Thoughts on the Executive Branch
February 16th, 2008 by Sonja

I still remember the first ever election I voted in. It was 1980 and I voted by absentee ballot because I was away from home in college. Jimmy Carter was president and running as the incumbent against Ronald Reagan and John Anderson. hehehe … yeah … nobody except political science professors and poli/sci majors remember that. And the 763 of us who voted for John Anderson; we also remember. Those of you who are so enamoured of Ron Paul … you need to take a good hard look at that race. And the race where whats-his-name ran … you know? The guy who was a software engineer and put all his own money into the campaign, he used to own EDS and has a head shaped like a turkey. He was mighty entertaining, but …

There are at least 87 excellent reasons for a more than two party system in this country. However we won’t have one by starting with the presidential campaign. It will begin by organizing a new party or parties at the local level and electing officials down low and moving them up. It’s a process that will take decades. For the record, many libertarians are nuts. Wackos. A group of them voted to secede from Vermont and join New Hampshire, from the middle of the state … led by my cousin, so I can say this. There is more to good government than low taxes and low level anarchy. If Libertarians cannot win their case at the local level, they will not win at the state and national level … no matter how winsome their candidate appears.

On to more pertinent matters.

I’m not voting for Hillary. If the Democratic party has so lost it’s mooring as to nominate her for it’s presidential candidate come it’s convention, I will vote for whoever the Republican nominee is … or I won’t vote at all.  I’m not going to settle for a vote between the lesser of two evils anymore. I’m not going to do it. I refuse. I’ve only had one election in my life where I felt an honest choice between candidates … and it was the first election I voted in. 28 years is a long dry spell.

I don’t vote with my breasts and I’m a little put out that it seems a lot of my fellow women are. It’s interesting to me that many of my family, friends and colleagues assume that I am going to vote for her … just because I’m a woman and she’s a woman, so they assume that I will take this ground-breaking opportunity to vote for the first woman president. No, actually … I have a little more integrity than that. I don’t like Hillary and never have. I have felt empathy for her. I have despised the manner in which she was pilloried when Bill was in office. I have admired her courage under pressure. But when the chips are down I do not trust her and I really think that she has an unseemly lust for power. To put it quite bluntly, I do not trust her character. In much the same manner as I never trusted the character of George W. Bush. To be fair, at least she is no fool.

I’m not going to vote for Hillary, because despite her protests to contrary now, she supported the war in Iraq when it was expedient to her to do so. I’m not going to vote for Hillary because she does not have a consistent ethic of life. I’m not going to vote for Hillary, because her husband was president 8 years ago and that makes him a loose cannon in the White House … with no restraints. I’m not going to vote for Hillary because if she were to become president that would give us 32 years of essentially the same style of leadership (Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton?) and it’s time for something new. I’m not going to vote for Hillary because she does what is politically expedient to gain votes, not what she feels is best or morally right for the country or her state.  Tom D’Antoni put words to my underlying suspicions in yesterday’s Huffington Post.  I’m not certain I’d go as far as he does, but I suspect it’s true and this is why I don’t trust Hillary’s character:

“‘I will work my heart out for you every single day!’ These are the incredible words of Hillary Clinton, who arranges for a cute little Mexican boy in a sombrero to bring her flowers onstage in Texas. What a pitiful and despicable show.

If you ever see a Latino near her multimillion-dollar house in Chappaqua, New York, he’ll likely be on his knees in the dirt with a gardening trowel.

You are to her a vote, nothing more. It is not you who matters to her. It is your gullibility that matters to her. Her goal is not to serve you. Her goal is to con you and use you to become president, and that is all. You are to her expendable, a mere means to an end that does not involve you or your concerns or your welfare.

