EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a letter sent to Phawker Gaydar Editor Aaron Stella by his mother, explaining her decision to vote for McCain despite her son’s attempts to convince her otherwise. Both agreed to Phawker publishing it along with a rebuttal. Astute readers will recall Sylvia Stella’s proud mom remarks and constructive criticisms in the COMMENTS section of Aaron’s Gaydar columns. She currently resides in Cullman, Alabama.
Dear Aaron,
I have read quite a bit on both Obama and McCain. I am voting for McCain. People fought and died for our right to vote. A vote is not a philosophical statement. It is a transfer of power. It is a pragmatic act to preserve, as much as possible under the circumstances, the common good and to limit the evils that threaten it. The vote can be used just as much to keep someone out of office as to put someone in. Ideally, one candidate would be viewed as the best choice. To my way of thinking, there is no “best” candidate.
In this election, the reality is that several unsatisfactory candidates will be elected. So I am using my vote to create what I believe will be the better outcome and to limit the damage. I disagree with Obama on a number of counts and/or am not convinced that he has a plan that can work. I feel he has contradicted himself saying he will do one thing and then saying he will do something else, when the 2 cannot co-exist (like the EFCA, I may have the letters wrong, that will make unions much easier to start in all companies and will cost employers much more money and cause many companies to have to send jobs overseas- Obama promises to sign this bill. But, he also says he will take away take tax benefits from companies that send jobs overseas. His plan for employees will end up making it so tough on employers that companies will end up either sending jobs overseas or going out of business.)
I feel McCain has a much more practical take on things and knows how both business and the government work and can make things happen. In reading the websites of both, I don’t see that much difference in certain issues. In others I see a vast difference. I think Obama is making some promises that will be impossible to keep. So I have looked into many areas about both candidates.
I have to say, in the final analysis, that I think this quote from JP II sums up things:
“Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights — for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture — is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination”. (Christifideles Laici, 1988)
I felt so sick when I was pregnant with you that I actually considered whether I could go through with an abortion because I didn’t know how I could possibly go through with the pregnancy. I obviously decided I could not get an abortion. I felt it would be wrong. Not because the Church said so. Because something deep inside me was very aware of you, alive, in there. It would have been no different to kill you before I saw your face than to do it now. I knew it was wrong. I had to persevere through the pregnancy. So, I know that going through a pregnancy that is intolerable (due to illness, due to any other reason, physical or psychological- even a pregnancy resulting from a rape) is so, so difficult. But the fact that we CAN do something about it does not mean that we SHOULD do something about it.
Well, I am going on and on here. Anyway, so I’m voting for McCain. I appreciate your sharing all that you did with me. I figure Obama is going to win. Especially after his 30 min ad before the World Series (by the way, congrats Philly!). But I still have to vote my conscience as do you. Love you!
-Mom
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Editor responds after the jump.
Dear Aaron,
I have read quite a bit on both Obama and McCain. I am voting for McCain. People fought and died for our right to vote. A vote is not a philosophical statement. It is a transfer of power. It is a pragmatic act to preserve, as much as possible under the circumstances, the common good and to limit the evils that threaten it. The vote can be used just as much to keep someone out of office as to put someone in. Ideally, one candidate would be viewed as the best choice. To my way of thinking, there is no “best” candidate.
Sure there is. One candidate has voted with George Bush 90% of the time. During George Bush’s tenure, we have seen a major attack on our homeland, we have gotten bogged down in two no-exit wars, a major American city was taken offline by a hurricane, the housing market collapsed and Wall Street melted down, all of which triggered a deep stateside recession, a global financial crisis and the gloomiest economic outlook since the eve of the Great Depression, we started torturing people in secret prisons and using the government’s awesome surveillance powers to spy on American citizens, and we have managed to completely squander whatever goodwill, admiration and respect the rest of the globe once had for America. A vote for McCain, is a vote for four more years of George Bush. Is not the repetition of the same behavior over and over again with the expectation of a different outcome the very definition of insanity? It is, according to Albert Einstein. That is why the only sane choice is Barack Obama.
In this election, the reality is that several unsatisfactory candidates will be elected.So I am using my vote to create what I believe will be the better outcome and to limit the damage. I disagree with Obama on a number of counts and/or am not convinced that he has a plan that can work. I feel he has contradicted himself saying he will do one thing and then saying he will do something else, when the 2 cannot co-exist (like the EFCA, I may have the letters wrong, that will make unions much easier to start in all companies and will cost employers much more money and cause many companies to have to send jobs overseas- Obama promises to sign this bill. But, he also says he will take away take tax benefits from companies that send jobs overseas. His plan for employees will end up making it so tough on employers that companies will end up either sending jobs overseas or going out of business.).
