[Vision2020] Top Ten Reasons Conservatives Should Vote for Obama

[Saundra Lund]

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-top-ten-rea
.html#more

 

The Atlantic

The Daily Dish

Andrew Sullivan

27 Oct 2008 09:33 pm

 

The Top Ten Reasons Conservatives Should Vote For Obama

 

My take:

 

10. A body blow to racial
<http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/obama-and-the-
e.html>  identity politics. An end to the era of Jesse Jackson in black
America.

 

9. Less debt. Yes, Obama will raise taxes on those earning over a quarter of
a million. And he will spend on healthcare, Iraq, Afghanistan and the
environment. But so will McCain. He plans more spending on health, the
environment and won't touch defense of entitlements. And his refusal to
touch taxes means an extra
<http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/03/mccains-defici
t.html>  $4 trillion in debt over the massive increase presided over by
Bush. And the CBO
<http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/04/the-death-of-f
i.html>  estimates that McCain's plans will add more to the debt over four
years than Obama's. Fiscal conservatives have a clear choice.

 

8. A return to realism and prudence in foreign policy. Obama has
consistently cited the foreign policy of George H. W. Bush as his
inspiration. McCain's knee-jerk reaction to the Georgian conflict, his
commitment to stay in Iraq indefinitely, and his brinksmanship over Iran's
nuclear ambitions make him a far riskier choice for conservatives. The
choice between Obama and McCain is like the choice between George H.W.
Bush's first term and George W.'s.

 

7. An ability to understand the difference between listening
<http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/when-obama-met
.html>  to generals and delegating foreign policy to them.

 

6. Temperament. Obama has the coolest, calmest
<http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-human-vali
u.html>  demeanor of any president since Eisenhower. Conservatism values
that kind of constancy, especially compared with the hot-headed, irrational
impulsiveness of McCain.

 

5. Faith. Obama's fusion of Christianity and reason, his non-fundamentalist
faith <http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200712/obama> , is a critical bridge
between the new atheism and the new Christianism. 

 

4. A truce in the culture war. Obama takes us past the debilitating boomer
warfare <http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200712/obama>  that has raged since
the 1960s. Nothing has distorted our politics so gravely; nothing has made a
rational politics more elusive.

 

3. Two words: President Palin.

 

2. Conservative reform. Until conservatism can get a distance from the
big-spending, privacy-busting, debt-ridden, crony-laden, fundamentalist,
intolerant, incompetent and arrogant faux conservatism of the Bush-Cheney
years, it will never regain a coherent message to actually govern this
country again. The survival of conservatism requires a temporary eclipse of
today's Republicanism. Losing would be the best thing to happen to
conservatism since 1964. Back then, conservatives lost in a landslide for
the right reasons. Now, Republicans are losing in a landslide for the wrong
reasons.

 

1. The War Against Islamist terror. The strategy deployed by Bush and Cheney
has failed. It has failed to destroy al Qaeda, except in a country, Iraq,
where their presence was minimal before the US invasion. It has failed to
bring any of the terrorists to justice, instead creating the excrescence of
Gitmo, torture, secret sites, and the collapse of America's reputation
abroad. It has empowered Iran, allowed al Qaeda to regroup in Pakistan, made
the next vast generation of Muslims loathe America, and imperiled our
alliances. We need smarter leadership of the war: balancing force with
diplomacy, hard power with better p.r., deploying strategy rather than mere
tactics, and self-confidence rather than a bunker mentality.

Those conservatives who remain convinced, as I do, that Islamist terror
remains the greatest threat to the West cannot risk a perpetuation of the
failed Manichean worldview of the past eight years, and cannot risk the
possibility of McCain making rash decisions in the middle of a potentially
catastrophic global conflict. If you are serious about the war on terror and
believe it is a war we have to win, the only serious candidate is Barack
Obama. 

 

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