But most of all, I resent Hillary.  She brings a bitter gall to the back of my throat.  Like Hillary and many women, I sacrificed my dreams for my husband and my children.  I do not have such a glamorous husband, he does not have such a glamorous job as Bill.  So perhaps the parallels end there.  However, I cannot go out into the workplace now after 14 years of not being paid for the grunt work I do, and claim that I have “experience” for a glamorous and powerful job that I would like to have.   People would laugh at me if I put 14 years of experience on my resume that looked like what my husband does.  People would laugh at any woman who did that.  Even if her college experience equalled that of her husband’s.  It galls me that politicians, the media, and people in general are buying into Hillary’s experience as if it were true … but for the rest of us women … well … we have to start all over again when we go back to work after raising our families.  I know … life ain’t fair.  The rules are different for those who rule.  But here’s the thing.  Our country is founded on the idea that the rules are not supposed to be different for those who rule.

So … who am I going to vote for? Well, the primary came to Virginia last Tuesday (February 12). I voted for Barack Obama with joy and glee.  He won by a landslide.  For the first time in 28 years I think we have candidate who is a voice for change. Not change for the sake of change, but change in how we think about ourselves. I think Mr. Obama will bring back respect to the position of President. Respect that it began to lose even under President Nixon in the early 1970’s.

I’m very excited about his campaign.  I just hope the pols in the Democratic Party have the smarts to listen to the people.


11 Responses  
  • Jen writes:
    February 16th, 200811:18 amat

    I agree with your thoughts on Hilary. It is amazing to me that people think just because you have breasts that your vote is automatic for Hilary. I unlike you trusted George Jr. I thought as he wasn’t as political savvy as his father we would have a better time of it as a country. Well after two times of voting for the man I wish I wouldn’t have voted for him, but I honestly have to say I am not sure the other candidate going against him would have been any better. I am disappointed in Bush I thought he had character unlike what I had seen of the Clinton’s. My only problem in this election is that Obama is too slick for me. There is something about him that reminds me of what Clinton did his first election. He says the right thing, but doesn’t really say anything. I probably will not vote this time as I don’t like the other candidate either. I say blow up the system and get some fresh blood. Good post.

           
  • Maria writes:
    February 16th, 200812:25 pmat

    Sonja, I agree with you about Hillary — especially your last point about her claiming “experience” based on being married to the President. Personally, I would have a lot more respect for her as a woman candidate if she had walked out on the SOB.

    For the record, 1980 was my first presidential election, too. I remember sitting that night with my friend Valerie, who had done an internship in the Carter White House the summer before (and who was helping me take baby steps towards faith in that season), crying together as we watched what presumably was the country sliding towards Armageddon. 28 years is a long time to wait for a decent candidate.

           
  • Sonja writes:
    February 16th, 200812:56 pmat

    Thanks for your thoughts, Jen … I also have days when I want to blow the whole thing up and start over again … metaphorically speaking of course. Obama speaks of hope and future. He’s also gotten quite a bit accomplished. The most noteworthy to me (speaking as a student of foreign affairs) was the Lugar- Obama Nuclear Non-proliferation and Conventional Weapons Threat Reduction Act of 2006. So … if he is able to work across the aisle with as crotchety a Republican as Lugar, I know he can get things done! More than any other national politician in my adult life he seems to walk and talk a straight line. I may not agree with everything he says, but he seems to be more honest than most. Which is saying quite a bit these days.

           
  • Sonja writes:
    February 16th, 20081:04 pmat

    Oh, Maria … I remember that election. It was soooo sad. The only thing that stopped me from voting to re-elect Carter was the Iranian hostage crisis. Jimmy Carter is perhaps the most honorable, righteous man we’ve had in the White House since Abraham Lincoln and it ate him alive!! What a travesty. I knew another term would likely kill him. But I could not in good conscience vote for Reagan.

    A funny story. Four years later, I was living in Washington, DC and dating the man would become LightHusband. LightHusband (at the time) was a drummer in The Old Guard, 3rd US Infantry at Ft. Myer … part of the Presidential Honor Guard. They are the first unit in every inaugural parade. I, on the other hand, was making firm plans to march in a protest against the horrid policies and ideas of Reagan’s first administration that were to be carried over into his second administration. So … there we were. He was to march in the inaugural. I was to march in the protest. And it was all cancelled because of bitterly cold weather the day of. To this day, 24 years later, there are still people who were in his unit at the time, who hold that against me. Silly-hearts. Don’t they know? It’s in our Constitution that we all have the right to protest … even the wives and girlfriends of the presidential honor guard.

