Lately I’ve been avoiding political conversations.  Partly because I feel really uninformed and partly because I feel like the loudest people around me are also pretty uninformed.  I was doing this subconsciously until yesterday when I got a NYTimes News Alert in my inbox saying the following:

“U.S. Plans to Curb Executive Pay for Bailout Recipients

The Obama administration is expected to impose a cap of $500,000 on the compensation of executives at companies that receive large new infusions of federal bailout money.”

Good news, right?

Strangely, instead of being happy that some sort of accountability was starting to take place in the financial sector, I caught myself cringing at the thought of what was going to be slung all over Twitter and Facebook and all the snide and sarcastic comments that I would have to hear about the crappy economy and the crappy bailouts that day, regardless of any progress.  Sometimes I feel like no matter what the news of the day is, someone always has something negative to say about it.

I think I have a general understanding as to the reasons why people feel compelled to do this:

• boredom
• humor
• small talk
• overconfidence in their own assessment
• passion

I think it would bother me less if people were truly passionate about the topics.  I don’t know, I’ll admit I’m often more passionate than I should be on some topics that are way over my head.  It gets the best of all of us sometimes.  But lately I think I find myself simply wanting to help people see that they could be wrong.  I don’t want people to admit they’re wrong, I just want people to admit that there’s a possibility.  Even the people I agree with!

Especially on issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Gaza strip.  I think it’s REALLY difficult to read a news story or blog post and make an assessment.  I think it’s helpful when we have dialogue and meaningful conversations about different tidbits we’ve learned here and there — in an effort to learn together and hopefully come to a more informed opinion.  But even after I formed that opinion I would still want to or try to leave room for doubt.

With our floundering economy, it really bothers me to hear pure capitalists talk.  I don’t think politicians are all stupid.  I don’t think their economists and advisers are all incompetent.  I think there are a lot of political factors that interfere with them always making the best decision.  It’s unfortunate.  But on top of that I also think there is some mercy (and perhaps a bit of pride) involved in actions like the financial bailouts — not just flawed economics or politics.  The diehard capitalists who want to see the whole system flushed out need to stop rooting for that.  Yes, if you were playing TheSims and you wanted to fix the economy, you might want to reset the economy by starting over.  But when there are human mouths to feed and human bodies to clothe, going through another Great Depression is just not something people should ever root for.  Especially not people who have the slightest empathy for those who would be hit the hardest.  Now on the flip side, those who think the government should just keep pumping out money to save people who bought $800,000 homes on $70,000/year salaries — you have some serious thinking to do, too!  Just because the bank was willing to loan people the money, doesn’t mean they had to take it!  I know there was a lot of shady dealings with aggressive realtors and whatnot, but we have to admit as a country that we haven’t really excelled at common sense in the last few decades.  I don’t think you can completely slam the bailout and I don’t think you can root for more bailouts either — I don’t understand how people can be so comfortable doing both!

It is just really frustrating to me when people make blanket statements or post inflammatory links or quotes.  Even people who are crusading for worthwhile causes — like ending wars and violent conflicts.  It gets so frivolous when people chant sayings like, “give peace a chance,” because honestly I don’t think you can advocate for peace without addressing somber things like fear, poverty, pain, history, power and oppression that cause people to disrupt the peace in the first place.  It’s a gross oversimplification.

Sheesh, I haven’t ranted like that in awhile.

I guess this is what I get for being a Christian and a social worker.  Surrounded by polar opposites and crazy loudmouths.  (I say loudmouth as a term of endearment.  IMHO, what’s worse than a loudmouth is someone who has no opinions on anything and doesn’t care to have an opinion.)  I’m not as upset as I probably sound, this has just been building up over the past few months.  I’ll try to blog more frequently so that things like this don’t happen as often.  Please take no offense to the post, it’s just something to think about.

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On a side note, am I the last person to find out about this?

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When I wrote a blogpost about Ron Paul, cyberspace political bullies crawled out of the woodwork to tell me how ignorant and foolish I was.  I’m not sure I can prevent that here but I will say that I am not trying to definitively prove why one candidate is better than the other– I’m simply stating why I, as an Asian-American Christian, with all of my intellectual and theoretical limitations, am voting for Barack Obama.  Perhaps there are economists, military strategists, and theologians out there that will disagree with me, but I feel compelled to vote based on my personal values, principles and observations.

