Hillary's Out of the Race? Well, then I'm Voting McCain!

Thu, 06/05/2008 - 15:01 — grae

I'm really tired of how people keep saying this. Okay, I get that people are ardent Hillary Clinton supporters. I even get that Barack Obama isn't a perfect candidate. For the record, I never really liked either one of them: neither one of them is really great on issues that I care about. But they're so much better than McCain it's not even funny.

A couple of issues that I care about: health care and gay rights. Let's see how the candidates fare.

Health Care

The only way I can imagine comprehensive health care working well for Americans is a single payer health care system. At the very least, we should stop bringing insurance companies to the table when we're talking about how we're paying for health care: these guys make money by avoiding payment for the really expensive parts of healthcare (by not insuring people's preexisting conditions, having caps on what they'll pay, having limitations on what your doctor can prescribe, and so forth.) To a lesser extent, we shouldn't let the pharmaceutical companies in on the action either (they want people to solve problems by using drugs rather than any other methods that might exist.)

McCain's health plan is to basically provide more competition in the marketplace by giving people a $2500 tax credit if they don't get healthcare through their employer, and to expand Health Savings Accounts. (I pay for my insurance myself, and you can't get a decent health plan for only $2500. As a matter of fact, even the health plan I have which costs more didn't cover one of the medications my doctor prescribed me last year. So I honestly can't imagine this "increasing competition," since most people are not going to be able to afford to switch to something their employer doesn't offer.) There are a couple of other things that are done to revamp government health care programs, but for the most part they're talking about reducing costs (by not paying for "preventable medical errors" and tort reform) rather than providing decent care.

Obama's health plan increases competition by creating a new, government-run health plan, similar to the one Congress has. This is similar to what Clinton's plan was. If people actually choose a government health plan, this actually will increase competition: it's plausible that the government won't try to make its health plan a profit center, so the segment of health-care spending that goes into the bank accounts of insurance company executives can instead go towards reducing costs or increasing benefits. On this issue, Obama and Clinton are slightly different, but not in any way that was meaningful to me after spending some time looking at their websites.

The Democrats are close, and clearly better than the Republican alternative. I don't see my personal situation changing in McCain's version of the world, while in either Democratic version, I'll have the choice of a new government-run plan, which might provide me better health care at a lower cost. In terms of practical differences between Clinton and Obama, I'm not sure I see any.

Gay Rights

I'm somewhat tired of being considered a second-class citizen in this country. The federal government currently thinks it's okay if I lose my job simply because I date other men. There are plenty of ways a potential relationship of mine won't be recognized, in ways that straight couples will never have to worry about. If I'm really going to fully say my feelings on this point, I think that there are a variety of criteria that shouldn't qualify people to be second-class citizens (gender and race being the most obvious classifications...) However, this is the one that affects me, and not only am I selfish about this, it's a place where there's actually a difference in the candidates.

Pretty much the biggest thing you can say about McCain is that he voted against amending the federal constitution to define marriage as only including opposite-sex couples. He opposes workplace discrimination protections, he opposes domestic partnerships, and he supports Don't Ask, Don't Tell. While it seems likely that he won't do more than the current administration does to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, that's a pretty low bar.

Both Obama and Clinton want to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Both are in favor of ENDA (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that includes sexual orientation). Their stances on the Defense of Marriage Act are slightly different: Obama is on record opposing it, while Hillary is on record defending at least parts of it. The verdict here? Obama comes out ahead, but not all that far. Far enough that he's better, but not enough that it would sway my vote.

So here, too, we have the two Democratic candidates looking substantially similar (with Obama looking better on the issues than Clinton), while McCain is clearly a step in the wrong direction.

So, why McCain?

Now, tell me again, why does it make sense to vote for McCain over Obama? Does it really come down to race? Or is there honestly some logical reason to support McCain that I haven't seen? Or some reason Obama is really such a bad choice that it trumps all of this?

I think Michelangelo Signorile may have gotten it right on his radio show when he told a caller who said he was voting for McCain for admittedly illogical reasons, "What Republicans want is for you to vote on emotion, and you are a perfect example of how they get votes from people who are voting against their self interests."

Haven't we learned anything from the last 8 years? Don't vote for the candidate that makes you feel better, vote for the candidate that will do the right thing for you. The United States is now stuck in a war, has a more conservative Supreme Court, and backwards policies on education, health care, and a swath of other issues because people voted for the guy they "want to have a beer with." Are we honestly going to continue this for another 4 or 8 years because of the color of someone's skin?