if you're not voting today, lose my number.
for anyone who thinks that voting for an obama is voting in a popularity contest, or supporting something because i want the cast of gossip girl to support my political decisions, i can assure you that my political beliefs are 100% based on my own needs and thoughts, and really, quite selfish.
i want hybrid cars to come with tax breaks so i can get one and gas is cheaper. i want socialized medicine so i can get my back and other mysterious ailments fixed. i want my student loans to entitle me to pay less taxes and i don't want them to quadruple just because i had to get them privately. i want to be able to get an abortion, forbid it becomes necessary. i want to live somewhere that tries to increase diversity to compensate for the thousands of years of history dedicated to advantages for being white and having a penis. i want there to be increased unemployment while the economy recovers, because i don't want me and my friends to starve. i want jobs to stay in america, so myself and everyone i know who has graduated within 5 years of this one doesn't get an ulcer working a job they hate or having no job at all.
i know that both obama and mccain support same sex civil unions but not marriage, and that that they both believe its a decision that should be left to individual states. i know that they have similar views on some environmental and educational issues, and some regarding immigration.
there are plenty of other things i could comment on, but i'm not sure if my credibility extends to feelings on foreign policy. what i can assure you is that my vote is educated. is it selfish? hell yes. but isn't that the reason for a democracy? everyone tells the government what THEY need and the government, in turn, attempts to provide it? a utopian theory, for sure. but in the most basic sense, it's the truth.
is there an element of obama being like a cool uncle who gives his wife pounds and has a good sense of humor? yes, for me, there is. because i also want the leader of my country to be relatable, and i can't relate to a really old dude and a pretty talk show host of a VP nominee. i can relate to a black guy who grew up in chicago. i can relate to the child of a single mother who has a world of expectations upon him. i can relate to a guy who wants black teenagers to know that they aren't that good at basketball and they aren't lil wayne and they need to go to college (that is an actual quote). but just like at work, when i want to work with a less experienced crew member who i get along with better, yes, this is part of my decision. i don't deny it and i also don't apologize for it. you know who else was a sweet dude? clinton. he was so cool he got bjs on the job. now, he should have owned up to it, true. but he was in office from when i was 7 to when i was 15. a core part of my childhood. in this time period, my mom was 27 to 35, which is pretty key in a person's life as well. if bush had been in office while my mom was at such a critical point in her career, i doubt we could have bought a home in 2001. i doubt i would have been able to visit a european country every year i was in high school. she believes this and i do as well. when i was 7, i'm pretty sure i liked ross perot but i think that had more to do with the fact that he looked like a cartoon character (hence the voting age...). i am not 7 anymore. i am not making a decision based on superficiality or celebrity endorsements and i'd like to send a big fuck you very much to anyone who thinks that's all an obama supporter is. i don't fault you if you support mccain, because i'm sure you have reasons that relate to YOUR situation. but if it's because you want to dare to be different, then here's a fucking hot topic studded belt for being so different that you don't like the different guy because too many other people do. give it a rest. and if someone isn't the brightest bulb in the box and they want to vote obama because someone they think is cool does (or if they want to vote mccain for this reason), that's fine too. because when you're simple, that's all you have to go on, and why else would the advertisement industry be the lucrative monster that it is unless we were in such large part a simple people, or a people too lazy to educate themselves about their options? i don't identify with it because i did my research, but if someone is just voting based on relatability to serena van der woodsen, then go on that if it's all you got. at least you're voting.
though i have no qualms with people who identify strongly with a religion, i don't see myself as one by any means. what i do identify with is the need to rely on a force bigger than oneself. but that doesn't have to mean a god or jesus christ, who was kind of a babe. today it just means america. so instead of praying i am pleading that you cast your personal request for a leader who will serve your selfish ends. and if you're the average person, not a rich person, the kind making less than $5 million a year (john mccain's estimate for the upper border of the middle class... i think i speak for everyone when i say "wtf"), that leader should be barack obama.
this country has become a joke. after 8 years of one of the worst examples of guidance in history, why wouldn't you be ready to try something as different as possible?
unconventional leaders become legends.
