jamie_trecker

Tomorrow, Americans face a choice. After eight years of dishonesty and corruption at the highest levels of our government, they can choose continuity or change.

John McCain was once a pragmatic Republican -- a deeply conservative one -- but pragmatic nonetheless. In the past year, voters have had a chance to see how his choices would affect them directly. It is my belief that those choices have been revelatory.

Senator McCain has run one of the dirtiest, most disgusting campaigns in recent memory, choosing to align himself with the very people who slandered him and his family in 2000. That's a fact, not an opinion. I do believe he also recklessly chose his running mate, who despite her appeal to deeply conservative voters, has little to no experience with the major issues a president would face. Given Mr McCain's health, this is a worrying choice that reflects a gambling streak which I don't believe this country can afford.

I am also deeply concerned about the attacks Senator McCain's proxies have unleashed upon his opponent.

Senator McCain's surrogates claim Senator Obama as a "cipher," a strange charge to level against the author of two books and a man who has spent the past two years constantly in the public eye. They also fan the fires of racial hatred by claiming (falsely) that he is a Muslim; is a terrorist; is a communist; and wants to destroy Israel.

Tacitly or overtly, Senator McCain's rhetoric has emboldened what that late William F. Buckley Jr. called the "kooks" of his own party. Thirty years ago, this would have been fodder for Thomas Pynchon; today these people have been legitimised, and are allowed to slander and scare in prime-time.

And none of this speaks to the deep trouble we find ourselves in today. After eight years of Republican stewardship, we are a broken oligarchy. Senator McCain has offered no plans or methods to remedy that, preferring to cast himself as everything Senator Obama isn't. That's not policy.

As a lifelong Republican, I am deeply dismayed at the choices Senator McCain has made. I am disturbed at the lies and poor governance my party has shown. And I am disgusted that the GOP -- which was founded, in part, to end one of the great evils in American history -- has now become the party of hate. The "Southern Strategy," first employed by Lee Atwater and Richard Nixon, has produced a broken land, divided between the haves and have nots, the ill-educated and a supposed "elite." It is toxic and and it must end.

I have some issues with Senator Obama. I worry that he doesn't have the clout to push Congress into enacting the big legislation this country needs. There should also be no mistake that Senator Obama comes from one of the most deeply corrupt states in the Union, a breeding ground for graft that has ensnared virtually every player and surely hurt both the city I live in and its citizenry.

But on the big issues -- health care, infrastructure, economics -- I am convinced that Senator Obama is fundamentally correct. I also believe he offers something this country has lost, and badly needs.

This once was a nation that welcomed the world, with a can-do, must-do spirit that put men on the moon and helped make our lives richer and better. This once was a nation respected for its scholarship, its attention to law and justice, and its liberties. We have lost that under layers of cynicism and greed. What we need is hope, not hate.

Some dismiss Senator Obama as "all words," in part because Senator Obama's words scare them. He speaks of unity and of hope. He speaks of calmness, and sincerity. The fact is, words do matter. Words become deeds. Words will remain when I, and you, are gone. And words of hope and justice endure. Hope is not phony: It is essential.

Please vote tomorrow. I am casting my ballot for Senators Obama and Biden.