Election 2008: If You Want My Vote Please Skip The Bars And The Guns

As we enter into the final month of Election 2008, we are soon to be flooded with wall-to-wall campaigning and this will no doubt bring about lots of political pandering. I am not here talking about the more open pandering of offering bribes and promising big spending programs. I am also not talking about the requisite payoffs to the interest groups, be they the religious right or the secular left.

What I am talking about is the ridiculous and increasingly-irritating need to show that they are ‘regular guys’ and that they are not going to threaten the interests of various voting blocs. John Kerry wants to show he is a real guy so he goes out hunting. George Bush Sr wants to show he’s a regular guy so he joins the gang for a beer. Obama wants to show he is not elite so he goes bowling. It goes on and on despite the fact that it is frequently patently faked.

Frankly I don’t care if Obama can’t bowl or if Bush doesn’t like to drink beer. I could care less if Kerry likes to hunt and it does not matter in the least to me if McCain likes NASCAR or not. None of these things matter to how they will govern or what policies they will pursue.

So why do they do it ?

Well the simple answer is that they feel a need to do so and, in that sense, we the voters are partly to blame. If the candidates don’t do these things, then they can be branded as elite or out of touch and thus unworthy of our votes.

I for one would be more inclined to vote for a candidate who made a public declaration that he has no intention of doing such pandering and I hope that more people would join me in this pledge. As some of my readers might know, I have entertained the idea of running for public office and, at the risk of reducing my already small odds of succeeding in such an effort, I now promise to not pander in that way.

In fact I will go further and state for the record that I don’t drink beer, I don’t hunt and I don’t really care for NASCAR or football. This doesn’t mean that I care if other people do, it’s just not what I do for fun. Some people love beer, some don’t, some people love NASCAR and some hate it. Why should it matter ?

The fact that I don’t hunt does not mean that I do not recognize that many enjoy this sport or that I do not support their right to have reasonable access to guns.

The fact that I don’t care for NASCAR or football doesn’t mean that I can’t understand the real concerns of those who do enjoy these sports. I would think you’d care more than I want to bring you good jobs, safe streets, good schools and a secure country than whether or not I know who plays quarterback for the Ravens.

I don’t drink beer but I know that many people in bars and taverns around the country are worried about their jobs being exported to India or the pressures of paying for mortgages, health care, education and retirement. I would think and hope you’d rather that I help you with these problems than down a brew (though, if they sell Henry Weinhard’s superb root beer, I’ll grab a stool).

The basic point I am trying to make is that I think we should be more concerned that candidates care about the issues that really matter and recognize the concerns we all have than whether or not they share our hobbies. If we look at some of our recent political leaders I think we’ve focused way too much on style over substance. If you’ve got a brain tumor and need surgery are you going to going to pick Norm the barfly or Doctor Crane the expert (yeah I know he wasn’t a surgeon but the Cheers theme fit).

By the same token, when it comes to electing a President, if there is a candidate out there who really understands the average voter and has the solutions to the problems we all face, then who cares if he or she is the most elite person around since Thurston Howell III ?

I would like to think that we will someday have a candidate who will make a speech like this and I would hope even more that, if someone does, they will be embraced by the voters.

Any nominations ?

Cross Posted from The Square Deal