Tuesday, November 4, 2008

From Jeff to Nadine

Nadine,
I'm terribly sorry to hear about your loss, that is a tragedy and puts all this election stuff in perspective. these are the real issues that affect us, sometimes I feel like the election is just a reality show, designed to entertain us. When either of these men return to Washington as president they will still need to pass their legislation, and it's unlikely we'll see dramatic change either way. In the end our day to day lives are far removed from what happens in DC.

Oddly enough I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday about our exchange and I told him you were from Iowa, Audubon, Iowa, and he said no way, he had spent summer in Audubon more than 20 years ago. A friend from his high school Manett, or Minett, something like that his dad worked in DC for the DNC or something and my friend went back to work on their farm. It was quite a coincidence, to say the least.

In response to the rest of your email, I'd just say, no one willing to go through the pain of running a presidential campaign wants to do harm to this country. I have no doubt McCain believes he is right and the best choice, but to claim he is consistent doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

He has flipflopped on dozens of his policy positions, even legislation he sponsored. I ran across this well-documented list the other day, it's very imformative:
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/flipflops

From National Security to Domestic Issues, you simply cannot take what he says at face value because he's changed his tune, to suit his personal purposes, whether it's appealing to the religious right to get the Republican nomination or whether it's to get favors for his Keating friends or the Georgian government (the lobbying firm of his chief foreign policy adviser received $200k from Georgia):
"The day of the call, a lobbying firm partly owned by the adviser, Randy Scheunemann, signed a $200,000 contract to continue providing strategic advice to the Georgian government in Washington."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/12/AR2008081202932.html

He is the one who will do or say anything to get elected.
Who is McCain helping the American people or the Georgian gov't?

Looking at Obama's proposals, he's really a centrist whose tax policy simply returns it to where it stood during the Reagan administration. In fact former members of the Reagan administration have endorsed Obama, including his chief of staff, Ken Duberstein. There's a long list of Republicans endorsing Obama. When so many people, respected people with a long conservative tradition are opposed to the elction of a fellow party member, well, it just makes you think: http://www.republicansforobama.org/?q=node/3341

The socialism issue is a joke. There has been redistribution of wealth, but in the last 8 years it's been taking money and giving it to the top 1%, not since the Gilded Age has there been such disparity in income and the Republicans are using fear and thinly veiled racism to make people think they will somehow be worse off than they are now. It defies belief. The statements coming out of the mcCain camp are divorced from reality.

In response to your earlier claim about the rigors of a campaign, he doesn't appear to have weathered this campaign well. Look at what he says about Iowa:
"On Friday night, the McCain campaign released a detailed memo about the state of the race. "Our numbers in Iowa have seen a tremendous surge in the past 10 days," the McCain campaign insisted. "We took Obama's lead from the double digits to a very close race.... Like many other Midwestern states, Iowa is moving swiftly into McCain's column."

It's simply not true, in fact it's the exact opposite of reality, every major poll shows the trend moving in the other direction:
http://www.pollster.com/polls/ia/08-ia-pres-ge-mvo.php

Nadine, the more I've looked into this in the past few days I simply cannot support a man with such close ties to lobbyists, who uses such duplicitous and scurrilous words and tactics to bring out the worst in our country, greed and fear. Your forwarding the Vardy email is typical, Vardy doesn't care about his country, he sees this as an opportunity to make money. I for one believe it is not only patriotic to pay taxes it is the smart thing to do.

Taxes pay for roads, schools, the fundamental inner workings of society, without these things we'll never have the middle class capable of buying the goods and services of successful businesses. We need banks to lend money to these entrepreneurs, but right now they are hoarding the hundreds of billions of dollars you and I have given to them. That is socialism, Nadine. The government buying banks and propping them up with infusions of our tax dollars. Frankly, I'd rather give $500 to someone struggling to find work and feed their kids than to some fat-cat banker whose push for deregulation has socialized risk and privatized reward.

Listen, my cousin had a small construction company. He wanted to expand the business, so took out a loan and got individual investors to build a new apartment complex. When the crunch hit, the bank called in those loans and foreclosed on his property. he's lost everything. Is he a minority who overstretched, no he was a successful small business who has been devastated by the system built up by the Bush administration. Ironically, it was my Orange County uncle who helped originate the loan. When all went bust did he help out? No he switched to a different bank and walked away from the problem. This after my father repeatedly bailed him out of ill-advised personal financial decisions. Now, he wants McCain, when a vote for McCain is a vote for the rich. It's selfishness pure and simple.

I went to Catholic school for 12 years and I know a thing or two about the teachings of Christ and pulling quotes out of the bible, and I've been surprised that people have focused so much on the arcane passages when the simplest lesson of all is right there before us, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And it's not just the new testament, look in Ezekial:

"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children."

I wish you all the best, Nadine, but I simply can't agree with your politics. I'm sure you're a good person and your intentions are pure, but if you are honest with yourself and really examine the facts I think it is you who should think about changing your vote. Iowa is a much more important state than Washington at this point. I'm in a very blue part of the country, but a big win in Iowa with support from people like you would say a lot about the future direction of this country.

Take care,
Jeff

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