(this is a response to a letter that's been all over the internet, which a friend brought my attention to by posting on facebook. you can read it here.)
Dear Joe Porter:
My name is Sallie Dietrich. I grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, and I am a junior at Cornell University, although I am studying abroad this semester in Paris. This election is my first, as I recently turned 20. I have never considered myself either a Republican or a Democrat. And I would like to explain why exactly I sent in my absentee ballot, the first vote I ever cast, with Barack Obama’s name on the first line.
I absolutely agree with you that there are far too many people who choose not to involve themselves in politics. These people who go about their daily lives – “paying their bills, raising their kids, doing whatever they can to maintain the good life” – are making an indisputable mistake by not taking the time to develop opinions about politics in general, and this election in particular. Yes, media spins news, and wading through hyperbole to get to the substance of the issue is not easy. It takes dedication to refuse to take on the perspective of whoever is presenting the news, and instead to think critically about the manner in which the news was presented. Is it really necessary for Fox News to repeatedly refer to the Democratic candidate as “Barack Hussein Obama?” Is it really necessary for the New York Times to run a feature article and slideshow about Sarah Palin's $150,000 campaign wardrobe?
(Personally, I think our founding fathers would want us to think critically about such questions. Democracy does, after all, depend on an informed electorate.)
Now, Joe, you are saying that the average American doesn’t want elected officials to violate public trust with pork barrel spending. (Just to be clear, the phrase ‘pork barrel spending’ refers to the use of government funds for the sole purpose of wining popularity with voters.) You say that they are opposed to government handouts, and want government to protect them without creating more government programs.
What do you believe the people of America want to be protected from? If it’s failure of the economy, well, I hate to break it to you, but the government hasn’t exactly done a great job with that. Eight years of laissez-faire policies has created quite the economic crisis, a crisis the next president will have to face. Why would the average American voter want to support a continuation of these policies? I truly do not understand that, when information is readily available in libraries and on the internet about the state of our economy at the end of Bill Clinton’s administration as compared to how it is doing now. Frankly, the invisible hand that anti-regulation policies rely on is slapping us in the face. “Wake up!” it says. “Wake up and realize that you can’t trust people to always make good choices.” And it’s true. Why did we allow people to take out mortgages everyone knew they couldn’t afford? If the government had wanted to protect these people, the regulations that were designed to prevent them from borrowing beyond their means would not have been dismissed.
I think what you’re getting at, in saying that the American people don’t want any more government programs, is that these programs are examples of pork barrel spending. There may be cases where that is true; there are certainly ways in which taxpayer money has been spent without giving anything back to the taxpayers. (How much have we spent in Iraq, looking for non-existent weapons of mass destruction?) I will not, however, accept that as an argument against government support for health care. What am I going to do when I leave Cornell and need to find my own health care plan? I’m genetically predisposed to a number of conditions, from arthritis to heart disease to Alzheimer’s. Am I going to be able to afford a plan that will cover these possibilities? What if I do find I have a pre-existing condition—will I even be able to find insurance on my own? I want government protection from health insurance as a market. And I believe that every American deserves government support for what can be debilitating costs of healthcare. Obama’s health care plan will create such a support system for American taxpayers and give us a tangible example of what our country can do for us.
In short, Joe, I find it offensive that you do not believe Obama supporters have thought beyond the word “change.” Living in France, a country where revealing you are American results in the question “You’re for Obama, right?” has made me appreciate the value of educating myself on the issues facing the United States in this election. It is exactly because I have been paying attention that I support Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Yes, John McCain has some admirable characteristics. He has been an example of someone who steps outside party lines to do what he believes is right, and I wish that he would show that characteristic again. Unfortunately, he has shown such a lack of integrity in allowing his campaign to smear Obama with terrorist accusations (has Obama mentioned anything about Sarah Palin’s husband being a member of an Alaskan separatist group?) that I can no longer consider him a free thinker.
Why am I voting for Barack Obama? Is it because I want change? Well, yes. Without change, how is America going to pull itself back together? How will the average American voter go about their daily lives and raise their kids if they have no money to support their families? We need someone who will inspire us to make changes in our lives, and we need that same person to give us the means with which to do so. Barack Obama, the eloquent speaker, sharp thinker, and dedicated worker is the candidate for the job.
I can express in 1000 words the changes I want our next president to initiate in my country, and I’m voting for Barack Obama.
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mellow