2008 Presidential Poll

In the November election, I’ll be voting for whomever wins the Democratic nomination, whether that’s Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. While I’ll be voting for her in the February primary here in Illinois, if Obama should win the nomination, I’ll happily give him my vote in November. I’d planned to vote for whomever won the Democratic nomination–if John Edwards had come from behind (and if he’d been focused on nearly as much as the front-runners, it seemed entirely possible) he’d have easily had my vote in November, too, as I agree with many of his stands on policy. But really, any of the Democrats would do, if only because I’m desperate to unseat the Republicans from office. I’m thrilled that George Bush has to go, but the problem is deeper than one smirking, syllable-mangling, crude-oil-scented man. The boot-stomping, smug arrogance that seems to hang over the White House in a cloud isn’t just being created by the President; it’s the whole administration.

The President is a powerful man, but he doesn’t work in a vacuum. Nothing gets done without Congressional approval. He has his advisors, handlers, speech writers, aids. . . He’s the mouthpiece for The State of the Union Address, the one who stands up and offers sound bites and photo opportunities. But he’s not the one who sparks action, the one who comes up with the ideas, or the one who implements them. So, not just George Bush, but the people surrounding him are responsible for the problems in Washington, and the country. And they’re all responsible for the way we’re viewed by the rest of the world.

We do need change (try to find an election year where that isn’t the ubiquitous cry), but we need more than a change of mouthpiece. We need a whole new attitude in Washington, and I don’t think the Republican party will give us anything but more of the same. I rooted for John McCain when he was vying for the nomination against George Bush a few years ago. In fact, I would have voted on a Republican ticket in the Illinois caucus just to give him a chance at defeating Bush, had he not already dropped out of the race by that time. I don’t know that come that November he would have had my vote, but I wanted him to be the one with a chance at it. Now it’s likely he’ll be the Republican candidate in November, and though he’s dropped in my esteem over the past few years, I’m glad to see him finally getting a chance to run. Yet, because of his beliefs on major issues, my vote will go to someone else.

Every statement George Bush has made on an issue over the past several years, most of them right in line with far right-wing politics, has been absolutely opposite of my opinion. He’s against stem-cell research, he’s for strict laws banning and limiting abortions, he’s against gay marriage, and has managed to exclude hordes of poverty-level children from getting health care every time the issue comes before him. He may think no child should get left behind (what a grim failure that was), but he clearly doesn’t care if many of them can’t get medicine when they’re sick.

When I said the administration was responsible for the state of the country, I left out something important. It’s not just George Bush and his cronies who are responsible, it’s all of us — the citizens, the voters. We helped cause these problems. First, innocently, by going on faith in these people and voting the policy-makers into office. Our next mistake wasn’t based in innocence, but apathy. By not raising up and forcing them out when they broke their promises, passed policy that makes the rich wealthier and pushes the lower class into a shocking level of poverty, and led us into a war that seems to have no reasonable end in sight.

Photograph by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com. Some rights reserved.

I’m voting my beliefs in November, voting for the candidate who holds dear the same things I do, and wants the same changes to come about. Once again, I’ll be voting on faith in that person, faith that he or she will do everything possible to make those changes. The changes I’ve long hoped for aren’t things George Bush ever promised — in fact, he’s against almost all of them, as are most Republicans. If we get a Democrat in office who’s on record spending a whole campaign decrying every injustice George Bush and his posse has inflicted on America and listing ways he or she intends to fix them, at the very least we have someone to hold accountable if the promised changes never come. And maybe if that happens this time, we’ll actually come together as a nation and do something about it before four years have passed.

Shelley Ontis lives in Illinois, surrounded by corn, cows and pick-up trucks. She claims it’s not nearly as exciting as it sounds.

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