VOTING FOR A YOUNG BLACK MAN OR AN OLD WHITE MAN
11/2/08
The presidential race is now down to the wire. Many Americans have already cast their early ballots and have already made the decision to vote for a young black man or an old white man for President. I have spent a great deal of time considering my options in this election and have boiled it down to this. Do I want to vote in this election? If I do decide to vote what is my choice? I could vote for a third party candidate , or vote for one of the obvious two party candidates. I believe I have made my decision.
I have deliberated these options and spoken about them often on this site and on my radio shows. In the entire two years of this historical election process, we have lost all the qualified presidential candidates through Primary attrition .I will leave it up to the reader to decide who those candidates were . What is left is the most unqualified candidates to choose from, John McCain and Barack Obama, or several third party candidates, Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney , and a few less known third party candidates who very few people if any have heard of before, or will hear about after this election.
The choice is really between Barack Obama and John McCain. An inexperienced young black man or old, irritable, white man;who shows early signs of dementia. I believe the choice is truly one of race, and youth and idealistically one of Change. It is long overdue in this country’s evolution for the Black American to be allowed to achieve the highest office in the land. It is long overdue, for all legal minority citizens to have real hope that they too can reach the heights of their ambitions, and know that the ceiling of racial inequality has been finally broken through in a White male dominated country.; where black people were once slaves. This is what a vote for Obama really means to millions of Americans. This is what it means to me.
It took me some time to understand the intellectual aspects of this election. I finally realized that there really are no intellectual reasons to vote for either of the major candidates. If anyone is considering either campaign’s political promises and rhetoric as a reason to vote for one or the other major candidates ; they are simply fooling themselves.. Americans don’t vote from their brain , they vote from their hearts. They vote from their emotions. That is why they vote for presidents like G.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. It has nothing to do with intelligent choice but everything to do with emotional attraction. Young and old people are driven by their emotions. The sexual attraction to a candidate and the idea of radical change are far more important to young voters and excites young voters andterrorizes old voters. But old voters hate being lied to , they hate being deceived by their elected officials, they hate seeing corruption and collusion as the governing forces behind their government. They hate the men and women who have lied and cheated them for years. Many old voters are now ready to cast off their fear and vote to make the change , while others are so fearful of change and so ingrained in racial bigotry that they will vote to keep the status quo of racial inequality, and government corruption by voting for John McCain. No one knows enough about the candidates to make a proper intellectual choice, so they ultimately rely on their emotions to dictate who they will vote for. This is the tried and true method in all elections. This is also why the Obama campain is concerned about the Bradley Effect. Will Americans choose the president on racial grounds? The answer is obvious. Yes, but will they vote in majority for an old white man or a young black man.?
I will vote for Barack Obama. Not because he is the very best choice for President , but because he is a better choice than John McCain. Also because I have the emotional desire to vote for the first Black American President. This is the most historical election in American History. Anyone who votes in this election is voting as a maker of history. Regardless what happens in the next four years, our vote will be historical, and one that we can be forever proud of or one that we will be ashamed of.
Am I voting for race? Yes. Am I voting for the pride of all minorities in this country ? Yes. Am I voting for a new age of American politics? Yes. Am I voting for the end of bigotry and racial hatred in America? Yes. Am I voting for the very best candidate between the two major party candidates. Yes. Am I voting from an intellectual stand point . No. Am I wrong to feel this way, or think this way? I don’t think so. Maybe other voters feel differently , but that is their choice. I will not argue with them for making their choice. This election will be decided on emotion, not intellect. I t may also be decided by corrupt E voting machines, and the corrupt Republican Party., and the limp spine Democratic Party who will not contest the outcome of the elections, if John McCain wins.
I have always been a registered Independent. I am not voting for a political party , nor am I voting for a candidate. I am voting for a principle and a deeply held belief; that it is time for a real political change in the U.S , and it is time for a Black American President.
L.A. STEEL
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