Wow. I'm still coming down off of a 90-minute debate between Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin. The media had hyped up how much of a train wreck this could be, given her abysmal performance in recent interviews, but what they completely underestimated was her ability to study hard and step up to the challenge of a debate.
Unlike a one-on-one interview, debates give each candidate a chance to go on the offensive with real-time feedback from their opponents. They also give candidates the chance to skirt an answer for 90 seconds until the audience has completely forgotten what the original question actually was. The fact-checkers are going to have a field day with what I just sat through. But at the end of the day this race isn't about Joe or Sarah. I'd argue that the race isn't really about Barack Obama or John McCain. It's about the kind of leadership America needs to get us through a complicated financial crisis, two distracted wars, and into a future that is healthier, safer, and better suited to our collective future.
What follows is a version of an email I wrote this past week that gets at the root of why I am convinced that Barack Obama is exactly what this country needs in a leader moving into the next four years…
The following email has been edited for public consumption.
…As if the words coming straight from the mouth of each candidate weren't enough, the mission and character of each man is perpetually filtered, dissected, reinterpreted, and mocked by the talking heads on all of the major news networks, lobbying organizations, and talk radio stations. With all of the noise, we are at risk of forgetting what is important to us, and of adopting the values and objectives that are important to someone else instead.
I looked over the recent Focus on The Family Presidential Scorecard, and the rest of this post deals directly with the insinuations made in that document, as well as the number of family issues that were conveniently left out. I am not a politician; I am an educated Christian female with decidedly strong opinions about the political issues facing families every day.
There were five of seven "family issues" listed in the scorecard that Barack Obama voted on (for the other two, he and John McCain were absent). I researched the five issues in question to gain an understanding of why he and Focus On The Family took a particular position for or against each issue, and to figure out where I stood on the issues as well.
Focus On The Family's "Family Issues"
1. Protect Grassroots Organizations in Lobby Reform Bill.
I was a little surprised to see this as the first "family issue" on the senate scorecard. (Personally, I don't believe that lobby reform is a family issue.) Focus on the Family was in favor of an amendment to this year's Lobby Reform act that would have excluded their own lobbying activities from the new transparency regulations on lobbying activity. Politically, I (and Barack Obama) are in favor of the kind of public disclosure that Focus on The Family opposes, but again I don't consider it to be a family issue so I'll leave it at that.
2. Embryonic Stem Cell Research Act. (link)
The bill in question would authorize the Department of Health and Human services to "conduct and support research on stem cells derived from embryos now stored in fertility clinics that would otherwise be destroyed." I am convinced that embryonic stem cell research does more to support life than it does to destroy it. The embryos in question in this bill would otherwise be discarded, but if President Bush hadn't vetoed it, they would have been used to develop treatments for "a myriad of diseases, conditions, and disabilities including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis."
I fully understand that stem cell research is a sensitive issue and I don't judge opposing viewpoints for their hesitation, but I believe that it is something that has the potential to dramatically improve the quality of life for millions of people suffering at home and around the world. And I can't understand how letting embryos be thrown away is more in line with a culture of life than using them to find cures and treatments for life-threatening diseases that take the lives of millions of Americans each year.
My grandfather was a brilliant surgeon until he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. His wife, my grandmother, later died of heart disease. And my one remaining grandparent continues a daily struggle with diabetes. I believe that there is great potential in these "castaway" cells that could prevent future generations from losing family members prematurely to treatable disease, and I think the treatments for these illnesses ought to be developed here at home.
3. Protect Health Insurance for Unborn Children.
The unborn were already covered under SCHIP by virtue of pregnant mothers being covered. This bill would have done little to change the real coverage of the unborn. Ultimately President Bush vetoed SCHIP coverage for over 3 million (born) children anyway, as a way to cut spending. The partisan culture of budget slashing without consideration of those affected, and quick decisions to use veto power on issues that affects millions of American children in need is something that I cannot stomach.
I desire a president who has his priorities straight. If the pocketbooks of big businesses (including healthcare companies) are your first priority, then your priorities are completely out of line. Basic human rights -- not just dollars -- are what's at stake. And the first should never be sacrificed for the latter.
4. & 5. Neither John McCain nor Barack Obama voted on either issue.
