The Dilemma of the 2008 Presidential Election

The republican presidential candidate, John McCain has been my candidate of choice for the 2008 presidential election ever since the former republican senator from Tennessee turned actor, Fred Thompson dropped out of the race earlier this year. I supported John McCain so much so that I bought a mug, buttons and a bumper sticker from his store, I made contributions to his campaign and I waited in line for four hours at my university just to get a glimpse of him and listen to him speak about his goals and plans for the United States if he became president. I surely had the feeling he was the right candidate to bring the United States back to where it needed to be and would clean up the messes of our current president... even though many say he is similar to President Bush.

As I was researching the best candidate for president, I couldn't help but think Barack Obama's plans for America were not my ideals and what I felt were best for America. His plan for universal health care, for withdrawing troops from Iraq, raising taxes among other things were not right for America, in my opinion.

Since John McCain and Barack Obama clinched their respective nominations, my views have slightly changed. They haven't changed in regards to universal healthcare, or withdrawing our troops from Iraq, but have shifted to something that has become an important issue with me; gay rights. With eight years of President George W. Bush, we have seen many gay rights brought to the forefront of the political arena. He made it known he wanted to taint the American Constitution with a ban on gay marriage. Now, as a homosexual myself, I don't necessarily want gay marriage, but I do strongly support the right to civil unions. The word marriage is more spiritual to me than it is political. President Bush and his cronies attempted multiple times to get the Constitution to define marriage between a man and a woman throughout his tenure as president. Ironically, a major platform of the Republican party is to leave it up to the states. Something I strongly support. Even though President Bush's attempts to taint our Constitution has not been successful, he has helped ban gay marriage in multiple states. Although multiple states have banned gay marriage, others have adopted either a civil union system or allowed gay marriage entirely. I am getting a bit of course as to my original intent of starting this blog, but I think you are getting an idea of where I am going with this.

A valuable tool in understanding where candidates stand on the issues is ontheissues.org. It provides quotes and voting records on each candidate running for office so you can see for yourself what they may or may not do for you. As I become more comfortable in my own skin as a homosexual, I couldn't help but see where each candidate stands on gay rights.

I assumed John McCain would be against gay marriage, but I was slightly surprised when I saw he didn't support adding sexuality to hate crimes or discrimination laws. According to the Human Rights Campaign, an organization dedicated to the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender, John McCain scores a measily 33% on gay rights, which indicates a mixed record.

On the other hand, Barack Obama supports civil unions, he supports adding sexual orientation to anti-discrimination and anti-hate crime laws. He rates much higher on the Human Rights Campaign's scale. Obama received 89%, which indicates a pro-gay rights stance.

Months ago, I never thought the issue would be an important one for me, but as I read about the discrimination homosexuals face in this country, I can't help but realize the urgent need to move forward in the gay rights movement and not fall backwards. If Obama is elected president, I could see us moving forward in the movement, or staying where we are at. With McCain in office, I believe we will fall backwards in the movement.

I am now at a crossroad. Do I support John McCain for the policies I do support him for and just pray we do not fall backward and continue to allow homophobia to flourish or do I ignore the major policies of Obama and know we may go forward in the gay rights movement?

I've comtemplated voting for a third party candidate, but I don't find any candidates worthy of my vote in that arena either. I tend to align with the libertarian party, and thought they may have a strong candidate worth taking a look at, such as Ron Paul, only to find a former Republican turned libertarian, Bob Barr getting their nomination. During his tenure as a representative for Georgia, Bob Barr attempted to ban gay adoptions in DC, a surprising act by a libertarian. He also supported the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which was the federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. As he was about to accept the nomination for the libertarian party, he was told he could no longer support the DOMA. Two days before he accepted the nomination, Bob Barr let it be known that he still supported DOMA.... only to denounce it during the libertarian presidential convention. I can't support this man either. I looked at the Green Party, a party that has nominated a black woman by the name of Cynthia McKinney to run for their party. Her ideas are so far liberal I could never in my right mind vote for her. She believes in slave reparations, which would have been good if it was 150 years ago when slavery ended. No one alive today had anything to do with slavery, and not all African-Americans were slaves back then just as not all white people were slave owners back then... there would be no way to regulate who got reparations and who had to pay. She also wants to create so many different socialist programs that we would virtually become a socialist nation, something that goes against what this country was founded on.

