Newly Ancient

America needs a new direction. For the past 8 years, the politics of fear and hate have divided Americans and thrown the economy into tumult. We need a president prepared to rise above those politics and steer us in a new direction. Barack Hussein Obama is the right man for the job, at this time.

More than anything, my support is based upon his economic positions. John McCain and Sarah Palin have lost no time in tying him to socialism, a suspicious claim at best. The fact is, we have seen a vast redistribution of wealth in the past 8 years: redistributed upwards. Despite once opposing them, John McCain now proposes to expand and renew the Bush tax cuts. Let us not forget the vast government bailout pushed for by the present administration, which John McCain was so quick to “suspend” his campaign to fight for. Though in some ways necessary, the structure of the bill was designed to disguise its true socialist nature. Republicans have been largely responsible for one of the greatest handouts of history, which they are so quick to attack with straw man arguments when coming from Democrats. Naturally, this added to the vast debt which the present administration has pushed onto America.¹ The Republican Party has become the Socialist Party of America. Except it is a cruel brand of socialism, which guarantees the wealth of the rich and lets everyone else fend for themselves.

Right: The 31^st and 1^st reason to vote for Obama is the Economy.²

For years, the Republican party has sought to win elections through character assaults. For the most part, it has worked: Americans are consistently distracted from the fact that Republican policies are only good for 1% of Americans. They tried the same thing this year: they have attempted to smear Obama with everything in their barrel, or even with pure fabrication. Despite this, I truly believe it has backfired. As Americans see how cool and pragmatic Obama is in response to every issue confronting him, it becomes clearer that he truly does have the better character. Republicans wanted to make this election about character, since with the economy they’d lose. To their surprise, they’ll lose on this front too.

If I was born in a different time, I would probably be a conservative. I am consistently uncomfortable on a philosophical level with many Democratic policies. Fortunately, with this election, we can elect a true conservative.³ Simply, a conservative is one who thinks that solutions which have worked before will probably work again. Despite his inspirational talk of change, Obama is at heart a pragmatic policy wonk. He has considered policies from other nations across the globe, and constructed a practical agenda. While John McCain makes decisions based upon emotion and ideological dogma, Obama takes a reasoned approach built on common sense, careful planning, and research. Barack Obama’s best experience is how he has run his campaign. If he runs the country as well as he has run for it, he may truly take America in a better direction. Of the many (on both sides of the aisle) who have articulated this, I believe Wick Allison (former editor of the National Review) articulates it best:

Barack Obama is not my ideal candidate for president. (In fact, I made the maximum donation to John McCain during the primaries, when there was still hope he might come to his senses.) But I now see that Obama is almost the ideal candidate for this moment in American history. I disagree with him on many issues. But those don’t matter as much as what Obama offers, which is a deeply conservative view of the world. Nobody can read Obama’s books (which, it is worth noting, he wrote himself) or listen to him speak without realizing that this is a thoughtful, pragmatic, and prudent man. It gives me comfort just to think that after eight years of George W. Bush we will have a president who has actually read the Federalist Papers.

I do not agree with Barack Obama on all fronts: many of his plans are irresponsible and make me nervous about deficit spending. However, the thought of John McCain (or, worse, Sarah Palin) controlling this nation is far scarier. For this reason, I have done what I can to elect Barack Hussein Obama,⁴ and encourage you to help make him the first great president of the 21^st century.