The Gong Show

I didn’t vote today. I’m registered in New York, but I’m not a member of any party. My politicial views lean Democrat, but I’m adamantly against the notion of a two-party system; which I think leads America to terribly limiting choices. If we had election rules in place that would allow for a multi-party system to foster, we could vote on issues in a more a la carte manner (for example: a voter could be a staunch supporter of the second amendment and still support universal healthcare). Thus, I refuse to register with either the Democrats or Republicans because registering would be endorsing our two-party system.

Anyway, since I’m not a member of any party, New York does not let me vote in the Democratic primary. So, I didn’t vote.

But, if independents could vote in New York, I would have voted for Obama. I have two very simple reasons.

#1) Between Hillary and Obama, I think Obama has a better chance to win in November.

There is some early polling data to support my opinion that Hillary can’t win, but I am not basing this opinion on polling data. It’s just a gut check. I think Obama is far more likable than Hillary, and thus stands a better chance against McCain.

#2) Obama was against the war from the start.

I genuinely felt like I was taking crazy pills back in 2002 when all the anti-Iraq rationalizations started whirling around the media echo chamber. How did the collective conversation about hunting Osama and removing the Taliban from Afghanistan suddenly change to “We must remove Saddam, he’s seeking WMDs.” It felt like this conversation shift happened overnight for no apparent reason; as if everyone in American attended a lecture that missed. In retrospect it felt more like a bad practical joke. “Shhh… let’s all pretend that Iraq was involved in 9/11 and see if Andrew notices. It will be so funny because we have no evidence to support this theory, so let’s all play along and see how far we can take the joke.”

Simply put, I can’t get enthusiastic about a candidate that supported the war.