Hello there to all the long time listeners and readers. My name is Michael Lenahan. I am a new and first time contributer to the site. I was asked by my friend Brandon if I would like to submit articles for this site. Turns out I would. I have an interest in writing, particularly essays and fantasy fiction, along with philosophy. I got into Ayn Rand around Christmas three years back after I read Atlas Shrugged for a school project. I plan to contribute articles to this site, including editorials such as this, book reviews, and shorter more current pieces. The following piece is a reproduction of the draft of an editorial I submitted to the campus paper regarding the upcoming election. I hope you all enjoy.
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Fall is here, and it is a very special fall at that. As election year drifts closer and closer, more and more discussions drift towards the bent of politics. When people ask who I plan to vote for I joking reply “John Galt, write-in candidate for president.†The one other person in the room who has read Atlas Shrugged invariably finds this hilarious.
The shame is that as the days go by it becomes less and less of a joke.
As this is politics, I have been asked to stress that this is my opinion. I don’t like the term opinion as it has the connotation of being whim centered and baseless. I would more like to say that these are my attempts at logical observation. I am “calling it like I see it,†as it were, but I am not perfect, nor am I a professional politician/philosopher/rhetorician, so my word is not law nor is it meant to be taken as such. I shall try to be as fair and logical as I can in my evaluations though.
What is my political affiliation? Objectivist. To put it plainly, I am in search of a candidate who will protect my rights, but who will not violate them. I am looking for a government who will stay out of both church and economics, a secular and free society. That is what I think is not only right, bur moral as well. I feel that no man has a right to another man’s life. Plain and simple. It is from this principle that I derive my politics. Who fills these lofty principles though? So far, I am left wanting.
Let us first start with McCain. McCain is often touted as a Maverick, a free spirt, and a wild card. He is famous for surviving his imprisonment as a POW in Vietnam. The video on his website speaks to me by appealing to my free-market inclinations. The question is, how much of this is McCain, and how much of it is the party line?
“I want to assure you I will make this planet clean … we will hand to you a cleaner planet than the one you were living in before I became president of the United States, I promise you that.” McCain is quoted on the news website www.boston.com. How will he make this planet cleaner, though? By passing laws restricting businesses. How will he enforce these laws? Why, with your tax money. Its not hyperbole, its common sense. Projects such as saving the environment cost money, and the only way for the president to get money is via the backs of the populace in taxes. He will also no doubt “clean up the environment,†which, in recent years, means passing laws taking freedoms from business owners and stripping away the technological achievements, such as with “minimized emissions†and a “Cap and trade†system. If McCain seeks to “clean up the environment,†he cannot truly do so in a manner that is in any way conducive to freedom.
There is also the issue of Palin. Her pro-life stance is well known. While I might have voted for McCain at one point, Palin very well might be the deal-breaker. By picking such an anti-abortion and pro-Christian figure, Palin is a clear signal from McCain that he is willing to appeal to the anti-secularists who have been clamoring for control of the government. This is not a good thing.
Moving on, there is Obama. I, at one point, supported Obama. It was short lived. Obama’s health-care plan will be a disaster. Socializing medicine is a bad idea. Socializing anything is a bad idea. Seems that this is a lesson that was not learned last century. It is wrong and not the place of government to redistribute wealth in the form of free health care, nor is it the right of government to dictate the daily lives of its citizens. Both of which it will do should a socialized system be instituted. At what point is it o.k. for the government to take one man’s money by force to heal another’s child? Theft is theft, no matter who it was stolen for.
Obama is also breaking the long tradition of the secular of the left. This is most likely made is parrot the success of Bush and his crusades though, and not the core of his values.
Then there is also the issue of the war. Obama is against, and McCain for. I am against, but for different reasons than Obama. I question though McCain’s commitment to attacking Iran, or his competence to do so. He is famous for being captured, after all. I also doubt the wisdom of walking away from the Middle East. Those there who wish us destroyed will do so, at any cost. They have demonstrated this. I am unsure though, of the validity of attempting to attack Iran. The war is an important issue, perhaps the most important, but I feel I cannot make a comment on it at this time.
After all of that, who will I vote for? At the moment I lean towards Obama. Voting for Obama shows that I will not stand for the de-secularization that Palin represents, or the false friend of capitalism that is McCain. This is not voting for though. It is voting against. This is what distresses me most of all though. Someone put it to me very poignantly; There are three hundred million people in this nation, and my only choice is between the lesser of two evils?
A choice between evil and evil is not a choice at all.
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For more discussions of the 2008 election, feel free to check out past shows:
Politics & Culture (Show 079): Show Notes, mp3 Download, iTunes Link
The Coming Election (Show 049): Show Notes, mp3 Download, iTunes Link
Also:
Leonard Peikoff’s Podcast – Episode 33: mp3 Download, iTunes Link
Craig Biddle’s Article “McBama vs. America”
Diana Hsieh’s 2008 Voting Recommendations post on NoodleFood