6. Federal Hate Crimes Act.
Focus on The Family opposed this bill, which established federal "hate crimes" as acts of violence against people based on a variety of different criteria. While I'm not sure that this is a "family" issue, I cannot understand how Christians could not support a bill that specifically punishes discriminatory acts of violence. Christ calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves, regardless of what a politician or lobbying organization views as the "degree" of another's sin.
From my research, the only reason I could find that Focus on The Family opposed the Federal Hate Crimes Act was that they considered "sexual orientation" to have over 30 different definitions. That position doesn't sit right with me. In His economy, we are equal in sin, and violent acts of hate should never be excused or downgraded because of a perceived difference in the guilt of the victim.
I'll also add that John McCain voted against the Violence Against Women Act (authored by Barack's running-mate Joe Biden). How is it the view of the "Christian right" that the government should sit on their thumbs and do nothing to more strongly deter and punish hate crimes and violence against women?
7. Confirmation of Judge Leslie Southwick to U.S. Court of Appeals
Again, I am not sure how this is a family issue.
My Family Issues: Healthcare
All of that said, I guess it follows that I should explain what I do believe to be family issues. The most important family issue to me right now is healthcare reform. We have a system in this country that is based on private companies whose profits depend on denying coverage for their customers. The more ways they can find to determine that a procedure is "experimental" or unnecessary or uncovered because of a pre-existing condition, the better their margins look. This puts capitalism between doctor and patient, and has been known to leave the homeless who cannot pay their bill on the side of the road as sick as they were when they sought a doctor's help.
When I look at the Gospels I see a Christ who taught something that may have been as confusing to the government and tax collectors in those days as it is to businesses today: "I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me." And then, Luke 4:40 ("As the sun went down that evening, people throughout the village brought sick family members to Jesus. No matter what their diseases were, the touch of his hand healed every one.") seems to indicate that Jesus treated people as if physical healing (healthcare) was a fundamental human right, regardless of the depth of a person's sin or the measure of a person's affluence. What if we had a government who saw to it that every person in need of a doctor was able to see one and be treated, as every other developed Western nation has done?
If you're interested, the (nonpartisan) Children’s Defense Fund Action Council has also put out a presidential scorecard with 10 issues of Children's healthcare defining the grade on this subject for each Senator. Senator McCain scored an abysmal 10%.
My Family Issues: Education
Education is another important family issue to me particularly because of my mother, who brought me up with strong opinions on public education. I believe that every student, regardless of whether they were born in rural Arkansas or downtown Manhattan, deserves a world-class education. I believe in programs that promote continuing education and merit/need-based pay incentives for teachers, as well as community service-based initiatives for college-bound students seeking financial aid. I believe in living up to the mandates in No Child Left Behind, by putting the necessary funds behind promises to lower class sizes and invest in special education programs.
Parents of special needs children don't just need a "friend" or an "advocate" in the White House. They need a system that truly gives their children attention proportional to their individual needs, a system that doesn't withhold funding for programs crucial to successful early intervention. I believe that if we (as a nation) are to continue innovating in science, medicine and green technologies, we need students who are prepared to compete on a global level with other countries whose young students are already years ahead of ours.
Senator McCain's solution to our education system's problems is to move public school funding into a voucher program and lift the school zoning system so that parents can choose a better school if their kid is in a failing one. He says that this free market system will encourage competition between schools, and that the bad school will naturally improve in time out of necessity (survival of the fittest?).
I cannot understand how moving students from failing schools into successful ones does a single thing to improve the quality of education students at either school will receive. Larger class sizes in the "good" school combined with an influx of students accustomed to the practices of their old failing schools seems to be a recipe for disaster. And what about the students still attending the F school? Perhaps their class sizes will be smaller, but fewer students also means fewer dollars.
My Family Issues: The Economy
But enough about education. Economic issues have also crept into the realm of "family" issues. We've heard a lot from both sides on how they would be the agent of change when it comes to the economy. But how is John McCain delivering straight talk when he insists that he's the clear choice to clean up Wall Street and initiate necessary regulation, when he has a very long history of doing just the opposite? And his running-mate isn't turning out to be the conservative she claimed to be, either. I'll give the senator some credit for his warning about F&F two years ago, but if he didn't see the sub-prime lending crisis as a real issue what exactly was he referring to? If you don't understand the root of an issue, how can you know how to fix it?
My Family Issues: Abortion
Then there are the timeless issues... The issues that, no matter what election year it is, are going to define the two parties. I really want to get into the environment (please, please read the scorecard), but I'll hold back because there's a bigger one keeping believers tied to one side of the political fence: Abortion.
