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Today, Colin Powell made his big endorsement, and it wasn't too long before people had their opinions about it, including my father. It amazes me to see how vastly different our opinions can be, even though we both believe in many of the same things. How does he assume people make their choices? How do they really make them?
My dad, like many Republicans, assumes that Colin Powell made his choice based on the race of Obama and Powell, not on anything else. The fact that Powell has spelled out that he made his choice on the issues, and not on the color of his skin, did not make a difference in my father's point of view. My dad assumed that Powell could only make this decision based on the fact that they're both "black".
Does this mean that my father would only vote for McCain because he's white or they both lived through the Vietnam era? No, my dad is more complex than that, but he doesn't see any Obama voters as being as complex as he is. He probably doesn't even view me as being that complex.
You see, to my dad, anyone who is making the choice to support Obama is doing so because they have some short-sightedness going on. Now, though I am a diagnosed myopic in terms of my eyesight, I'm not that short-sighted when it comes to politics. I look for the flaws in the judgment skills of people before I cast my vote for them, which my father should know, as he contributed to my ability to do so.
I don't believe that most people are supporting people solely based on the color of their skin or the gender of their running mate. I'm not choosing McCain because he chose a woman. I was actually thinking about voting for him before he chose her, but choosing her sealed the deal in favor of Obama. If anything has clouded my judgment about McCain's running mate's gender, it is that she has chosen to use it as an exploitative factor to bring out the votes by saying at the same time that she is basically a poor, defenseless woman and a pitbull with lipstick. That kind of gender manipulation takes us back to a time when women had no more rights than an actual pitbull. Her forgetfulness about women's rights and needs is what makes my choice not to vote for her or her running mate.
I know that some people will choose Obama because he's black, just like I believe some people probably chose him in the primaries over Hillary because he's a man. That does not mean that I believe all people base their choices solely on race.
If we're in a country where equality is first, then why do we come up with such in equalities when it comes to why a person is going to vote for another person? Why do we automatically assume that the people of a certain race or gender will only vote for someone of their race or gender? Are we that shallow in this country that we refuse to see that people will actually choose someone on the basis of their political leanings and on the basis of actual issues? Are we that blind?