I voted for Obama. That said, my views have changed dramatically since then. During the 2008 election period, I was a fundemental atheist--not only was very rigid in my belief that there was no God, but I also wanted everyone around me. In other words, my main concern was anti-religion, so I favored the most secular candidate--Obama.
While my political interest was narrow (anti-religion), some people's motivation for voting for Obama or again were even more narrow--based on race. In my opinion, the people that voted for Obama because he wasblack African American are as guilty of racism as the people who didn't vote for him because he was black. Let me explain. Those that voted for McCain because of race perceived McCain as being "higher" than Obama. Is it any better if someone votes for Obama because his race makes him a more favorable candidate (regardless of their reason--first black president, etc.)? Racism is not a one way street. The sad thing is that in America, hatred towards white people is not as sensitive as hatred towards blacks African Americans.
[Side Note] - I actually dislike writing a blog that labels people as being a particular race--creating such ideas forces people to perceive race and in-group/out-group mentalities.
When you vote, never vote based on the candidates race. Either way, you are being racist in the process.
Getting back to Obama. He failed when it came to fulfilling campaign promises. The reality is that he did very little and the country is still in sad shape on many fronts. As a college student, the unemployment rate and student loan issues scare me to death. Now that I'm no longer an atheist, my focus is on other fronts politically--making me a independent-conservative leaning person. Obama has went a little too far on his attack on religion. I believe religion is important for most people. I know this is a major shift away from atheism, but what I found was that most people are not well behaved if they didn't have a controlling belief system. For example, even as an atheist I was against abortion (which is the opposite of what most atheists believe). In short, I didn't like how atheism belittle human experience and existence.
Obama supporting the pro-choice people is an immoral stance. It's clear that, from a conservative perspective, Obama is not morally knowledgeable in areas like respecting personal property, value of human life, going to war without congressional approval, and the list goes on. Also, given Obama's resume, he is not an authority on economic issues. It's far from controversial to claim that the economy is the biggest problem we face as a country, and I'm just not seeing Obama do the right things in that area.
The average voter knows very little about the issues. In fact, even at the time I voted for Obama, I wasn't that well informed. I believe a good idea would be to make voters take an exam to access knowledgeably about the issues; and if they fail the exam, their vote doesn't count. A Democracy will not work with an uninformed public, forced exams would make people study-up before voting.
While my political interest was narrow (anti-religion), some people's motivation for voting for Obama or again were even more narrow--based on race. In my opinion, the people that voted for Obama because he was
[Side Note] - I actually dislike writing a blog that labels people as being a particular race--creating such ideas forces people to perceive race and in-group/out-group mentalities.
When you vote, never vote based on the candidates race. Either way, you are being racist in the process.
Getting back to Obama. He failed when it came to fulfilling campaign promises. The reality is that he did very little and the country is still in sad shape on many fronts. As a college student, the unemployment rate and student loan issues scare me to death. Now that I'm no longer an atheist, my focus is on other fronts politically--making me a independent-conservative leaning person. Obama has went a little too far on his attack on religion. I believe religion is important for most people. I know this is a major shift away from atheism, but what I found was that most people are not well behaved if they didn't have a controlling belief system. For example, even as an atheist I was against abortion (which is the opposite of what most atheists believe). In short, I didn't like how atheism belittle human experience and existence.
Obama supporting the pro-choice people is an immoral stance. It's clear that, from a conservative perspective, Obama is not morally knowledgeable in areas like respecting personal property, value of human life, going to war without congressional approval, and the list goes on. Also, given Obama's resume, he is not an authority on economic issues. It's far from controversial to claim that the economy is the biggest problem we face as a country, and I'm just not seeing Obama do the right things in that area.
The average voter knows very little about the issues. In fact, even at the time I voted for Obama, I wasn't that well informed. I believe a good idea would be to make voters take an exam to access knowledgeably about the issues; and if they fail the exam, their vote doesn't count. A Democracy will not work with an uninformed public, forced exams would make people study-up before voting.
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