An issue with voting for a third party also becomes challenging because we basically have a two party system in America. The democrats and the Republicans are virtually the only two parties that truly have a chance of being elected. I have to think about which of those two candidates my vote for the third party candidate would help. For instance, if I voted for Bob Barr, I would be helping Barack Obama get elected as Barr will be getting the votes normally reserved for John McCain.

As you can see, I am facing a dilemma when it comes to the 2008 presidential election and I am so unaware of where to turn. I hope by November 4, 2008 when I enter the voters booth that I will have clarity on which candidate to vote for.

Ramblings...

A couple weeks ago, I dropped and broke my laptop. As I continue my quest to get out of debt, I had to load another chunk of change into the debt side as I need a computer for summer school. I of course embellished a bit and sprung for a laptop and a desktop. You might ask why I got both, but I need a computer I can take to school and I love the transportability of a laptop. I also like being able to sit at my desk and just work.. its a bit annoying to have to always plug and unplug everything into my laptop, so I sprung for a desktop as well.

I have realized I am becoming more comfortable with myself and my sexuality. As the days pass, I am coming out to more and more people. I consider myself to be lucky considering everyone has been supportive of me so far. I just wish I could come out to everyone so I can truly be myself around everyone as I have found myself nearly slipping, but I have found it difficult because I am unsure of how some will respond. One of my friends invited me to "girl's night" at her apartment because she stated I was "gay enough." I was able to be myself, talk about guys and there was even a guy there trying to hook me up with one of his friends that I had met a few night before.

One of the methods of coming out to a person is to poke around with them to see how they might respond.. to get a feel on their view of homosexuality. I was preparing to come out to one of my closest friends that still doesn't know, simply because of her religious beliefs. As she started talking about her views, she said it was OK to be gay, but they should be celibate because if they were it was just wrong. I would love to tell her, just so I can be true to who I am when I am around her, but its just so hard to do it when you are afraid of losing that person as a friend... then again, if they are a true friend they will stick by you, regardless of who you are.

I went to Martha's Vineyard, a gay bar in Springfield with a friend about a week ago. My friend took me on guy's night in hopes of me finding a guy. The bar was fairly dead, but I did dance with a few guys. I was asked out several times by different people, but none of them were really my type. The one that I found to be nice, we traded numbers. Quickly, I realized most of the guys at Martha's are looking for one's thing, and the thing they are looking for is sex. Now, obviously, I'm not anti-sex, but I am not one for booty calls, I actually like to get to know a person and date them before I just jump in bed with them. Oh well, I guess it might be too much to ask for to find someone more interested in getting to know me than how to get into my pants. There was another guy I met there that night, which is the one his friend was trying to hook me up with. I'm actually interested in getting to know him, but unsure of how to get ahold of him as we didn't exchange numbers at all. Oh well, if it's meant to be I guess I will get a hold fo him somehow.

I've been struggling in my faith a lot lately. I hit rock bottom and actually called an atheist friend on why God doesn't exist. Although it was bad that I talked to him in an attempt to stop believing, it was good in that shortly after talking with him, I started my upswing and can already feel my faith strengthening even more. As I study the Bible, I am realizing more and more that God is love and the Bible may not say what the mainstream of Christianity believes. I have ordered several books on the matter and hope to be able to study it to concrete my belief in what the Bible truly says. I am sure I will write about them as I read them.

Anyways, this has just become a huge rambling, so I think I will end it at that.