Reasons I would love to vote for Obama:
1. Will.I.am made some sweet Obama youtube videos…you should check them out.
2. I would love for America to have a African American president.
I will not vote for O for 2 reasons:
1. He is radically pro-choice and any argument about a consistant life ethic is a bunch of crap…you know it and I know it but it is your conscience.
2. I am an urban minister who cares deeply about the poor. They are my people and I do not see the poor as “them” but as “us”… and I believe that Obama’s policies will make more people poor, and cause even greater destruction in the African American community.
But at any rate I would love for all of you believers who will be voting for him to read this. On O’s abortion polices..scary, especially the Hyde amendment.
Poop is emergent too 
Happened across your blog today and was compelled to comment.
I don’t agree with some of Obama’s policies, but his economic plan is something that many people have misconceptions about. Obama’s tax plan will lower taxes for anyone earning a salary of under $250,000. This plan will also provide a $1,000 income tax credit for those making between $8,000 and $75,000. McCain’s plan is based on the theory of trickle-down economics, which depends on this logic: lower taxes for corporations = growth in the economy = prosperity for all. Clearly, this theory has not worked. Overall, Obama’s plan will be more beneficial to the lower class.
I do agree with you though; Will.I.Am has made some pretty sweet Obama videos. 🙂
I am no fan of the rich…at all. But the reality is that they provide most the the jobs. In our ‘hood we have seen trickle down economics work in both the positive and the negative. Remember that under Regan (another person I do not like) trickle down economics worked pretty well.
I live in Michigan where we are closing factories every day… What scares me is that the Wall Street Journal stated “If you like Michigan’s economy, you will love Obama…” That is scary cause our economy blows.
Taxing the rich will be a form of trickle down economics as well…and the trickle down will hurt the rest of us more than the rich.
D
Define rich…and why don’t you like them?
Probably an overstatement. I really mean that I am not “partial” to the rich…
I agree, poop.
By the way, in what city do you minister?
Holiday: I am in the Godwin Heights neighborhood of Grand Rapids, MI.
D
D
I’ll check out the will.I.am videos. I wish I was cool enough to have punctuation in my name.
I also care very deeply about the poor and am kinda urban. (I’ve got the strangest neighborhood ever-the ghetto is 2 blocks away but a field with deer and fox is beside my house). I’m overall ambivalent towards Obama because of the abortion thing. However I think he really understands race in this country. Check out his speech on youtube. I also think he’ll be good for the poor. He’s proposing tax cuts for the middle class which IMO will be much better for the poor than typical conservative economics of late.
Regarding abortion I’m really wrestling here. Basically the question I’m asking myself is “will there be fewer abortions with Obama than McCain?” I think despite the fact that Obama is pro-choice his strong policies in many other areas will actually lead to the overall reduction of the number of abortions that take place. If that weren’t the case I don’t know if I should still vote for him or not.
Is abortion a trump card? Meaning what if the candidates only real failing is being pro-choice what does that mean for how a christian should vote? I honestly don’t know. I also don’t think it’s right not to vote though. I only have two sides of my mouth and I think I’ve successfully spoken out of both of them.
Meade,
Here in Michigan we have a governor with the same policies as Obama and we have the 50th worst climate for small businesses in the country. I know it is not fun to give tax cut to the wealthy but we have seen here that taxing the snot out of them does not work either. All of our jobs here have moved to Kentucky. The Wall Street Journal recently had an article entitled: “If you Like Michigan’s Economy, You’ll Love Obama…” That scares the crap out of me.
At the End of my street (less than a block) is the oldest General Motors Stamping plant in the country, they just announced that they are closing it. The result will be thousands of workers who will get new (lower paying probably) jobs at the expense of the people in a rung below them and so forth down the line. The people this will hurt most are the people living in our neighborhood, who are already underemployed and highly likely to be employed in a service industry that serves those who work at GM (i.e. Gas stations, restaurants and the like).
So for me it is the abortion issue + what I see as really dangerous economic policy. Who the frick needs a tax cut when they have no job?
Also: I think that while Obama understands race in this country, to me he sounds a lot like the kind of elitist black leadership we have seen post-MLK in this country. The kind of leadership that presumes to speak for a whole people then suppresses those people when they disagree.
Meaning that
1. A lot of the black folk in our hood do not think like Obama at all
2. Black folks “blackness” is questioned if they don’t agree with the prevailing leadership.
3. Given those two, Obama presumes to know what is best for black folk in the hood though he is not from the hood, and if black folk in the hood question this, they will be attacked for not being “black” enough or thought of as dumb ghetto rats who do not know any better.
4. Given points 1-3: The black leadership engages in a form of intellectual slavery, by defining for the community what it means to be “black” and disparaging and ostracizing dissenters.