First of all, I’m not a Democrat.  I do not agree with everything in Barack Obama’s platform.  I don’t even know if Barack Obama agrees with everything in Barack Obama’s platform.  I think you would be hard-pressed to find a pure Republican or a pure Democrat these days but people strangely feel the need to align to one party or another.  I have actually tried to align myself but have been unable to.  I think a lot of the issues are too complex and too nuanced to choose “for” or “against”.  Unfortunately, this is how people operate and this is how our political systems cater to the voters.

Second of all, most political debates are pointless.  When people think about the government from completely different paradigms and different values — it is usually futile to try to discuss policy.  Policy is ultimately driven and defended by values (well, they are supposed to be, even though in reality it’s more about money and lobbying special interest groups) and if you don’t share the same values with the person you are talking to, it is extremely difficult to even start discussing logistics or the financial implications– you need to first agree on why the policy should or should not exist!

So I write this post for people who share the same values as I do.  If you are a Libertarian who believes that the government should do as little as possible — this post will do nothing for you.  If you don’t believe in redistribution of wealth or the importance of strengthening of the middle class — what I say will make no sense to you.  If you do not believe that we have a moral right to make sure that no child goes hungry or uneducated in the United States, that such as thing exists as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (cool video of UDHR, thanks Carlos!) — then you can pretty much stop reading.

Okay, for those of you who are left.  I’m just going down the list of issues on Obama and McCain‘s webpages to organize my thoughts.  Something neat about this presidential campaign is that both candidates agree on quite a bit!  But there definitely are some differences:

