Jann and Sunny,
I too have struggled with some of the decisions the President and
his administration have made, like for example, the decision to allow super
pacs to raise money for his campaign. Since I can't be happy with
all his particular actions, I've had to fall back on his
values, and there I believe his are as close to my own as any
national candidate for office in my lifetime. So for
now I will continue to trust his foundational values
and I will stick with him as my candidate until I feel his
values have shifted to the point that I no longer can if I am to
maintain my own integrity.
Our father in freedom Dietrich Bonhoeffer told us that often the
choices are between wrong and wrong, and right and right. My
experience in choosing candidates is that it is always
between individuals who are both right and wrong at the same time,
that is, there's good and bad in all of them (and, by the way, all
of us.) This is one reason why it is a distortion to demonize those with
whom we disagree.
The 2008 presidential election was the first for me in
which I felt I was voting "for" the
candidate I supported rather than "against" the one I did not
support . I confess I'm not as enthusiastic about Obama now as I
was last time around, but it is so clear to me that the values of
Mitt Romney are so contrary to my own that there is no dilemma whatsoever for
me as to who I will vote for.
Randy
PS I believe any elected official, who serves a term
with an eye toward getting elected for another term, is compromised to one
degree or another. That is why I would support the presidency being
limited to one 6-year term. If Obama is re-elected I believe his lame
duck status will allow him to do things he never did in his first term.
I feel this is indicative more of a flaw in
the system than a flaw in the man.
"Listen to what is emerging from yourself to the course of being in the
world; not to be supported by it, but to bring it to reality as it
desires."
-Martin Buber
(adapted)