(Much of this was put together by my friend Phil, so many thanks to him for condensing his thoughts so carefully and thoughtfully.)
I had always been in the you-can't-vote-for-a-democrat-because-of-abortion camp, and I voted for GWB in '00 largely because of this issue and because he claimed to be a Christian. In ’04, I voted for him mainly because of the Iraq war – I was concerned that a drastic change of policy there would put our men and women at great risk. (I also couldn’t get behind John Kerry – he was utterly uninspiring, and my Democratic friends agree with me on that!).
I'm passionately pro-life and have been confronted with the very real choice to terminate a pregnancy based on a devastating diagnosis. But I have grown more and more upset by the way Republicans use this issue to make Christians fall in line with the rest of their agenda, without actually delivering results.
Fact: the number of abortions has declined for the last 20 years, declining at its fastest rate when Clinton was in office. It has leveled off under GWB. I am by no means praising Clinton's pro-life credentials, but rather pointing out that it isn’t the black-and-white issue the religious right makes it out to be. The supreme court nomination process is far from a sure bet too, since justices nominated by every republican president from Nixon to the first Bush have voted pro-abortion. Republican Christians have used abortion as a voting crutch, a short-cut to avoid thinking critically about the other serious challenges facing our nation. They have also resorted to using manipulative techniques such as fear and intimidation (“they are going to take your children!” and “that man is the devil!”), instead of thoughtfully and calmly and peaceably responding and debating the issue. Jesus said that if a man strikes you on the cheek, turn to him the other also. Proverbs teaches that a calm and quiet answer turns away wrath. I’ve seen NONE of that demonstrated by passionate Christians in the public eye. Their lives and words have instead shown their character to be no different from the people they oppose. Not only that, but this behavior has so polarized our nation that it's become very difficult to maintain relationships with people with whom you disagree politically. (Comments on my wall being a great example of this.)
On a side note, pro-choice people are NOT pro-abortion. There is a difference… if you will sit down and talk with them. I’ve done this and discovered that we all agree that abortion is tragic. They don't want more abortions! They point out that the real issue is convincing pregnant women to make a different choice, or for couples to be more responsible about getting pregnant in the first place. Working on these two things is something we can do together AND is something that will actually reduce the number of abortions.
Setting the abortion issue aside, serious Christians will disagree about which party's platform does the better job of satisfying the Bible's call for justice and mercy in society. But when I compare the entire platforms of both candidates, I find that Obama's priorities are more in line with my own, and with how I interpret the Bible.
In particular, Obama is much more serious about extending healthcare to those without it and giving the poor, uneducated, and disabled a leg up -- and to me, that's a pro-life issue. He's also much more serious about ending the Iraq war and using diplomacy to prevent future conflicts, and to me, that's a pro-life issue. He's also shown a greater commitment to reducing our carbon emissions, which is a stewardship issue.
Many people have said that the Iraq war is their single issue pointing them towards McCain, and I understand that. However, I think that a timeline for withdrawal of troops from Iraq is wise at this stage. People often need to be pushed towards independence, from 20-somethings to nations. So I think that our country needs to sit down with the Iraqi government and set a mutually-acceptable timetable for total independence. Without this, what incentive do they have to do it themselves? Why not take the "free" help from the U.S. and other nations?
The candidates’ energy plans were a big factor for me too. McCain's plan is to increase domestic oil consumption, with no new money invested in new technologies. (Not that you'd know it by all the windmills in his commercials. Instead, he just re-shuffles existing tax credits in that area.) Obama's plan is much lighter on the domestic oil front and much heavier on the new technologies front (with real investment), and I believe that's exactly what we need to be doing. If we just get more oil locally, our country will never get off its butt and convert to new forms of energy--we'll just keep putting it off. Sure, we may not need to buy as much oil from the Russians and Saudi's, but they'll still have it as a weapon to wield over other countries. Why shouldn't America be the country that produces and exports new forms of power and efficient transportation? Why shouldn't we make money off of the energy sources for the next century and simultaneously take a major weapon away from our enemies in the world? We'll never do it unless our leaders makes it a priority, because our businesses have too much invested in the status quo and too much incentive to focus on short-term profits.
The budget deficit is also a huge deal to me, and the non-partisan Tax Policy Center forecasts that over the next 10 years, Obama's plans would increase the deficit by 3.5 trillion, while McCain's plans would increase it by 5 trillion (full report ). I'm certainly not excited by an increase of any kind, but if the proposals I prefer anyway also increase the deficit the least, then it's a no-brainer for me.
I used to like McCain, but he's not at all the candidate he was in 2000. He has completely reversed himself on several issues in order to cow-tow to the far-right base, and I find that distasteful. I was also very turned off by the Sarah Palin pick. She has resorted to the same sort of name-calling and character-bashing that has unfortunately characterized much of Republican campaigns in recent years. Her appointment also demonstrates that they never believed any of the inexperience criticisms that they leveled at Obama. And hearing republicans go on and on about a glass ceiling and sexism in our society is just embarrassing. I defer to the talented Tina Fey and Amy Pohler in their skit putting Sarah and Hillary at a podium together...
