A Values Voter

I've always thought of myself as an issues voter. I don't have any one issue that determines how I vote; my vote is shaped by the constellation of issues I consider to be most important in a given election cycle. Or so I thought. It took this election year for me to realize that I'm a values voter.

I care how candidates treat people. I care how they conduct their campaigns. I believe that the behavior we see from a candidate during the campaign indicates how they will be as President. And that matters to me.

Fortunately, my issues and my values have lined up. Not perfectly, but close enough. I don't require perfection. But I have to wonder what I'll do if an election comes when they do clash. Which way will I vote then? I'm not really sure. I do know that if my issues leaned me towards Republican I would be facing that choice this year.

I have been horrified by the tone, words, and actions of the McCain campaign. It seems like a lifetime ago that I cheered for him winning the Republican primaries. I believed that it would lead to a presidential campaign that would focus on the issues instead of engaging in Swift Boat tactics. I also believed that it would lead to an election where I could be happy whichever way it went. Okay, happy might be too strong. I disagree with McCain on a number of the issues, but I believed him to be a man of integrity. I can live with wrong-headed policies if the person has integrity. There is room for hope as long as a person has integrity. I really thought I could relax this election. Instead, I'm losing sleep agonizing about the outcome because the John McCain I thought I knew and trusted is gone.

But it isn't just McCain. Across the country the Republicans are engaging in despicable tactics. Vicious attack ads and robocalls, repeated attempts at voter suppression; it's like the whole party has lost its soul. If I preferred to vote Republican I would be in despair. How can people who claim to value morality justify acting this way? How can people who value morality continue to vote Republican? All I can say is that a person would have to have to define morality very narrowly.

Personally, my sense of morality cannot accept the complete absence of morality and integrity that I am witnessing in both this and past elections. And if it continues, it will be a long time before I feel I can vote Republican. I definitely will not be voting for McCain. Well, their loss is the Democrats', and Obama's, gain.

Meanwhile, the agonizing wait for November 4 continues.