For and Against Obama

Jesus has been tugging on my heart recently about this upcoming presidential election. I have been in support of one candidate for a couple of months now, but friends and family on the other side of the fence are screaming for me to come join them. I am not one to be easily swayed by unfounded arguments, and I feel like most of what they have presented are just long-held traditional values and nothing more.

I have been struggling particularly with this idea of "redistributing the wealth" as Obama has been quoted saying over and over. At first I supported the idea, because Obama is sternly against corporate greed and corruption of executives. Makes good sense, but I recently heard a convincing story against his plan, involving a waiter that wasn't tipped because the customer "redistributed" his tip to a homeless man outside who is in greater need of the money. Your initial reaction to that kind of story (as was mine) is "that was a jerk thing to do" since the waiter did his job, earned his tip, and got nothing for it. But I understood the point and the relevance to Obama's wealth plan.

So enough jibber-jab, here are my collective thoughts from both sides:

Arguments for Obama's plan:
(1) Wants to tax higher-income households because they are the ones more capable of paying a higher tax.
(2) Fighting corporate greed by taxing them a higher percentage.
(3) Redistribution of wealth is indeed a socialist idea. But he isn't talking about taking wealthy citizen's money and giving it to low-income families. He is talking about funding the federal government by taxing the nation's wealthiest sources.
(4) Higher taxes on businesses will force them to run more efficiently (that's the idea, at least. Many will probably just as soon layoff employees rather than cut executive spending).

Arguments against Obama's plan:
(1) It's not fair. For those that work hard and earn great wealth, they should not be "punished" by being forced to pay higher taxes.
(2) Many low-income individuals are at the bottom simply because they are not motivated to better their situation. Therefore they should not be "rewarded" with lower taxes.
(3) Corruption is probably equally as prevalent among low-income individuals than it is in big business, but big businesses are the ones that make headlines.

In essence I feel like raising taxes on big businesses will probably result in cutting jobs, raising prices, and outsourcing labor internationally. But that is because they will NOT cut executive salaries, reduce wasteful spending, or improve their processes. I would rather love to keep business taxes low, but I'm too skeptical of the executives running the firms. Read Alston D. Pete Correll's Commencement Speech from August 2005 and you'll understand what I'm talking about.

If McCain seemed like he was more concerned about corporate greed and fixing that problem, he would make me feel better for voting for him. But I just can't do it.

Small Group Community

It is a great feeling when a person can step into an inviting group of friends, be completely open and honest, and experience genuine community with those people.

Such is the priviledge that I get every Sunday evening as I meet with my community group from Athens Church. Our group is comprised of 11 guys from ages 23-29, and of those 11 we usually have 9-10 that make it each week.

I think of myself as a social "drifter" meaning that I always sort of drift from social group to social group, always interacting with friends and constantly meeting new people. There comes a point, however, when a person needs to slow down and instead of initiating new relationships, we should be developing the ones that we have. Such as the relationship I have with these guys in my small group.

It is a simple concept, but it is one that I have been late to actualize in my life. And because of it, I have found myself with several hundreds of friends here in Athens, but often with nothing to do on the weekends outside of church and football games.

I will dive into this a little bit more later, as I have a pretty substantial analysis of the psychology behind this social conundrum.

I Hate Politics

And I hate that it is the presidential election season, because due to my roommates being VERY involved in politics, I have watched far more commentary than I care to remark upon. And as a result, I have become pretty opinionated about the topics that are most important in my mind.

So this post is simply to apologize to my readers. It is not my intention for this to be a political blog at all. But I only post when I feel very strongly about something, and until after November there are a lot of people out there that say things that make me (a logical pessimistic realist) want to make sure that everyone has their facts straight.

So, I'm sorry if you hate politics. I'm right there with you.

Politics: Huntley Brown's email comments

You can view the email message (keep in mind that email is a significant source of political propoganda) here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/huntleybrown.asp

And here is my response to this email:

A lot of those liberal issues are things that probably are not going to change in the next 4 years, and maybe never change. e.g. abortion rights, same-sex marriage, human cloning. And in the long-run, though I don't support any of these ideas, I think that eventually society will be corrupted enough that they cannot be stopped from becoming legislated in a non-Christian manner. But not in the next 4 years. Probably not for 20 or more.

My second (and final) point is about McCain's character. I don't believe he is a Christian. Just listening to him the way he attacks Obama throughout his campaign, I feel like he is turning off a lot of Christ-followers (and I'm not even mentioning the threats to Obama during GOP rallies) just because he isn't behaving very appropriately. And I don't know if anyone follows Jekyll Island news (a small island just off the coast of Georgia... if you're not from around here, you will not have heard of it) or not, but lately there has been a lot of controversy over some things taking place there involving corrupted politics and favors to the politically-connected. Reports are that members of McCain's campaign (one chairman in particular) are directly involved.

So... I don't know if Obama is a Christian, nor do I know about McCain. If I had to guess, I think Obama is probably not a Christian, and McCain is probably only a Christian when it is strategic to his purpose. And I may not be right about either of them, but I'd rather take my chances on the one that is campaigning with the most integrity. Alas, these are our 2 candidates and so unlike George W, I have to vote for one based on a lot more than Christian values.

P.S. I can't find a news article related to Huntley Brown's comments, and I don't respect email as a credible source, at all.