Three Admirable Reasons to Vote McCain

1) You think his tax policy is sound

This is either because you are incredibly wealthy and want to retain all the money you can, or you’ve been misled by the Republican promises of “trickle-down economics”. But all the evidence of the Reagan and Bush tax plans points to the contrary. Rich people, when given tax breaks, don’t invest in the country’s future, they invest in their own futures.

If it’s because you’re very wealthy and want to conserve your money, well I can’t argue with that, except to suggest that maybe you want to show a little compassion to your fellow citizens. Besides, I’m not worried about this group, since they’re in an extreme minority. What worries me is that in order to make sure this minority achieves a majority vote, Republicans have tied their provably-false tax policies in with more morality-focused promises:

2) You want to stop abortion

I totally sympathize with this. Who wouldn’t want to live in a world where abortion could be avoided?* (Maybe abortion doctors, but they can find other jobs.)

But the truth of the matter is that five Republican Presidents have had twenty-five years between them to outlaw abortion, and we’re still deeply divided on the issue. Even John McCain seems not particularly committed (when asked to vote whether he supports Roe v. Wade, he declined to vote either way).

I believe with all my heart that McCain is yet another Republican Presidential contender who is promising change on the abortion issue, and who has no plans at all to deliver on that promise. I can’t predict the future, but I have twenty-five years of evidence. Instead of potentially wasting your vote on this heated issue, you should probably do more to prevent accidental pregnancies, like Obama wants to do.

3) You want to win the war on terror

It would be great if we could clean up every single terrorist, brush off our hands and say, “whoo! That’s done. Everybody loves America, again.” But we’re fighting an enemy whose goal is war itself, and by bin Laden’s own words: destryong America’s economy. How do you fight an enemy whose primary goal is war?

* There are, of course, many more reasons why abortion shouldn’t be made unsafe and illegal, but I wanted to concentrate on the aspects that McCain voters would agree with right away.

Comments [2]

20 October 2008, 07:42