in the last two weeks are the D and R conventions. I am college (graduate) kid ranting.

Does anyone else find it extremely soothing to listen to Barack Obama? Whenever I hear him speak I find myself thinking, "Yes, Barack, everything WILL be alright." However, I snap out of the daze somewhere between the laborious applause and aerial views of 70,000 people standing in awe of him at the convention. At the end of the day, a lot of people are confusing a celebrity with a President. Someone who looks the part and whose life we track filled with obsession. We judge them (in an increasingly vulgar sense) on their slip-ups and one-liner comebacks. At some point it starts to sound like a couple of college kids ranting on in their own correctness. I don't want to hear college kids in this stage of the race - I want to hear grown-ups with concrete plans and ideas.

It is sad to me that America's culture has now infected the political system. I wish that for a day I could live in 1780 Philadelphia and watch the political process take form in its most natural environment. After all, the Presidency was long ago a position to be earned. Granted based on one's devotion and service to his/her country. It speaks volumes that today someone with no connections in Washington and carrying no tradition there is nominated to be President. Both parties have found their nominees for different reasons but are now playing the "Change" cards. What was so wrong with over 200 years of freedom and democracy?

As I face the first year of beginning my own professional career. The 2008 election is not something I look upon lightly. Since February, when I jumped off the Obama train, I began to approach the race from a moderate standpoint - as not to be blinded by one side or the other.

Social issues such as abortion, gay marriage, and capital punishment matter not. Ultimately, the supreme court will decided the future of these arguments. Many found it essential to have George W. Bush as a pro-life candidate running in 2000. Gee - what a great deal Bush did on the abortion issue in 8 years. I will not vote for an Executive Branch position based on who is in the Judicial or Legislative Branches. Call me an idealist but I do not think it is necessary. And, yes, I know who nominates our Justices.

Fiscal plans are a different story. What inhibits me and my family from practicing success and the ability to do well. McCain's policy does keep the rich getting richer, but also the poor (me) getting richer as well. Obama's plan - while trimming the national debt and rewarding the sloths or America - increases the taxes paid by the rich (those who make over $227,000) while cutting the tax bill on the lower and middle classes. Why would a poor, recent college grad like myself wish a higher tax rate for myself under McCain's policy?

A) The extent to which these two men's plans will turn from bill to law in full form is limited.
B) With every bone in my body I hate the idea of involuntary wealth distribution. It is socialist. I am not.
C) Handouts - I completely disagree with the encouragement of laziness. Saying it is OK to do enough to get by and complain for the rest. No, it's not. Watching a recent program, many impoverished people in this country blamed their own actions when asked how they got to their state of life. Mistakes only one person should pay for, not a nation. Just because some people have more money doesn't mean they care less about it or worked less hard per dollar than those who make less. There is no dilution of the effects of being industrious.
D) I, like 40% of America, do not call myself poor. Although by America's standards that is exactly what I am. Read this article, however and it uncovers some pretty interesting ideas. Even from 2003 it puts elections in a certain light.