Voter's Regret

A week ago I voted for John McCain. At no point did the prospect of a McCain/Palin ticket excite me, but the “cult of personality” surrounding Barack Obama pissed me off.  Obama was much better in 2004 when he was my little secret. In the end, that’s why I voted for John McCain–Obama had become trendy.

As the week has passed, I am reminded why I left the Republican Party. The rhetoric among McCain supporters ranges from bitterness towards Sarah Palin to not-so-subtle racism. I look at the anger directed at McCain’s “moderate” positions and I see calls for a return to the rigid, Levitical legalism of the Rapture Right. Then you have the fringe, conspiracy theorists, claiming that Barack Obama is part of some grand plot with terrorists to coordinate an attack on the United States or that Obama is the anti-Christ because the winning numbers in the Illinois lottery last week were 6-6-6.  There’s the story of the University of Texas football player kicked off the team for posting racist remarks, which supposedly stemmed from a text message circulating among many McCain supporters. Then today, on my way to work, I got behind a car with a bumper sticker that read, “Be Afraid: There’s Another Hussein in Power.”

After taking all that in, I wish I could go back in time and recast my vote. There’s no doubt in my mind that I would vote for Barack Obama if I had it to do all over again. It took me nine months to regret my vote for George W. Bush in 2000; it only took me one week to regret my vote for John McCain.

Thank God Obama won!

I will never vote for another Republican again–ever! After all, if I must choose between socialism or the unholy alliance of religious extremism and fascism of the right, I will take the socialism every time.