I'll tell you a bit about my own history in order to frame my personal position on this issue.
Five years ago, right around this time of year, I was in my first year of college (also my senior year of high school). I was living on campus in the dorms with a beautiful roommate who had grown up in a conservative household. She was in love with her newfound freedoms -- getting to eat whatever she wanted, date freely, party on school nights, and do basically anything she wasn't allowed to do at home. She had a boyfriend -- a mean one who I couldn't stand because I saw how badly he treated her. As it turned out, he was forcing her to do things she didn't want to do, and stealing money from her before he'd sneak away early in the morning. I begged her to leave him, but she was afraid.
Around the middle of October she became depressed. She spent every day holed up in her bedroom and refused to go to classes. She came out for meals but only when she knew her friends wouldn't be there or when I brought her food from the campus cafeteria. After two weeks of this change in behavior I visited the campus psychologist and asked her what to do. After a few meetings, a series of events led to her taking a positive pregnancy test, and being faced with the biggest burden any lost seventeen-year-old girl can face.
She had almost no money, she was afraid of her parents (who coincidentally drove a minivan with a Choose Life license plate on the back), she was failing most of her classes, and she had this abusive boyfriend who came and went as he pleased. Meanwhile I was not entirely grounded in my faith but I did know how I felt about abortion as a form of birth control -- that I was wholeheartedly against it.
So I emailed my pastor and asked him what I was supposed to do. And amid all of the heated protest by Christians at the women's clinic I finally took her to, the voice of one pastor completely changed my understanding of the Christian responsibility in this situation... After fighting for her child, after doing everything I could to support her carrying to term, the only thing I had left to do was to love her, cry with her, and hug her, because that's what she needed most in the world. My pastor even offered to come sit with me at the clinic on the worst day of my friend's life, knowing that in loving her I too would require a lot of support. It was a huge turn of events for me.
There's this idea among many Christian contemporaries that we should elect judges based on their opinion on one 1973 court case (Roe v. Wade), with the hopes that it will one day be overturned.
But based on my experience, the overturning of a court case does little to prevent the kind of situation my roommate ended up in. What if she had received better sex education? What if she had learned how to defend herself from someone she thought she trusted, but who ultimately ended up raping her? What if she had been offered the financial resources necessary to support a child at age 18? What if she had the opportunity to get health insurance to afford the delivery of a child? What if she was guaranteed protection from her abuser, so that he would not be able to hurt her or her child? What if?
As I looked around the clinic that day, I remember thinking, "I wonder what brought her to this point," when looking at each woman in the room. There are these complex stories behind many unwanted pregnancies, many involving the woman's inability to afford a child or her lack of understanding how her own reproductive system works or her fear of the man who shares at least half of the responsibility for her pregnancy. It's not so cut and dry.
At the end of all of this, I am pro-life. But because of my experience my pro-life stance has been shaped into something much bigger than a supreme court ruling. I believe (as Barack Obama does) that our first priority should be to aid the women who find themselves making this difficult decision, providing them with the emotional, financial, and physical (health) resources they need to raise a child and ensure that each child receives the best healthcare and education that this country has to offer, regardless of her means.
A supreme court ruling does nothing to get at the roots of the issue. It's only a band-aid that provide states with the right to send teenagers and women across state lines to have the same procedure they would have had without leaving their city. It's going to take a person with real compassion, a person with a history of treating women with respect and dignity, a person who has fought for women's rights and not voted against them, to even begin to address this sensitive issue.
My Family Issues: A Culture of Life
I should clarify that my definition of pro-life also extends to the born. I (personally) cannot simultaneously be pro-life and pro-death-penalty or pro-war. The number of innocent civilians killed in Afghanistan alone outnumbers the Americans killed in the September 11th attacks. We found out too late that Iraq was an unjustified war; let's return responsibility to the Iraqi government and return the money we would spend prolonging the war to addressing the needs here at home.
Life is an issue that has somehow been split over party lines, and that I hope will one day be a priority for both sides, with respect to both the born and unborn among God's children (that's all of us).
Please check out Barack Obama's positions on women's issues for more information on his views.
I know this has been a terribly long read and I am truly grateful to you for listening. I just thought it was important that I share how I have carefully weighed the issues against my biblical understanding and personal life experience, and that I (and my husband) truly are putting family first when we cast our ballots for Barack Obama.
