My Votes In This Election: Obama for President, Smith for Senate

Finally, I just voted.  For Obama.  And Smith.  And yes, I am now on record.  The first vote was easy.  It’s hard to believe that after nearly two years of following this election so intensely, it is actually down to the wire.  I never felt so happy to mark a ballot in my life.  It’s a big moment, filling in that circle.  There is something so completely different about this year in contrast to 2004.  Something massive is happening.  I don’t think America will fully realize how far we’ve come or what we’ve actually done with our votes for some time.  But this is an incredible moment in our history.  This man’s father went to school under a tin roof shack in Africa.  And now he will be the first post-racial president in our history.  Putting aside the massive problems that will be passed on to him from his predecessor, it’s worth stopping amidst all the chatter and reminding ourselves just how amazing this moment is.  If John McCain wins, well, that won’t happen.  But if it does, I guess I can hold out in Japan a little bit longer…

The second vote was more difficult, but it is the right decision, and one I will defend to the death.  This is the first time I have voted for a Republican for any major office.  The Republicans are to blame for so many failed policies that have put our country in this mess.  But that doesn’t mean that every Democrat is better than every Republican, or that one more Democrat in the Senate is necessarily better than a very good Republican.  In fact, the presidency, the Senate and the House will be controlled by Democrats, and the margins in both the Senate and House will be huge, no matter whether Smith wins or loses.  It is worth remembering the lessons of the past with regards to one-party government–primarily that it can backfire hard on the party in power.  It did to Carter and it did to Clinton in 1994.  The Democrats will have to be modest about their wins and not spiteful or condescending to the Republicans that still make up so much of this country.  Obama understands that people have very different viewpoints and the fact that we can disagree without being disagreeable or having coups or violence is what makes this country great and what is at the heart of a healthy democracy.  Obama will be under immense pressure to pass a lot of–mostly good–Democratic legislation.  In this situation, he will need decent Republicans in the Senate to work with him, to convince Republican colleagues of the worthiness of his plans, and to give him input on how to win support for certain bills.  Obama will need Republican allies as much or more than Democratic ones.  Smith would no doubt be one of those allies.  He has worked with Wyden, Kerry, Kennedy, and so many other Democrats on a number of major issues, and he would no doubt work with Obama as well.

For all our talk of bipartisanship, we rarely follow through when we have a chance of showing it.  Smith is in the center of the Senate in terms of ideology.  He is calm, not shrill.  He is thoughtful.  He and Ron Wyden have probably the best relationship among any state’s two senators, a relationship that pays off for Oregon.  Smith has seniority in the Senate and chairs a committee (that I worked on) that has huge influence over health care issues.  Through his position on that committee, Smith helped pass landmark mental health legislation.  He is pro gay-rights.  He wants to withdraw troops from Iraq.  He is not George Bush, or John McCain.  And finally, while I respect Jeff Merkley, he appears all too often as simply a generic Democrat who spouts talking points.  His rhetoric contrasts hugely with Obama’s:  Obama is about reconciliation and the fact that we are one America, not a red and blue America.  He doesn’t blame “Republicans”, persay, for our problems, but bad policies.  Smith speaks to the same longing in all of us.  Merkley simply shouts about Republicans.  Additionally, Merkley would have a lot of work to do to cultivate Smith’s level of influence and relationships that is so crucial to getting anything done in Congress.  Even if he succeeds at attaining influence–and I have my doubts that he will, given Wyden’s role as the senior Democratic senator from Oregon–it will take him a very, very long time, because that is simply how the Senate operates.

So, I am a split-ticket voter for the first time in my life.  And let me tell you, it feels pretty good.  If this were 2004 again I might have voted the other way…it was so important to try to give the Democrats a majority in the Senate.  This time, there is no question that the Democrats will have a very large majority in the Senate.  But this is not 2004.  We live in a different time now.  And we should consider that and vote accordingly.  Both the candidates I am voting for speak to coming together around a common purpose, respecting differences, working across the aisle, and working pragmatically toward good policy, not policy that passes ideological litmus tests.  I have immense confidence in both of these men.

But especially my vote for Obama…..Kerry in 2004 was an easy choice, but I never knew how melancholy I really was about voting for Kerry until I was given this  opportunity to vote for Obama.  There is no one alive today that I would rather vote for, and I could not have truthfully said that in 2004.

Please feel free to sound off in the comments, whether you agree or disagree with my decisions.  I will reply to everything.