Yesterday, election day, the students were very interested in knowing who I was going to vote for. In all my years of teaching I have never discussed politics in my class or given students any indication of who I would vote for, and this year was no exception. Several were quite upset because I would not indicate a preference, but I do not believe in classroom endorsements. Unfortunately, many of my colleagues aren’t of the same mind.
I really don’t discuss my preferences in voting with anyone, not even close friends. Even my wife isn’t sure who I voted for. We host Thanksgiving for the family every year and my only rule at the family gathering is—no discussion of politics in my home. When politics are discussed, invariably everyone doesn’t agree, and a bitter fight ensues. I would rather eat pumpkin pie and enjoy watching football.
In a complete reversal of one of my most strongly held beliefs, I will now tell anyone who reads this blog whom I voted for and why. I voted for John McCain.
I am not a member of the Republican or Democrat Party, and consider myself an independent. The first presidential candidate I ever voted for was George McGovern. I have voted tor Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. Bush, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton in different elections. I almost never vote in a primary, and many times don’t make up my mind until days before the election. Usually something happens in the last few days of an election to sway my vote one way or the other. This year I listened carefully to what each had to say and tentatively decided I would vote for Obama. I believe that taxes should be lower on the middle class and higher on the rich, we should have a health system like that of Canada, and the money many CEO’s make is obscene. I know he is untested and inexperienced, but decided that it was reasonable to give him a chance to “fix” what we both agreed was wrong.
About a week ago I was watching one of those political discussion programs on TV and watched a young woman and an older man debate the candidates. The woman got upset at one point when the older man accused Obama of wanting to raise taxes. She looked into the camera and asked the people “out there” to listen carefully—then stated that Obama would lower taxes on every family that made less than $250K a year and that McCain would lower taxes for the rich only. The older man began laughing; making the young woman even more agitated, and countered that Obama would raise taxes on everyone after taking office. The older man explaining that Obama planned to get away with it by arguing that the deficit was worse than he had expected and had no choice. The next day stories surfaced that Obama’s economic advisors were still debating whether $250K or $125K would be the cut-off for a tax cut.
I brought this up with a colleague who is a vocal Obama supporter, hoping that he would have a better response than the young woman on TV. The only thing he did was to argue that McCain was going to raise taxes on me and lower them on the rich. Trying to discuss this calmly, I told him that I wasn’t afraid of that because the almost certain Democrat control of Congress would not allow it, adding that I wasn’t sure that that same Congress would make Obama keep his promise. At this point he got angry and started yelling at me for being a dangerous “ultra conservative.” This is why I don’t like to discuss politics.
At that point I knew that Obama was a politician, not a leader, and would say anything to get elected. The promise of a middle-class tax cut was a lie, and Obama knew it! More importantly, if he would lie about this, what else were we being promised that he knew he could never deliver, and why should I vote for him, even if everyone else in the world was?
I hope I am wrong and Obama will do, or at least try to do everything he promised. If so I will vote for him in four years. If not, in four years I will be driving around with a bumper sticker that says "Don't Blame Me, I Voted For McCain" and will have the moral authority to scold those of you who fell for the apparent lie. I almost did
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