Almost a month ago, I wrote that I had taken the Obama sticker off the back of my truck and gone back on the fence.
In large part, I needed to take a step back. Having declared myself for a candidate, I was finding myself defensive of him, and thus not able to evaluate positions fairly. Likewise, the screeches and screaming that arose around Sarah Palin’s elevation to the GOP ticket — ludicrously over the top — made it utterly impossible to judge her at all.
So I pulled back… and the intervening weeks have been illuminating. I’m not on the fence anymore, but I didn’t come down quite where I expected.
In one of TMV’s recent thoughtful threads, I defined myself as fiscally-conservative and socially-liberal, to which commenter CStanley replied:
Do you consider your fiscal conservatism or your social liberalism to be more important at this time?
Events have overtaken us, and my fiscal conservatism is strongly ascendant. But recent events have underscored much deeper problems than the economy per se; I’ve realized that our legislative branch is warped and corrupted beyond my capacity to tolerate.
I’ve also come to believe that the next president, whoever he is, will not be able to move many of his proposals forward. Whether it’s Barack Obama or John McCain, the realities of our economy are going to radically alter what might have been for years to come.
In the face of these conclusions, the worries I have about a radical agenda from the extreme edges of a one-party government lose significance.
My feeling that Congress owns a disproportionate amount of our fiscal problems also informs my choice for President. Yes, McCain has a number of proposals that superficially address various aspects of our economic woes, but I see neither the depth nor the coherence required of real reform. Alternatively, while I agree that some of Obama’s proposals could conceivably make an economic downturn worse, his much broader scope and understanding of the wider issues is reassuring. The real devil, when it comes to Obama’s approach, will be in the implementation details — which brings us full circle to the dysfunctional Congress.
Taken altogether, then, here’s where I’ve come down: I’m supporting Barack Obama for the presidency.
Much of my reasoning mirrors that of fellow TMV co-blogger and former fence-sitter Pete Abel — but there’s another consideration that rests on a previously undiscussed dimension to my foundational politics: foreign policy.
It’s fashionable in some quarters lately to disdain international regard for the United States, but it’s folly to think that global opinion is irrelevant. From national security to the economy… immigration to medicine… we are, and will continue to be, part of a wider network. Scoffing at our international reputation may be an understandable defensive mechanism, but it’s a nose-off-the-face level of foolishness.
The relationships we have with various interests around the world are both delicate and fluid; navigating them in this modern world calls for deliberative thinking and introspective reaction. Ideologues and moralists — as we’ve all witnessed in many scenarios — are destabilizing on the world stage, yet John McCain strikes me as both. Moreover, his predilection for grandstanding has been on rampant display recently, and I’m not at all sure he’s emotionally stable enough for the demands on a Commander in Chief.
There is a place for Maverickiness in this world, but it’s not the Oval Office.
In contrast, Barack Obama has displayed an almost surreal capacity for calm in the eye of a storm, and while I think this will be strongly tested if he becomes president, I also feel that his steadier temperament is far more likely to resist panicked or Hail Mary reactions.
Along with my presidential choice, though, I’ll be actively supporting congressional candidates who have demonstrated fiscal responsibility — or, in the case of non-incumbents, will give a public commitment to it.
Unfortunately, I expect to find very few of those to support.