Yes, earlier I posted that I wouldn't share my selection. But now it doesn't matter. The votes are in and I doubt you would have been influenced by me.
I voted McCain because I agree with a conservative ideology (though considering McCain a conservative may be a stretch) more than that of President-Elect Barack Obama and the Democrats. This article really influenced my decision.
But when I was uptown and in Baker Center tonight, watching the Obama supporters react to their candidate's victory, it legitimized him as a candidate for the young voters.
Now, I do not know if his policies are ideal for our generation. But he enfranchised us and that's why a President Obama is the best choice for our generation.
Obama made a significant amount of our generation care about voting. And because our voice was so essential in getting him elected, future elections will be forced to focus on us. That has always been the goal of this blog.
Here are some photos I took tonight and captions to explain each photo's significance. I'll post a link to my Athens News story in this post after it's published on Thursday.
Here is freshman Whitney Barksdale waiting in line to get free food. She told me that voting in her first election made her feel like her opinion was heard. It meant a lot to her to be apart of history in voting for the first African American for president. She said she believes in the change Obama can bring.
This is Skippers, the spot where the College Democrats and local Obama campaign volunteers congregated to watch the election coverage. Do you see the girl in the blue sweater with the arm on her shoulder? That's Liz Clark, the president for OU Students for Obama. I met her when researching for this article last year. She has worked for over a year in helping to get Obama elected.
Tuesday night, she glowed as tears of joy dripped down her cheek. I talked to her early in the night, before Obama captured the presidency. But when I came back to ask her about her final reaction, I couldn't interrupt the moment. During Obama's acceptance speech, he called his victory a victory for those who supported him and Liz has to be one of the people he was referring to.
Sure, these students were in line to get free food. But students are offered free food all the time and don't show up with these numbers. I talked to a few people in line and they all were interested in the election, the kind of enthusiasm that should carry over to future elections with our generation gaining political power.
Here is one of the Court Street mobs that took to screaming and running up and down the street. To be honest, this portion of the night got a little weird as Obama supporters took to skipping and yelling with one guy climbing a street light. I swear some people drove in circles just to honk their horns and yell "Obama" out their windows as much as possible.
The other mob started singing "We Are The Champions" outside of the Scripps Journalism building. When they were finished, they ran and skipped towards me like the herbivore dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.
The other mob started singing "We Are The Champions" outside of the Scripps Journalism building. When they were finished, they ran and skipped towards me like the herbivore dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.
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Well, I had typed out a nice long comment but blogger errored out on me like 6 times. Anyway, in summary: solid post. Unbelievable quality and quantity. The number of people interviewed is good. The variety of entries covered the election well. The extended captions for the pictures are great. Good job.
ReplyDeleteGood photos and great captions, especially the part about the "herbivore dinosaurs."
ReplyDeleteThat being said...
You asked me in your last post who I voted for. I voted for Obama, but it had nothing to with his "youth appeal," nor was it an easy decision.
Not that I ever thought about voting for McCain. McCain allowed himself to become a Republican tool, kissing ass to fundamentalist Christians and running a campaign that focused on bullshit rather than substance.
My choice was between not voting for president and voting for Obama. And I stood staring at the ballot for a good five minutes, not to mention hours of contemplation before then, trying to decide between the two.
Ultimately, I decided to vote for Obama. Here are my reasons:
First is that I am excited to have an intellectual as a president. For my entire adult life there has been a goddamn imbecile running the country. It's not that I blame Bush for everything (God knows that Bush had little to do with the way anything in this country has been handled in the last 8 years, or 20 for that matter), it's just that, face it, he seems to have been in some sort of intellectual comatose his entire presidency. I don't want a president that I can have a beer with while watching the fame. The person in charge of the most powerful country in the world shouldn't be some "down home" guy, he/she should be a fucking genius. I want a president that can school me in any subject. With Obama, there is at least a chance that our leader will be qualified to make a single decision himself.
Reason two was the choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate, and the implications of doing so. I am tired of our government living off of the ignorance of fundamentalist Christianity. To avoid a possible offensive rant, I'll just stop here.
My third reason is that the current Republican party seems to want nothing less than a theocratic corporate welfare state. The free market is an extension of a free society, not the other way around. It shouldn't be businesses and then people. People should come first. If I am given a guy that at least says he will support individuals over businesses, I'll choose him over another guy that has given in to every wish of a party that has spent the last 8 years sucking corporate cock. If I'm going to pay taxes, I'd rather the money go to a person than to a business.
Which leads me to my fourth reason. I think the Republicans need their ass kicked. I think this will be good for them. Maybe this will spur a change in the Republican party, returning them to their traditional roots of representing small government and individual liberties, and waking them up to the fact that America is beyond Rovian politics.
My fifth and final reason can be made by pointing to the article "Vote for the Party, not the Person" that you linked to, specifically the line "Politics is a team game." Over course it was used metaphorically, but it brings to light both the author and the average American's view of politics: politics is a game with teams, or us versus them. Politics isn't about the left, it isn't about the right. It isn't about "middle America" or "Elitists." It isn't about bat shit insane hippie-liberal moon bats or war loving, fear mongering, earth hating neocons. It's about us. All of us. Every signle person that calls themselves an American.
Let's be honest here. Most political/economic theories sound perfect on paper, and in a world of completely rational and emotionless robots, any of them could work great. But there is no (current) theory that takes into account the fact that as long as humans can disagree, they will. So sure, ideology is great. It's awesome that people are capable of such passion. But we live in the REAL world, and theories don't work so well here. Ideology should help you make decisions, not make decisions for you.
Also, I would like to note that this is not meant to disrespect you for your vote in anyway. The freedom of choice is the foundation of democracy. I totally understand voting for McCain. In the past, he hasn't been to far off. It's just that I find the Republican party's manipulation of the public in recent years absolutely disgusting, and McCain stooping to their level made me lose all respect for the man.