My thoughts about Presidential elections

Don't feel too bad, Republicans and Republican leaning Independents, I understand. I have a long history of voting for the losing candidate myself. In fact, I can only think of two Presidential candidates that I voted for who won, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

Yep, while I didn't vote in this election (though I endorsed John McCain), I've persistently voted Democratic through my decades of voting history. I voted for John Kerry against President Bush's second term and I admit, I was very disappointed when he was defeated.

When I became of voting age I registered Independent, since I consider myself beholden to neither party. But as I've blogged before, I consider myself a traditional liberal, and stuck to traditional liberal leanings, even as the liberal Democrats veered off into crazed unpatriotic anti-life attitudes in front of my very eyes. Yep, I still kept pulling the Democrat lever, because I stayed focused on where I thought change was needed (energy policy, environment, a reluctance to get into foreign entangling conflicts) although their social policy was abhorrent in many ways. I finally registered Democrat when I wanted to vote in the primaries. I only recently changed to Republican, as my protest against the Democrat "abortion as sacrament" mosh pit of enthusiastic, rather than reluctant, baby killing. I could vote for Democrats back when they at least had some decency of foot dragging and reluctance to abort, even as they support "the woman's right to 'choose.'" But with Barrack Obama, I guess that right to choose means to let even a baby who survives abortion to die in the metal pan. So, actually, as the people who stalk me know (since for me, there is no privacy of vote), I have voted steadily Democrat and know what it is like to see my candidate defeated.

However, that does not mean that God only works with those of one party or the other. I trust in two things. One is that the people get the President that they deserve. Think about it. And the second is that God works to bring out the best in everyone, of all parties and faiths, of all political or tribal persuasions, around the world. As you can see, sometimes that works out, sometimes it does not. People have a very strong bias against doing the right thing. For example, I voted for Bill Clinton and supported him through all the scandals, yet I could not believe that he sat on his hands through the Rwanda massacre. A few helicopters of troops could have turned that around. Yet he helped end the bloodbath in the former Yugoslavia and I give him a lot of credit for that and had hoped that he would intervene.

I've voted for the most liberal candidates going way back to the beginning because I was concerned about social justice, including the rights of women. But all of that has been ruined, really, because social justice has turned into being anti-child, anti-family, anti-civics, anti-patriotism and anti-conservatism. I've often mentioned that I loved Hubert Humphrey. So, yep, I voted for Mondale, Dukakis, Carter, and yes, I go that far back, McGovern against Nixon. (A popular bumper stick at the time was "Don't blame me, I voted for McGovern." I didn't have that bumper sticker on my car but I approved its message, LOL.) But see, Nixon did a lot of great things. He opened up the relationship with China at a time when conflict with them would have had dire consequences for the whole world. Also, he made the first steps toward protecting the environment by a sitting President.

So I have a long history of seeing the candidate I voted for not win. I figure that people get the President that they deserve. Even though I didn't vote for either President Bush, I am far from a basher. I support all the Presidents and prayerfully hope that they do well. I do tire of each generation and each electorate learning the hard way that each winner is not going to be "the one" who fixes all the problems. I feel very old when I watch this because as you see, things seem to get worse with each administration. This is because the puppet string pullers have infiltrated all administrations, left and right, and so there is a diminishing of sound decision making and more "agenda" driven (socialist, "Evangelical-end of the world nuts", Wall Street looters, you name it, every agenda is there like pigs at the trough). Going back to the "smoke filled rooms" of party bosses would actually be an improvement over what it has become, trust me on that, since that was based on, in general, political power, and not whack job secret beliefs and agendas, coupled with wholesale looting, rather than just patronage and pork.

But this country will continue in its tailspin into the ground as long as each generation is more naive, instead of less naive, that Presidents don't fix the mess, they contribute to it. A people who have lost their moral compass and fiscal conservatism (and both parties have done that) is doomed, no matter who the President.

I think it's great that Afro-Americans feel enfranchised because of Barrack Obama, and I blogged to that effect several months ago. But see, I'm just not that sort of person myself. I don't pant with eagerness for the day when a "woman becomes President" or when a "part Turk becomes President" (the meaning behind my droll blog posting of that title). I actually don't care if a woman ever becomes President, or a Turk, or a Muslim, a Jew or a gay. All I care is that the President be the right one for the times, and so far the country's been out of sync in that regard for several decades now, and I just don't see maturity and character in the electorate regarding solving the many problems this country and the local communities are in on their own, using good will and the tools already available, including that under used moral compass I've mentioned before. "So congratulations but lots of luck."