I tweeted earlier this week that I had switched my voter registration to New York City from Westchester (something that can be done online in New York State!). I will vote in the upcoming presidential election and I will vote for President Obama. But unlike 2008, when I did so enthusiastically, this time it will be with a heavy heart. As John Stewart once put it so succinctly, “we would have hoped for some audacity."
Now it is a lot easier to criticize the president than to do his job. And I also grant that maybe if I had access to the same briefings that the president I would come to the same conclusions. Still the conduct of the wars and the continued fight against basic civil liberties in the US – most notably the infinite detention of US citizens strike me indefensible. If the data really were to somehow justify these, figure out a way to share that data with the population.
Unlike this writer for the Atlantic though I do not see voting for Mitt Romney or not voting at all as an alternative though. If there were a third candidate who took a clear stance on these issues and wasn’t a crackpot I would seriously consider voting for that candidate. That is one of the reasons why I was disappointed to see Americans Elect failing to produce such a candidate. But one thing is for sure: my vote will come with lots of efforts to work against those policies of President Obama that I strongly disagree with.
