SmithSR wrote:I think you're backing Obama because you don't have any money to lose in the capital gains tax reset Obama wished to perform.
Maybe you DO stand to lose more money to his tax plan, but why would you want to? You must be Patriotic, according to Joe..
OK so here is my question to Hash: Since the thread is derailed already can you give us a snapshot of what issues or ideas BO is trumpeting that have swayed you to his cause?
1- Simply put, why are YOU voting for BO?
2- What do you stand to gain from BO being elected?
So far all i hear is change. Change to what? Acorn electing our officials?
This post was meant as a serious question.
Fair enough.
1.) No, I stand to lose essentially nothing via a rise in the capital gains tax. All my investments are locked up in a tax-deferred Roth IRA or are in real estate that I do not intend to sell anytime soon. When "voting one's pocketbook", however, you need to take into account LONG TERM affects, not just what your taxes will be next year. Continued deficit spending will ruin us all, so if that means that we need to get taxed a little more, via captial gains or income or othewise, then so be it. That is, unless someone is really going to materially cut spending, although no post-WW2 President has *ever* done that, as far as I know. The closest we got was Clinton.
2.) In regards to why I'm supporting and voting for Barack Obama, here is a short list of my most major issues.
-Fiscal Policy: I will take "tax and spend" over "spend and don't tax" any day of the week. Supply-side trickle-down economics DOES NOT WORK in the 21st century, period. It trickles down to Bangladesh and Taiwan, not to Americans. Saying that we can afford to cut taxes today because we'll have the money tomorrow is fundamentally irresponsible and is my biggest disagreement with the modern GOP. It's abhorrent and it needs to stop. The GOP will NEVER materially cut spending, they've NEVER done it and they're lying when they promise to do so. The Democrats will spend money too, but at least they'll raise revenues to compensate for it and not plunge us into an ever-deeper hole. I believe that Barack Obama has a sound plan in regards to who to tax and who not to tax, and I do NOT believe that his plan will have material adverse effects on small businesses.
-Social Issues: I am a *fanatical* social progressive, and thus I am aligned in this way with the Democrats on every issue but gun control. I support the maximum amount of individual liberty available without infringing on the individual liberties of others. That means I want gays to be able to marry, I want people to be able to own and carry guns so long as they don't kill people with them, I want people to be able to smoke marijuana in their own home, I want decisions on abortion left to individuals, I see no reason why prostitution or gamb|ing should be illegal so long as they are properly regulated, et cetera. Government has no place telling anyone they can't do these things. The GOP can't be for "small government" and for a decrease in individual liberty at the same time.
-Multilateralism: I am a firm believer in multilateralist foreign policy with a heavy involvement in international organizations. I know the UN in it's current incarnation is a bungle-fest, but that doesn't mean it has to be. The best way to "win wars" is to avoid creating them in the first place, and the best way to do this is to have a solid grounding of allies and a solid consensus among them when making foreign policy decisions. Multilateralism also tends to put a damper on imperialist behavior, which I feel is a relic of the 19th century that needs to be retired. It doesn't work in the 21st century, not in the long term, not even if it works in the short-term.
-I despise what the right has become: I have a real problem with the "moral majority" set that I believe has effectively taken over the GOP. This is the contingent of the party that is real damned excited about Sarah Palin and the prospect of enforcing a "culture of life". The party is now effectively steered by people who want to turn the United States into a theocracy, no matter what they deny in public. This contingent of American society needs to be fought off, they need to be marginalized, they need to be beaten back to the obscure backwards warrens and holes from whence they came, and Barack Obama seems like as good a guy as any to do that, although I don't think he dislikes them quite as vehemently as I do.
One more point: I don't view voting as "what do I stand to gain from candidate x". That is short-sighted. Voters have a responsibility to consider the long-term consequences of their actions for the nation, not just how it will affect them during the next four years. Barack Obama will begin to pull us out of the deficit wherein McCain will plunge us further in.