Man, this sounds like the farmer has convinced the turkey to vote YES on Thanksgiving. Businesses don’t like unions because it means they can no longer dictate terms of employment on a take it or leave it basis. THEY decide how much you work and how little you get paid. THEY decide how much health care you don’t get, how short your vacation is. And so they fight unions tooth and nail, often using disinformation, intimidation, violence and fear. The latter would include the threat of closing up the business or moving overseas. Sure unions sometimes go too far and become self-defeating, killing growth or aggravating management to the point they shut down and move operations elsewhere. But if you actually studied the data on this, you would find that the overwhelming majority of companies go out of business or move overseas because of piss-poor management decision-making, naked greed, and or felonious corruption. Remember Enron?
I feel McCain has a much more practical take on things and knows how both business and the government work and can make things happen.
By his own admission, McCain doesn’t really ‘get’ economics, and defers to his advisers on this matter. His chief economic adviser, Phil Gramm, is not only responsible for the de-regulation of Wall Street that lead to its recent meltdown, he declared that we are “a nation of whiners” and that all this talk of economic difficulty was just a ‘state of mind’. Tell that to the 9,000 people that used to have a job at Lehman Brothers, or the 2.5 million people that lost their homes this year, double the rate this time last year. Combine all this with McCain’s bizarre grandstanding during the The Bailout talks: the phony suspension of his campaign (instead of rushing back to D.C., he stayed in New York and did a Katie Couric interview) the call for postponing the debate (this is a steady hand? this is grace under pressure?), the big talk of rallying Congress to action (three days after McCain declared that he was optimistic that an agreement was reached his fellow Republicans in the House killed the bailout package) and then just showing up at the debates despite a vow that he would not debate until a deal was struck, and acting like none of this ever happened? THIS is the man you trust to get the economy out of the ditch?
In reading the websites of both, I don’t see that much difference in certain issues. In others I see a vast difference. I think Obama is making some promises that will be impossible to keep.
Surely you have heard the Obama campaign rallying cry of YES WE CAN. Well, its not just a slogan. It is informed by the united-we-stand-divided-we-fall premise this great democracy was founded on, along with an abiding belief that if the people come together and work towards a common goal, there is really nothing that is ‘impossible.’ Consider this, if I asked you two years ago, which one of the following do you think would be on the verge of winning the presidency a day before Election Day — A)The wife of the most popular Democratic president in recent memory with the full weight of the Democratic party machine behind her. B) The white, Republican war hero nominee with 30 years in the Senate. Or C) A young, black and largely unknown junior Senator from Chicago with a weird name and an exotic background. — which one would you pick? Not Obama. Of course, not. Nobody expected this, nobody predicted it, and the vast majority said it could never happen. And yet, here we are.
So I have looked into many areas about both candidates. I have to say, in the final analysis, that I think this quote from JP II sums up things:
“Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights — for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture — is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination”. (Christifideles Laici, 1988)
I felt so sick when I was pregnant with you that I actually considered whether I could go through with an abortion because I didn’t know how I could possibly go through with the pregnancy. I obviously decided I could not get an abortion. I felt it would be wrong. Not because the Church said so. Because something deep inside me was very aware of you, alive, in there. It would have been no different to kill you before I saw your face than to do it now. I knew it was wrong. I had to persevere through the pregnancy. So, I know that going through a pregnancy that is intolerable (due to illness, due to any other reason, physical or psychological- even a pregnancy resulting from a rape) is so, so difficult. But the fact that we CAN do something about it does not mean that we SHOULD do something about it.
I am sensing you are a single issue voter, and my guess is that when you get right down to it, your problem with Obama is that he is not Right To Life. I can appreciate the profound moral weight you assign to this single issue, but, with all due respect, I think given the enormity of the crises facing our country, this is both irresponsible and unpatriotic. There has been a lot of reckless talk about patriotism from the McCain camp. But if ever there was a time to question someone’s patriotism, it’s when your country is so obviously headed in the wrong direction, and there is a surging majority joining together to try and get it back on track, while others stand by with arms folded, refusing to help, whether out of fear or anger or a single issue they have declared a deal-breaker. Sometimes I wonder about those people. Obama supporters are full of disagreement and dissenting viewpoints, but have all put aside our pet issues for the time being because the need for change is so dire. This country is broken, and we need everyone to roll up their sleeves and fix it. Come lend a hand, Sylvia, it’s not too late.
Well, I am going on and on here. Anyway, so I’m voting for McCain. I appreciate your sharing all that you did with me. I figure Obama is going to win. Especially after his 30 min ad before the World Series (by the way, congrats Philly!). But I still have to vote my conscience as do you. Love you!-Mom