Supporting Obama - Emotion or Logic?

By: David Kilpatrick

Senator Obama is, arguably, one of the most motivational speakers in the Democratic party. His words motivate crowds and touch hearts. His words inspire us to look past our current problems and imagine a better tomorrow. His words make us believe in a greater good and a united planet where peace, love and harmony unite with the environment. Where greed is a thing of the past and the possibilities are limited only by the power of our imaginations. He tells us that the only people that need to pay are the richest among us and that a free ride awaits everyone else. All we need to do is trust him and his judgment to lead us to a brighter tomorrow and if we do, “…the levels of the oceans will drop and the Earth will begin to heal itself.” Truly, only a great, great man would be capable of healing the wounds that have plagued mankind for so long.
The emotional reasons for following Obama on this journey are many, but unfortunately, the logical ones are few. If we examine beyond the great speeches and grand platitudes, we find that his positions are not as savory as many of us would prefer and some of them are downright silly. Is this because of profound inexperience? Many believe so. What are the logical reasons we should elect Barack Obama to the White House? What has he done, where does he stand and what does he want to do?

TAXES as a SAMPLE ISSUE:

We know that he wants to raise a variety of taxes, especially on the wealthy, but is that smart? The wealthy provide jobs and spend the most money. Will taxing them simply cause them to cut jobs and wages and/or spend less? History shows us, time and again, that that is exactly what will happen, but even as Obama denies the success of the surge in Iraq, we find that our constitutional scholar is ignoring this historical fact.
Under the Clinton tax rates that Obama wants to return to, tax revenues actually dropped starting in 2000 from $2.4 trillion until 2003 when they bottomed out at just above $2 trillion. What happened in 2003? The Bush tax cuts took effect and going into 2008, revenues have recovered to their highest levels in history at $2.5 trillion. Lower taxes did not hurt the country. The solution to our economic problem is not nearly as simple as a slight tweak of out tax burden to a lucky few among us, but it’s not so difficult to understand either.
Incomes for average Americans has increased by 35% since 1965, yet discretionary government spending has increased by 152% and non-discretionary spending has increased by a whopping 759%! How can any society maintain these types of spending increases without matching increases in wealth? The answer is simply that we cannot.
In 1850, Alexander Tyler wrote, "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policies followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From to liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependency; and, From dependency back to bondage.”

Obama’s promise to lead us to dependence may sound great to the unwashed and uneducated masses and even many of the wealthy elite who stand to enrich their companies by serving the needs of the people at the request of the government through a variety of new programs, but to those of us who step back and think for a moment, the deals don’t sound so sweet.
Looking at his current positions and gathering from his statements we can put forth the following and ask ourselves if these are positions we can all agree to stand behind:

Obama's solution to illegal immigration: You need to teach your kids Spanish.

Obama's solution to the energy crisis: You need to check your tire pressure.

Obama's solution to abortion survivors: Let the abortionist pretend to be a pediatrician.

Obama's solution to health care: Free health care for all, including illegal immigrants.

Obama's solution to a sluggish economy: Raise taxes on the people who provide jobs and spend the most.

Obama's solution to the war on terror: Withdraw and wait for them to come to us again.

Obama's position on abortion: Government funding for all, up to and including partial-birth, with or without parental consent.

Obama is a community activist with no experience in governance, military, health care, finance, management, or business who got elected to the Senate and even now, rarely attends hearings and has never written any legislation of his own. Clearly he has no relevant experience and is not qualified under any standard we would normally hold someone to if they wanted this job.

I'm not saying he isn't a nice guy, but his support is largely among people who have more of an emotional attachment than a logical one. They believe he cares about them and will work to make their life better, but if he has yet to help his own brother who is living on a dollar a month and has made over $4 million of which less than 5% has been donated to charity, I again see sheer emotion over-riding factual evidence among his supporters.

When we vote, we need to think more about a person’s deeds and LESS about the grand platitudes they speak in. Will the ocean levels really drop if we elect Obama? We the Earth begin to heal itself upon his inauguration? Is this really the moment we've all been waiting for? OR are these all just words designed to move us emotionally?

When asking a supporter why they intend to vote for Obama, typical responses are, "I like him," or, "I think we need a change." When asking the same people what kind of change they look for from Obama, the answers start to get a little odd and if you ask them what Obama has done in the past that they really admire, the answers start to lose cohesion completely. It generally boils down to the emotion of hope while losing all logic of experience or qualification. As Joe Biden said, the White House is no place for on-the-job-training, yet that is exactly what Obama would need.