Puppies or Potentially Fatal Car Crashes?
Election season mercifully comes to an end tomorrow. There have been a few hotly contested races here in CT. However, none of them come close to the nasty race for Senate that I wrote about a couple weeks ago.
Lately, the Lieberman and Lamont released commercials that made me laugh. Watch them both.
Lamont
Lieberman
Ok, so Lieberman has many other nasty adds out there that match the venom spewed from Lamont's camp, but I like this one. As RoopDogg eloquently put it, I'm "Pro-Dog(g)"?
I am looking forward to Tuesday night when these commercials stop polluting the airwaves. However, between now and then, I have to decide which candidate to support. I gave this a lot of thought over the past couple weeks, and I am probably going to vote for Joe. I think Ned Lamont is running a one-issue campaign, and I disagree with way too many of his other ideas. For example, I am strongly against government paid universal health care. I think this would be incredibly wasteful and inefficient. There are much better ways to address the rising number of uninsured Americans than universal health care (promote cheap catastrophic coverage, tax breaks for individuals who pay their own insurance premiums, expanding the Medicare/Medicaid programs to those who are extremely poor, etc). Candidates as far left as Lamont scare me since they share the belief that the government should run the US healthcare system, which I think would weaken the health care system and substantially increase our taxes.
Since Lieberman will still caucus with the Democrats, voting for him is not the same as voting for Bush. I like some of his other ideas, even though I am still not enamored with Joe as my senator.
I really hope the Democrats sweep congress. Recent history supports the argument that when a party controls Congress and the White House, they become corrupt (Democrats in early 1990s and Republicans since 2000). The leadership becomes unable to control itself from pork and excess (did someone say a $250M bridge to nowhere in Alaska?). When Congress is appropriately checking the White House, I have much more faith in government. Therefore, go Democrats!
You know what is really sad about this whole election season? I am generally more interested in Michigan politics than Connecticut politics, even though I may never live in Michigan again. I can't name my congressman here in CT. However, I can name the congressmen that represent Ann Arbor and Plymouth. There are two hotly contested races involving incumbent Republicans in CT (Rob Simmons and Nancy Johnson). However, both of them represent other districts within the state (yes, CT has more than two congressmen).
There are two votes in Michigan that have my full attention this fall. The first is the race for Governor. I think that Jennifer Granholm is in deep trouble because of the huge slide in the economy over the past four years (largely driven to the fall of Ford and GM). She is up against a dangerous candidate. Dick De Vos terrifies me with his far-right social views, even if he is probably the better choice to improve the economic condition of the state better than Granholm. Why do Republicans insist on having such reactionary social views? When did I become such a Libertarian? I haven't seen a recent poll, but this will probably be a close race. I hope Michigan does not vote for a change.
The other election is Proposal 2, the so-called Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. The state of Michigan is voting on whether to allow preferential programs at any public institution that provide a special advantage to an individual based on race, religion, gender, etc. This is a thinly veiled attack on the University of Michigan's admission policies and "affirmative action". Based on what I have read about a similar proposal passed by California voters a few years ago, this proposal had unintended consequences against programs that supported women. Although this proposal will likely pass convincingly, Michigan will regret their actions once the courts further define the far reaching impacts of this new vague law and come down hard on state programs not targeted by this proposal. Even the conservative Detroit News opposes this proposal.
Regardless of your beliefs, I hope all of you take the time to VOTE tomorrow.
Lately, the Lieberman and Lamont released commercials that made me laugh. Watch them both.
Lamont
Lieberman
Ok, so Lieberman has many other nasty adds out there that match the venom spewed from Lamont's camp, but I like this one. As RoopDogg eloquently put it, I'm "Pro-Dog(g)"?
I am looking forward to Tuesday night when these commercials stop polluting the airwaves. However, between now and then, I have to decide which candidate to support. I gave this a lot of thought over the past couple weeks, and I am probably going to vote for Joe. I think Ned Lamont is running a one-issue campaign, and I disagree with way too many of his other ideas. For example, I am strongly against government paid universal health care. I think this would be incredibly wasteful and inefficient. There are much better ways to address the rising number of uninsured Americans than universal health care (promote cheap catastrophic coverage, tax breaks for individuals who pay their own insurance premiums, expanding the Medicare/Medicaid programs to those who are extremely poor, etc). Candidates as far left as Lamont scare me since they share the belief that the government should run the US healthcare system, which I think would weaken the health care system and substantially increase our taxes.
Since Lieberman will still caucus with the Democrats, voting for him is not the same as voting for Bush. I like some of his other ideas, even though I am still not enamored with Joe as my senator.
I really hope the Democrats sweep congress. Recent history supports the argument that when a party controls Congress and the White House, they become corrupt (Democrats in early 1990s and Republicans since 2000). The leadership becomes unable to control itself from pork and excess (did someone say a $250M bridge to nowhere in Alaska?). When Congress is appropriately checking the White House, I have much more faith in government. Therefore, go Democrats!
You know what is really sad about this whole election season? I am generally more interested in Michigan politics than Connecticut politics, even though I may never live in Michigan again. I can't name my congressman here in CT. However, I can name the congressmen that represent Ann Arbor and Plymouth. There are two hotly contested races involving incumbent Republicans in CT (Rob Simmons and Nancy Johnson). However, both of them represent other districts within the state (yes, CT has more than two congressmen).
There are two votes in Michigan that have my full attention this fall. The first is the race for Governor. I think that Jennifer Granholm is in deep trouble because of the huge slide in the economy over the past four years (largely driven to the fall of Ford and GM). She is up against a dangerous candidate. Dick De Vos terrifies me with his far-right social views, even if he is probably the better choice to improve the economic condition of the state better than Granholm. Why do Republicans insist on having such reactionary social views? When did I become such a Libertarian? I haven't seen a recent poll, but this will probably be a close race. I hope Michigan does not vote for a change.
The other election is Proposal 2, the so-called Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. The state of Michigan is voting on whether to allow preferential programs at any public institution that provide a special advantage to an individual based on race, religion, gender, etc. This is a thinly veiled attack on the University of Michigan's admission policies and "affirmative action". Based on what I have read about a similar proposal passed by California voters a few years ago, this proposal had unintended consequences against programs that supported women. Although this proposal will likely pass convincingly, Michigan will regret their actions once the courts further define the far reaching impacts of this new vague law and come down hard on state programs not targeted by this proposal. Even the conservative Detroit News opposes this proposal.
Regardless of your beliefs, I hope all of you take the time to VOTE tomorrow.
posted by GaryGinew at 7:08 PM
2 Comments:
I hate you for trying to sway my opinion.
I hate that I might vote the "liberal" way.
ugh. I am going to regret it no matter which way I vote. i'm positive of it.
Now if someone could just convince D$ it's worth voting...every election season, it's the same old argument. :(
Post a Comment
<< Home