Letter to John McCain

Today I received an e-mail from my grandparents that has me a little (okay, a lot) fired up.

It was a poorly crafted letter written by a 50 something conservative white man (he makes sure to point this out while also stating race has nothing to do with his decision, right...) to Barack Obama listing seven reasons why Obama is "scary" and he can't vote for him.

So below is my own letter to McCain in response.

Dear Senator McCain,

Today is October 13th and we are just 22 days away from one of the most historic elections in history. I'd like to take this opportunity to outline seven reasons I will not be voting for you on November 4th.

1) You vote with George Bush's position 95% of the time (according to factcheck.org and Congressional Quarterly's Voting studies). Looks like 5% of the time, you're a maverick every time.

2) Roe v. Wade, Roe v. Wade, Roe v. Wade. Enough said? Probably; but John, you are, dare I say it? A flip flopper. In 1999 you said Roe v Wade should not be overturned? Tell us why not John..."hundreds of young woman all over this country would be lining up for illegal, dangerous abortions". True, legal or not abortions will happen. The difference is that if they're legal women won't be getting them in back alleys by guys with butcher knives. While I am pro-choice (vastly different from being anti-life) it's not because I think abortions are cool, I do think that the way to stop abortions is education. Educating young men and women, it just might work. Having an abortion is not a decision I can't ever imagine making for myself but I've also never been impregnated by a rapist; or a relative.

Can you say pandering? Way to get the religious right on board, John. Oh and if that doesn't work, just choose a nutjob who believes dinosaurs roamed the earth with humans a mere $6,000 years ago and spends her Sundays either speaking in tongues or at a hockey match. Yep, that oughta do it folks. You betcha!

Which takes me right to #3.

3) You're old. And while this in itself is not enough to disqualify you (hey, Joe Biden's old too, except he has a hotter wife who doesn't look like a femme bot. Is anyone else concerned Cindy McCain might be an alien?), you went out and chose the crazy running mate mentioned above. The woman just got a passport a year ago, she has been to Mexico, Canada and Iraq. She can see Russia from some land in Alaska. Well guess what...I was born in Anchorage, lived in Wasilla. I've had a passport for 4 years and have actually been to more than 2 foreign countries. Look out Vice Presidency, here I come. By Sarah standards I am a foreign policy prodigy.

4) Foreign Policy. You make up little ditties about bombing countries. Not good, really. Making light of bombing countries is kind of scary. I would think since it's possible you might someday have the nuclear codes you might want to take it a little more seriously. Just a thought, but hey I'm just a regular Jane six-pack maybe that's why I can't figure out what's so wrong with sitting down with leaders of other countries (yep, even those axis of evil countries) and trying to figure out a peaceful solution.

5) You're erratic. The fundamentals of the economy are strong. No wait, we're in crisis. I'm suspending my campaign and I'm not debating. No wait, I'm going to debate. In Iraq we will see "overwhelming victory in a fairly short period of time". No wait, I knew in the beginning it would be long and hard. Having a hard time deciding what the correct course of action is, do it John McCain style and try each course, switching back and forth as quickly as possible. Maybe if you're fast enough no one will notice.

6) We need to protect our environment and stop our dependence on foreign oil. Drill baby, drill? What good does that do us? We wouldn't see the benefits for years and we're still talking about a finite resource and infinite demand. There is no way it works out well. We have 3% of the worlds oil reserves and we use 25% of the world's oil and your solution is still just drill baby, drill?

7) My final point: your supporters. The Christian right, who you couldn't have cared less about in 2000 during your campaign now seem to be dictating your policy. Why? You realized that it's the only way you could get the nomination so you chose to pander to those who want to legislate their beliefs into everyone's life. I have nothing against religion but I have everything against intolerance. The radical Christian right is no different than radical Islam. It is unconstitutional to force religion on the people, to try to govern based on religion. On that our founding fathers were clear.

Those are my seven reasons, I have more, possibly even eight or nine or forty-two but it is late here and my long suffering fiancee is sleepy. The click clacking of the keyboard is keeping him awake and I have to be up in 5 hours to go to work.

So for now Senator McCain those are my reasons. I'm sure you want to hear more and don't worry, I'm happy to give you more reasons at a moment's notice should you request them.

Sincerely,

Erin Adams




**I just want to point out that in the letter sent to me today the author made it sure to point out in the first paragraph that he is white but not a racist. He then went on to list one of his reasons as: Being scared because Obama is an angry black man (actually he's mixed race but whatever, semantics.) and his wife is an angry black woman. Ooh, scary. Angry black people...