Every time I see a poll taken, be it on paper, video, or what have you, of what drives people's vote, they always say that it is the issues. At first, I was content to let that slide, and told my self "well those people are just Democrats, then. They couldn't be Republicans because Republicans have given exit polls since Regan saying they vote on 'values' rather than any actual substantive issues".
I've recently come to see, though, that it's not a partisan thing, it's an American thing. We don't dedicate ourselves to anything more than tabloid tripe. People have absolutely lost it on Obama because his father gave him the middle name Hussein. It is like someone with the name Miller; it is an extremely common name for Arabic speakers. Obama, of course, is a devout Christian, but because his father was Muslim we go nutty. If his father was Muslim doesn't that make him Muslim and if he's Muslim doesn't that make him a terrorist or at least sympathetic to terrorism? We fly down this train of thought as if it were a perfectly natural and adult way to evaluate the man who wants to be president.
Obama stopped wearing a flag lapel pin on his jacket, and when asked about it said something to the tune of "I don't think the way to prove you love your country is wearing a pin on your coat". McCain has taken to not wearing one either. Nevertheless, Obama is chastised for it, people won't vote for him because of it, and it's considered a real concern by the average voter. Why McCain is not subject to the same criticism is beyond me as well as the point of this article.
Obama didn't say the pledge of allegiance during a photo op back in the early stages of the primaries, and we worry that maybe it's because he doesn't actually have allegiance to it. Monty Python wouldn't write something like that, it's too outrageous; however, entire sections of the American voting public concern themselves with it as if it were going to make or break their vote for/against him.
Obama's wife says that for the first time she's really proud of this country, and later says she meant she has never been more proud than now. Why did she have to later say what she meant? Because we all flipped out on her for being potentially newly patriotic instead of having a longer track record of patriotism.
Obama's pastor loses a screw, and does it on national television several days in a row. Obama is held accountable for the man in full, as well as his membership in the pastor's church. Colbert had a good line about this. Something to the tune of "if your church does wrong, you MUST leave the church. That is why Hannity and O'Reilly are still Catholic." On a similar note, McCain has his own crazy pastor who thinks Katrina was God punishing gays, Hitler was simply continuing the punishment of Jews the Romans began (also ordained by God), etc. McCain has embraced the guy as well as his endorsement. Again, why McCain is not subject to the same criticism is beyond me as well as the point of this article.
Take these five examples into account, and you have most likely found yourself the entirety of an anti-Obama voter's decision making calculus. Not a whisper about health care, the war, the economy, housing, education, the environment, energy, tax reform, but absolute saturation over any one of these five "issues" listed above. Again, I thought it would be understandable as being simply a Republican thing, but I have now encountered at least as many Democrats following the same line of thought. When did the voting public decide that they were going to only care about the issues when they had a sitting elected official to blame it on? When did we get together as an entire nation and decide to focus on the exact opposite of the things we should? A flag pin isn't going to lower your taxes, a better-spoken wife is not going to give you a new job, etc. Why, then, do we keep down the same inane path when we decide who to vote for? Does anyone even care about the issues anymore?
