360 Degrees: The Presidential Election

Lately, I've been wondering how different people view the presidential election. Most people are extremely narrow-minded about it, which kind of bothers me. It seems like a majority of people just pick their candidate a week after the conventions and then wall themselves off in a cocoon (metaphorically) until election day. They ignore anything negative about their favorite candidate and/or anything positive about the other one. I've tried to do the opposite of that though, even though my opinion, realistically, doesn't really matter because I can't vote. That hasn't stopped me from looking at the issue from more than one angle. A couple weeks ago, when a guy in my class (let's call him "Mitch") couldn't stop gushing about how great Obama's convention speech was, I asked whether he had seen the Republican convention also. He said something along the lines of, "Why should I? They're all idiots anyway. Obama's awesome!" Even though everyone's entitled to their own opinion, I personally don't think that their opinion means very much if they haven't informed themselves as much as possible about the alternatives. That's why I watched a little of both conventions. Like Mr. Allen said at the beginning of the year, people should ask, "To what degree do I understand that which I'm rejecting?" before they completely make up their minds one way or the other.

It's not that difficult for me to view the election through the eyes of an Obama supporter, because I'm surrounded by them, and would classify myself as one as well. My entire family, and a lot of my friends, are pulling for Barack, and, for me, it's easy to see why. With the economy tanking so badly, the war in Iraq hemorrhaging money (and lives), and the country in general in such poor shape, a breath of fresh air is long overdue. Many of those voting for Obama aren't voting for him, but voting against George Bush and the Republicans who screwed up the country so badly in the first place. In my opinion, if many of these people thoroughly examined the policies of Obama and John McCain, they might find that, McCain's party affiliation aside, they agree with him a lot more than they previously thought. Still others might find that if they set the candidates' charisma aside and actually examine the substance behind them, they might find out some things to change their opinion.

It's more of a challenge to put myself in the shoes of a McCain supporter, because I'm not one. If I were to truly be honest with myself, I would probably say that despite my best efforts to write this impartially, I'm pretty heavily biased toward Obama. It's probably for that reason that I was surprised that, when I thought about it, I realized something that, to me, seemed counterintuitive. It makes sense that, in general, voters on the McCain train (I'm copyrighting that) would be more rational and thorough than those of Obama. For the reasons listed above, it would be hard for them to justify the kind of adoration of McCain that Obama enjoys, because even the most die-hard Republicans are a little cynical after the disaster known as George Bush. Republicans with any intelligence (more people than you'd think) would have to examine McCain and his policies to make sure he isn't "more of the same".

Finally, believe it or not, there are perspectives outside of the United States. I asked myself what people in different countries think of this election. Do they think it's as important as Americans do? More? Less? Do they even care at all? If so, which candidate do most outsiders approve of? Do they have different reasons than that candidate's American supporters? I don't really know the answers to those questions, but I doubt that the rest of the world is as interested in us as we would like to think.

Even though I doubt that my opinion on the election will change, at least not in a major way, I do think it's a good idea to take a step back and view it from all perspectives, no matter how sure I may be in my convictions. This is a good idea for life in general, and I wish I did it more. If I evaluate my opinions and the opposing opinions of others, only good things can happen. I might decide that I was wrong and become enlightened, or my opinions could remain unchanged, but I would know that I was well informed and that would just strengthen my convictions.