Why it’s NObama ’08 for me, Part 1

The elections are less than two weeks away. Voters have a serious decision to make on November 4th. Who will you vote for?

When Barack Obama first came onto the national political scene, I was rather fascinated and excited.  Here was a young dude, highly educated, articulate, a minority, who seemed pretty different from the old, white men we’re used to seeing in politics. I was pleased that he was entering the race for the Democratic Party’s nomination of the presidency when all the other nominees were putting their name out there. Most of the other candidates were known politicians. But here was a guy, fresh and new on the political stage. It was clear; all eyes were on him.

I did not know much about Barack Obama then. I remember just rolling my tongue trying to get used to saying his name. He was a mystery to a lot of people at that point, myself included.

My brother, Aaron, however, was proactively scoping him out. One day, I asked him what the scoop was on Obama. He replied, “He was voted the most liberal senator in Congress by the National Journal in 2007…” No way! I thought. Serious? I was secretly thinking it might be cool to have a black president. It was then that I decided to find out who the real Barack Obama was and not let this hazy image of him harbor in my head any longer.

Here are some questions I posed. Should or shouldn’t a Christian believer like me vote for Barack Obama? What were his views and policies on the most important issues? What kind of character traits should embody our next president? Would he be good for America?

Let’s start with the point Aaron first brought up to me. ‘He’s been voted the most liberal senator in Congress.’ So what does that mean? Well, as you know there is a broad spectrum of political views. From the farthest left, there’s communism, socialism, and liberalism. The Democratic Party can reasonably be characterized as the liberal party. This includes socially liberal policies like minimal regulation on abortion practices, instituting gay marriage into society, banning religion in the public sphere, letting the state take the responsibility to teach our kids, gun control, extensive welfare, state mandated healthcare, and doctor-assisted suicide of the elderly. So what does it mean to be voted the most liberal of all liberal senators?

As a small token of information, America today is center-right. On the political right is conservatism and perhaps libertarianism. Conservatism, as the name suggests, tries to conserve values and practices it deems necessarily and beneficial for the preservation of society. This includes things like the sanctity of marriage, a culture of life, and the freedom, practice, and expression of religion. Today, conservatives also want private healthcare, the freedom to teach your kids, less welfare, and the citizens’ rights to bear arms. The Republican Party in America is usually the bearer of more conservative principles. 

On economic issues, the left and right also differ. The right believes in competition in the economy, less government intervention and regulation, and less taxation. The left believes in more regulation of the market, less free trade, more government intervention, or for the state to take over some whole industries, like healthcare. The left also usually wants to raise taxes. 

Now going back to Obama, it might not mean much to be voted as the most liberal, but does Barack Obama’s record actually reflect this nomination? I have to conclude that it does. 

Take abortion for example. Most people, even if not Christian, would say that abortion is morally wrong and perhaps there should be at least some restrictions placed on abortion procedures. Barack Obama, however, not only supports the unfettered right for anyone to have an abortion, he has at numerous times outspokenly defended partial-birth abortion, and letting a live baby who survived a failed abortion to die. Yes, that’s right. In 2001, Obama was the only senator in the Illinois state senate to speak out against the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. This act required that if a small baby survived a failed abortion and was ‘born alive’, the medical team had the duty to provide medical care to that baby, like they would a regular person. This act was brought to the Illinois Senate by a nurse named Jill Stanek. She wanted the state to recognize that these abortion surviving babies were persons who deserved the right to medical care, after having seen a baby left to die in the soiled utility room of a hospital in one tragic abortion case. Barack Obama not only voted against it, he took the trouble to vehemently speak out against it – the only state senator to do so.  I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty brutal to me. 

Many liberals would disagree with him on that one. In fact, later that year, the almost exact same bill was brought to the U.S. Congress and passed unanimously. Even Barbara Boxer, an outspoken abortion rights senator, said, “Of course, we believe everyone born should deserve the protection of this bill… We join with an “aye” vote on this. I hope it will, in fact, be unanimous.” In contrast, Obama’s voting record on abortion shows he is not only liberal, but far more liberal and to the left of even the most liberal senators in Congress.

Taxes are another issue. Barack Obama will without doubt raise taxes. But this is no small amount we’re talking about. As stated in the Wall Street Journal, Barack Obama is going to need to raise $4.3 TRILLION over the next ten years in order for his proposed budget to balance out. With a deficit of already $1 trillion, Obama actually plans to create new government programs and expand 176 already existing ones. He does not want to only spend more at home, but he has also co-sponsored a Senate bill to devote $845 billion per year towards overseas poverty. The Tax Policy Center has calculated his new healthcare plan alone will cost Americans $1.6 trillion per year. 

$4.3 trillion is a heck of a lot of money for taxpayers to fork out. Obama has not been so exact in letting voters know how he actually plans to pay for all this spending while making his lavish campaign promises. Clearly, when his own proposed spending doesn’t match up with how he plans on paying for it, our national deficit will grow even worse. 

So what will it look like for the average citizen? Meet Joe the Plumber. He has been in the news a lot lately because he was wondering the same thing. When Joe Wurzelbacher approached Obama in his hometown, Obama told him he needed to just give up his hard-earned money working 10-12 hours as a plumber so that Obama could “spread the wealth around”. Basically, Obama was saying the harder you work, the more money you make, so the more you’ll be taxed to pay for the government to spend it. This will be the Obama presidency. And this is totally consistent with his tax voting record. Americans for Tax Reform gave Obama a lifetime rating of 7.5. That is, in almost every instance that Obama has voted on taxes, he has voted to increase them. In contrast, John McCain was given a rating of 82.7. With such a fragile economy right now, many have predicted Obama’s budget plan will drive America’s economy to the ground. 

As you can see, this is only the tip of the iceberg when you seriously investigate Barack Obama and his views and policies. In our next post, we’ll discuss other critical issues to think about, including his character traits, his inexperience, his foreign policy, and his many questionable associations. 

We encourage you to do some genuine investigation of Obama in the meantime so you’ll be an informed voter on November 4^th. 

[LS]