• Civil Rights — I appreciate that this is listed as an issue on Obama’s page as it doesn’t make it onto McCain’s.  I am an advocate for things like pay equity between males and females, reducing crime recidivism by providing ex-offender support, eliminating sentencing disparities between powder cocaine and crack cocaine, and the increased use of drug courts.  These are basic problems that have been in our country for a long time and I believe more superficial “tough on crime” policies are just going to make private prison owners richer and waste more tax money.
• Defense/National Security — Both candidates seem to agree here on modernizing our defense.  I would have chalked this one up for McCain — especially because Obama coasted through the primaries on the idea of pulling the troops out ASAP and since then, things have changed in Iraq to the point where that would not seem prudent.  I think it was wise of Obama to choose Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate’s Foreign Relations committee — his VP pick evens the playing field a bit.  And I do think that the democratic party has a slight edge in foreign relations because unfortunately, I think people around the world associate Bush’s policies as synonymous with Republican policies.
• Disabilities — Again, this is an issue that is addressed on Obama’s website and not on McCain’s.  We would be kidding ourselves if we thought that disabled people currently had the same rights as able-bodied people in the United States.
• Economy/Family — This is an issue that I have changed my opinion drastically about in the past year or two.  I used to think that the less the government was involved in our economy the better (i.e. deregulation of the financial markets).  Unfortunately, this hasn’t worked out for us as evidenced by the mess we are in right now.  And I won’t pretend to completely understand the mess we are in right now but I do think that more regulation is needed.  McCain (and the Republican party in general) has always been supported by large corporations and because of this, I think it will be difficult for McCain to create any policies that reign in their greedy practices.  I disagree with trade tariffs on imported goods but I agree with eliminating tax cuts for countries that outsource their jobs from overseas.  I also agree with Obama’s plans for tax credits (for those making less than $75,000 as an individual or $150,000 as a couple) to help the middle class and I support his focus on making work more desirable than welfare or government assistance.  I also really like that Obama preaches fiscal responsibility instead of just promising to increase government assistance.  During his recent speech in Toledo, Ohio, “Obama – who regularly preaches tough love to audiences– said that people need to take responsibility for their own financial situation; that the crisis on Wall Street and Main Street has contributed to their woes – but now is the time for fiscal responsibility in their own lives.“
• Education — This is one of the areas that I am most passionate about.  Since entering the graduate social work program, I have spent a considerable amount of time learning about society’s ills and hearing from various experts about society’s ills.  By society’s ills, I’m referring to the overrepresentation of minorities in the criminal justice system, the lack of social mobility between classes, crime, ethnic discrimination, and even the loss of competitive technology produced in the United States.  No Child Left Behind was horribly underfunded and schools that were not deemed worthy by parents armed with school vouchers had no resources to improve or change to compete with other schools.  I believe in higher teacher pay and more parity in funding and resources for all public schools.  A school teacher should not have to pay for paper and supplies out of her own pocket because she is in a less wealthy school district.  The American Dream is rooted in education.  Without a strong and healthy education system, the American Dream will never be a reality for most people.  The barriers to higher education also need to be reduced.  It is a shame that some students from a low socio-economic background work so hard from K-12 and are accepted into highly-ranked four-year universities but are unable to attend because they cannot afford the tuition.
• Energy/Environment — Both candidates talk about energy independence from the Middle East but I believe the future lies in renewable energy and not in Alaska’s pipelines.  I am really excited that both candidates are talking about a cleaner environment and that they have both committed to protecting nature.
• Ethics — Government reform is one of the biggest reasons why a lot of people are drawn towards Obama.  A quote from his speech in Des Moines, IA: “I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists — and won. They have not funded my campaign, they will not run my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am president.”
• Faith — Obama’s Call to Renewal Keynote Address.  If you are a Christian who is voting for McCain simply because you think that is the Christian thing to do, please read/watch that speech.  I have always struggled with the abortion issue but after working with Child Protective Services I can firmly say that I do not believe in “a woman’s right to choose.”  I know I’ll probably get slammed for this by the progressive community because reproductive rights are a huge point of advocacy (especially in oppresive male-dominated countries where women are sold as brides and raped by their husbands) but after working with all the different children in foster care and listening to their awful, broken childhoods and histories (some born out of rape/incest), no matter how awful their lives, I could never look at any of them and tell them that they would have been better off not having been born.  When I helped them fill out a worksheet on their future goals and dreams, I realized that I could never value their mother’s choice (whether it be based on convenience, financial hardship, or trauma) over the life of this hopeful child sitting next to me.  I strongly feel that the Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice debate is not helpful and that both sides should concentrate and join their efforts on working towards lowering teenage pregnancies.  For those of you who are voting for McCain simply because he picked Sarah Palin who is a super Pro-Life supporter, please consider all the other issues that are raised in this election.  Also keep in mind that President Bush, a staunch Pro-Life advocate, was in office for 8 years and did not end the practice of abortion.  The issue of abortion should not be your single reason for voting.  I don’t even know if abortion could ever be made illegal without resulting in a lot of dangerous black market abortions — I think this issue is better remedied through improved sexual responsibility and sex education.  Now for the other Christian hot topic, I am against banning gay marriage.  I don’t know why Christians, who have never tried banning marriages that are not representative of marriage described in the Bible (which is utlimately a picture of God’s relationship with believers), suddenly want to ban gay marriage.  It has always bothered me that Christians arbitrarily oppose homosexuality more than other things deemed as sins in the bible such as adultery, promiscuity, etc.  A church can decide who they accept and don’t accept in their congregation (although this is still biblically questionable to me) and a pastor/preist can decide which couples he wants to marry and which he doesn’t, but I believe the government shouldn’t be able to decide who a person lists as their spouse/family on his/her legal documents.  Especially when it affects legal rights such as insurance policies, and hospital visitations.
• Fiscal — The Democrats are usually the big spenders so it’s refreshing to read that Obama supports government fiscal responsibility.  I am also in favor of limited the abuse of no-bid contracts.  And this is coming from a former Halliburton employee!
• Healthcare — I am currently poorly informed about this topic.  I just know that there needs to be serious reforms when it comes to healthcare.  I think people are quick to point to Canada’s problems with their healthcare system but I think it is foolish to become paralyzed by the problems of existing single-payer healthcare systems instead of trying to envision a healthcare system that is efficient and universal.  Also, with so many healthcare and insurance corporations supporting McCain, I think it will be difficult for his party to make any significant reforms.
• Immigration — I’m at a loss here.
• Poverty — This issue, like education, is something that I am passionate about.  I am really confused as to why ending poverty, instead of banning abortion or gay marriage, is not the top Christian political issue.
• Judicial Philosophy — I agree with McCain on this one.  I do not think Supreme Court judges should legislate from the bench.

I realize that most politicians are not able to implement everything on their platforms.  But I feel compelled to vote for the candidate that I agree with the most.  This is the first time I am voting.  Since I live in Texas, my vote is for democracy as much as it is a vote for Obama.  It is also potentially a vote for electoral college reform!

I welcome your thoughts as I am not firmly set in my political views and still have a lot to learn.

So many misrepresentations, so many embarrassments.

As a Christian, I was appalled to watch this video and accept the fact that this man preaches each week to a congregation.  This is really just tasteless:

It starts slow but it picks up quite a bit.  Link from Metafilter.

I could never run for President.  Besides the fact that I was born in Brazil, I wouldn’t be able to stand hearing things like this about my family.