Sagittarius
Never in my life have I seen people become this horrible, hateful and insane over a presidential election. In the past, it's always been about your own choice of the political party that best represents your needs as an individual. You were either Democrat, Republican, Green or independent. Your decision to be registered with a certain party was about your personal beliefs and values.
This is the first election where the race card has been thrown in. A classic line amongst Obama supporters is: "You are a racist if you don't vote for Obama." Then again, I could say that about people who refuse to vote for McCain because he's white. But really, if race was not an issue and Obama was white, would people be this insane right now over who is about to become president? Would they be spitting so much hate onto others that do not intend to vote the way they plan on voting?
I have watched several people in the past month lose friendships over decisions to not vote in this election or to vote for the other party. It's discouraging watching the amount of pain and hurt that is going into these break-ups. Hate is being spewed out of people's mouths because the other person does not want to vote a certain way. Accusations of racism are flooding the air. People's decision to just stay out of this whole political nonsense is being met with animosity.
The problem with this election is that hate has been brought to the forefront. Obama supporters use the biggest form of hate on the planet, racism, as a bullying tactic to get people to vote for Obama. If you don't want to be deemed a racist, you have to vote for Obama. Hate is accompanied by fear.
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Comments
Re: My Choice As An American
By johnhatch, September 25, 2008 at 12:46Perhaps issues are heated because America is responsible for two illegal invasions, for the deaths of over a million innocent people, for kidnapping, torture and murder, and massive illegal spying against Americans. Oh and the end of habeus corpus. No speedy trials. No right to a lawyer. The same gang of crooks and liars in the White House and on Wall Street have bankrupted the economy and want an unconditional bailout of 70 billion dollars. What's not to be mad about?
You havent't heard anything about Dick Cheney? I certainly have. He's the evil string-puller behind the throne. Many people think he (and others in the PNAC crowd ) were behind 9-11.)Don't scoff, this bunch is capable of anything.
Palin matters because McCain is old and sick, and because she's as ignorant as she is vicious. She believes that Armageddon is coming in her lifetime (maybe she'll help it along by nuking Iran or Russia). At her church they speak in tongues- they scream gibberish. She absolutely does not respect choice when it comes to women. Doesn't matter? I beg to differ.
I know that there are people who won't vote for Obama because he's 'black'. Anyone feeling compelled to vote for him because he's black is worse than weak. Remember too that in my lifetime they set dogs and firehoses on blacks for asking for equal treatment. There were lynchings. In the last two elections blacks were disenfranchised in huge numbers, and there are plans afoot to do so again.
I agree that both candidates represent corporate America, but you can't blame people for panicking when their nation is disintegrating before their eyes.
I'm sorry you didn't even consider all the death and misery. American exceptionalism is in part how the country got this way. It's a terrible disease.
Re: My Choice As An American
By Lady LO, September 25, 2008 at 10:04I see your point
Re: My Choice As An American
By Lady LO, September 25, 2008 at 10:03Hmmmm... Interesting.
Re: My Choice As An American
By Lady LO, September 25, 2008 at 05:17By the way great photo! LMAO!
Re: My Choice As An American
By Michelle Kenneth, September 25, 2008 at 09:30LOL. Thanks. I thought that photo best represented how I felt. You know that..."screw y'all, I'm not voting."
Some of us have that little rebel in all of us that goes against what everybody else is doing. ; ) It's the statement that says a million different things.
Re: My Choice As An American
By Lady LO, September 25, 2008 at 05:16Well I will say that I agree that neither candidate is going to "save us" and I am sorry that the immature ignorance of others has influenced you to not vote. I guess I just feel like the solution is not to stop discussing things like politics and religion, but to really grow up and learn how to disagree without feeling the need to condemn the other side. I guess to me the answer is not to retreat, but to confront the issue? Why is it that we as a country haven't learned to respect each others opinions? A part of me often feels like the real point of politics is to divide the people or in your case to discourage them. I sincerely thank you for sharing your point of view. I think it's important for people to realize the effects of their petty arguing.
Re: My Choice As An American
By Michelle Kenneth, September 25, 2008 at 08:06It's not retreating. It's my desire to not have anything to do with the BS. I will not further the hate and jump on any bandwagon. Many of us who are refraining from voting are all saying the same thing...why would we want to join the hate/fear campaigns? That does not represent who we are.
Electing to not vote is a statement. We have weighed our options and have decided that neither candidate will best represent us, therefore, we abstain from voting (even congressmen abstain from voting...it is an option that is part of the voting process).
The point of this article was to express why I am deciding not to vote in the election. Simply put, it would have been better to say that neither candidate will properly represent who I am. In the past, I have always felt the need to vote according to who I believe will best represent what I need as an American. I look at both of these candidates and think that neither one will be able to represent me. There is no viable third candidate vying for our votes.
So why lower my morals and vote for someone that is not on the same page as me? I will not lose my own self-respect in what I believe in to vote for a presidential candidate that does not embrace the same values that I do, but quite the opposite.
Re: My Choice As An American
By Mike Small, September 25, 2008 at 10:47Hi Michelle,
very interesting article, but after reading this comment I'm not sure I understand why it wasn't your main argument. I'm totally in agreement with you for choosing not to vote because you don't believe in either candidate, but why throw in all of the stuff about hate?
I understand that there are people out there who might see you as a racist for not voting for Obama, or as a crazed right-winger for supporting McCain, but do you really feel that's the opinion of the majority? I think there are plenty more people out there who truly believe that either John McCain or Barack Obama would be great choices for President, and to say that these people are only supporting out of hate seems sort of silly to me.
If neither candidate floats your boat, that's totally cool, but there are people who passionately believe in their candidate of choice, and they deserve to be mentioned as well.
Re: My Choice As An American
By Michelle Kenneth, September 25, 2008 at 12:31I agree w/ you, Mike. But this article is not aimed at the people that don't spit hate. Maybe it's a little different here in NYC. But here, I have heard more people accuse those non-supporters of Obama (that includes those of us who could care less) as racists just because we are not voting for Obama. They've made some very hateful comments to us. I have asked a lot of people about this. I've even sat there during parties watching people create the exact same argument, using the exact same words that have brought people to tears and have ended friendships (it makes me wonder if there's been some brainwashing or talking points I've missed). I have seen people do that more than I have the supporters that aren't using racism or spewing hate as a measure for voting for Obama. Actually, I have yet to meet a peaceful supporter of Obama.
Perhaps they are the ones who are keeping their mouths shut about who they are voting for.
This article is aimed at a specific group...those who spew hate. Frankly, if I were Obama, I would do my best to silence those people. They're the ones that are turning people away from voting. A couple of hours ago, I mentioned this article to someone and they said that they had gone through the same thing, too. And they are a registered democrat. After hearing the hate and racist words, they opted to not vote in the upcoming election because that does not represent who they are. So I am not alone. This article is discussing a trend happening in America. It's one of the main reasons why people like me are not voting, but it's not the only reason why.
Most of us believe that our reasons for not voting (beyond the hate/racism) is a private matter. I am not even going to go through my long list for each candidate. But if I could pinpoint the main reason why I am not voting, it's about not being part of that bandwagon everyone is jumping on.