           
  • Cathy writes:
    February 16th, 20084:32 pmat

    I voted against Carter the first time as an anti-abortion vote. Now I’d vote for him in a heartbeat. Clinton was my first vote for someone who won. (Was for my dad too!)
    I agree with what you think about Mrs. Clinton. I also have this sneaking suspicion that she’s hoping to win simply so she can do something dreadful to Bill afterwards … like lock him in the basement or start dating movie stars … for all the grief he gave her.

           
  • Mike writes:
    February 16th, 20087:22 pmat

    As a libertarian, I agree with you that there are really some that are “whack jobs”. I am fully convinced that we need less federal government intrusion into our lives. While I support Ron Paul, I am realistic enough to know that he doesn’t have a chance when it comes down to receiving the nod from the party and he has said that he won’t run anyway as a Libertarian. With that said, I have made my choice and my vote known for the primary.

    When it comes down to the election, I am with you. Given the choices, I would vote Republican over Clinton and Obama over all.

           
  • kievasfargo writes:
    February 17th, 20085:56 pmat

    Sonja, I can’t vote as yet (not a US citizen) but I do remember John Anderson even though I wasn’t living in the US at the time. I really believe we need a viable third party in this country; however, I don’t see it happening any time soon. Yes, there are indeed some wacko Libertarians, but if I had to declare a political affiliation, that’s the party I’d most identify with. I would hope that Obama gets the Democratic nomination…of all the Democrats, only Mike Gravel comes close to my position, but he has exactly zero delegates thus far :)

           
  • Adam G. writes:
    February 17th, 200811:35 pmat

    Sonja, I just realized as I read your post that I don’t remember my first election…and I’m 32! I am terribly ashamed to say (and I never admit this anywhere but online…and even then rarely) that I voted for George W the first time he ran. I really believed he was a good man who would do good for the country. He had my support all the way through the invasion of Afghanistan (which I still believe was necessary) but lost it after the invasion of Iraq. That never made sense to me, WMDs or no (and it turns out it was “no”).

    As for libertarian wackos, as a libertarian (more-or-less, these days) I know what you mean. I joined the Free State Project while I lived in Brazil and thought it was an excellent idea. I still think it is a wonderful idea, but reality is that not enough libertarians can be scraped together to make the plan happen. I’m the one that started the FSP-Christians list on Yahoo Groups, but gave it up when me moved stateside as I wouldn’t have time to moderate. A year or so of reflection and a trip to New Hampshire turned me off almost completely, and recently I revisited the list and was shocked. Someone there was actually making what I considered terrorist comments (killing the guilty and “trying” to avoid injuring the innocent, that sort of thing) and no one else seemed to bat an eyelash.

    The problem for libertarians is that their ideology is very precise (actually, that’s one of the most attractive things) and thus allows very little room for views that deviate from the core principles. This keeps the common person out because at first glance it seems very hard, fixed and even alien. The subsequent problem is that libertarians end up just talking to and debating with each other, isolated from everyone else, so their ideas can become increasingly bizarre and end up someplace no one else is ever going to be willing to go.

    BTW, when Carter ran for re-election I was 5 or so.

    :-)

           
  • Jan writes:
    February 18th, 20083:58 pmat

    “voting with my breasts” – love it.

    I don’t do that either. Obama got my vote too, and the amazing thing is that my 8 Republican relatives also voted for him. Wow.

           
  • Pistol Pete writes:
    February 21st, 20084:17 pmat

    I fully concur on your reasons not to vote for Clinton. I hope you are right about Obama. I’d like to believe somebody running for public office might have something other than selfish motives. He may just get a chance to prove it’s true. Time will tell.

           
  • years of anarchy writes:
    March 8th, 20087:02 amat

    […] Timote Pekipaki 35 of Vaini, received 11 years imprisonment for setting fire …www.matangitonga.toThoughts on the Executive Branch I still remember the first ever election I voted in. It was 1980 and I voted by absentee ballot […]

           


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