5. This is not good for any people, and is not truly freedom.
6. This in one of the things that keeps people in the hood from taking responsibility for themselves and rising up.
7. While O understands race, he does not have compelling vision to fix what ails the actual problems of black America, which desperately needs freedom, responsibility and empowerment. None of which they will gain as long as our government and their leaders keep them caged in an intellectual prison which elevates the leaders and destroys the pride and sufficiency of the people and amounts to societal genocide, as the community crumbles from within.
D
Meade and D,
As an urban minister, I essentially agree with D but I want to add a few things. I don’t see as much common rhetoric between Obama and Jesse/Al Sharptons, etc….although I see their solutions the same.
Obama is willing to bring up the elephant in the room that many post-civil rights leaders don’t want to talk about, which is the lack of personal responsibility among absentee fathers in the ‘hood. Even the reverend Jackson was irritated that Obama did this around fathers day this past year. The probem, however, is that Obama’s solutions to urban issues such as poverty, which is linked to single parent headed families, is very much the same as the Jesses and Al Sharptons, which amounts to more and more Federal government spending.
While some of the causes of poverty is economic and social, we also can’t ignore the moral causes of poverty either. Often they are inextricibly linked together, which is why faith-based organizations, according to much of the current research that is coming out, is most effective in helping the poor break the cycle of poverty. These faith-based organizations address the multi-faceted nature of poverty in ways that the Federal government programs can never do.
Oh, by the way Obama wants to adjust the provisions of charitable choice, which allowed faith-based organizations get government money, the right to hire those whose beliefs fit their mission and worldviews. By the way, this provision was one of former president Bill Clinton’s accomplishments. So far, faith-based organizations have been rightly required to use their government funding for non-religious activities or for religious activities that allow participants to voluntarily opt out in order to guard against people being force-fed religion through government money. Apparently, this is not good enough for Obama. Obama has publicly stated from his web page that those who get money from the government cannot have what was signed into law through charitable choice, which is the freedom to hire whom they choose.
The reason Charitable Choice was considered in the first place was due to the empirical evidence of the effectiveness of faith-based social services verses bureaucratic government’s delivery of social services. Because I see the countless lives that testify to a broken system which daily crushes the lives of the poor, I am more pragmatic in this area because the lives of the poor are literally on the line. By the way, I am not necessarily for more churches to get government money to do social work. Churches and non-profits without any significant training and experience often do far worse than the government in their delivery of services to the poor.
By the way, I find it very telling that the Ron Siders and Tony Campolos are virtually silent about this issue with Obama, when they were some of the ones who were most vocal and gave leadership to it with Bill Clinton and George W. I feel that my fellow urban poverty-fighters are losing and will continue to lose their prophetic edge if Obama gets into office. It seems as if these “red-letter” Christians are really the left’s equivalent of the Christian right. sigh………
I’m just against religious leaders telling people who to vote for and then saying things like ‘it’s your conscience’ !!!!!!!!!
You should care about abortion, I agree it is a trump card though. Here’s the thing, you can’t make it illegal, it would only continue and many women would suffer. We must concentrate on creating a society where women have all the resources they need and so don’t consider abortion. Forget protesting, use some energy on caring for these women.
-Don’t worry about everything falling apart, it pretty much has under Bush.
Peace out!
Joel,
I forgot about the Jesse Jackson/Obama exchange. The one where Jesse said he wanted ot “kick Obama’s a..” for talking down to black people. I will give Obama points for that. Good call.
Cha,
I agree about telling people who to vote for as well. However apply your second argument to any other life taking crime as see how logical it is.
In regards to Michigan’s economy and Obama, at least he wants to give a tax benefits companies to keep jobs in US.
Don’t forget that McCain is a federalist and though pro-choice he made it clear in the debate the other night that he does not plan to choose a Supreme Court nominee based on pro-life issues. Even if he did want to over turn Roe-v-Wade he would believe strongly in turning the power over to the states to decide.
It makes me crazy that McCain started pandering to the Christian right. He is a totally different person on “Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show” than he was at Saddleback. I’ve never heard so much Christianeze in my life.
I used to like McCain…before he adopted all the hard line GOP hook line and sinker to gain the votes.
Honestly, you can only use the words Maverick and Miss Congeniality so many times.
I agree about the Saddleback thing. I mean don’t pretend you are one of us. Just don’t annoy me and I will probably reluctantly vote for you.
I liked McCain better when he was the guy who was not conservative enough as well. I am particularly concerned about immigration and he does not seem to be the racist putz that the other republicans do….
Obama I thought though was even worse at Saddleback as he has obviously be coached our how to speak “Christianese” and we all know that he attends a UCC church that not only does not believe that Jesus is divine but also is the only denom. in the country to pay for abortions for it’s employs.