now is the time.
if you want my vote, my feminist, pro-choice, mother, WoC, LGBTQ ally, progressive vote, this is your chance to prove it.
it is not up to me to change my principles and ideals to align w/ you and your campaign. it is your job to align your campaign to fit what i want to see to win MY vote. MY feminist, pro-choice, mother, WoC, LGBTQ ally, progressive vote.
we both have decisions that are properly ours to make. what are you going to do about it?
if you become the Democratic nom you will not automatically get my vote. it is still mine to use as i please, and as it stands right now, you do not support what i need to see from my candidate. you still have work to do to earn it.
please consider this as you continue down this road.
Sincerely,
Ouyang Dan.
*to all of my fellow HRC supporters, and anyone else, what do you need to see to be able to vote for Obama? (in fairness, i know RQ will not be able to answer this question. right now i am trying to decide why i should not do the same as her.)
Ouyang Dan
The Guy
Oh I can answer it.
I need Obama to take the VP position, spend a few year in on the job training and learning how a country is run instead of how a campaign is run.
Once he has done that (and you know- stopped being a sexist) I can vote for him as pres.
Thank you for the reminder that it is the candidate’s responsibility to be sufficiently compelling, in terms of politics, policies, and positions, to get my vote. It is not my responsibility to like him. In any other transaction, this would make sense to people–e.g. if I want an mp3 player, it is Apple’s job to convince me to get an iPod. It is not my job to leap on the Apple bandwagon. Yet, the mob mentality among many political supporters forgets that basic piece of information. My job is to do my research and see what best fits my needs, and Obama’s politics, policies, and positions most assuredly do not. And it’s completely independent of Clinton! Being a Clinton supporter has nothing to do with why I don’t want to vote for Obama in the GE; his complete lack of experience, his health care policies, his lack of political courage and legislation, are all reasons I can’t vote for him. I believe that it’s my duty as a citizen to tell my legislators what *I* want, and not to accept what they hand me, when what they offer are things that I find insufficient for social justice and the healthy functioning of this country.
What do I need to see from Obama? A time machine. He has virtually nonexistent experience championing legislation, has very rarely taken any risky political stand on issues important to me, never used his position as chair of the Senate subcommittee on European Affairs to advance an anti-Iraq invasion/occupation position, never convened his subcommittee, and all around shows a complete lack of preparation for running the United States. Those are among my primary beefs with him. I disagree with his environmental policies and political susceptibility to lobbyists (Exelon), his health care platform, and his positions on reproductive justice. I am revolted by his cozening up with homophobic, ex-gay bigots to win votes and his casual use of inaccurate, insulting stereotypes to dismiss people that don’t vote for him.
In order to get me to vote for him, he’d have to become a policy wonk, become a progressive, and convince me that the change is genuine. There is an extremely slim possibility that he could convince me to vote for him, if he managed to embrace substantive, detailed policy proposals with genuine conviction. There’s not enough time, however, given that he’s going to spend the rest of the time between now and November campaigning rather than working in the Senate (which is a grievance I had/have with all of the candidates, not just him).
Also, I LIVE IN FUCKING CALIFORNIA. MY SINGLE VOTE IS GOING TO MATTER AS SUPPORT FOR THE GREEN PARTY’S POSITIONS AND PLATFORM, BUT MY SINGLE VOTE IS NOT GOING TO SINGLE-HANDEDLY ELECT MCCAIN. SO THE PEOPLE BLUDGEONING ME WITH ‘OMG MCCAIN’ NEED TO SHUT THE FUCK UP.
well said, Pizza, well said.
time and experience has been an inhibiting factor for me, as well.