Mister Olbermann, makes some good points during his diatribe but I feel that he misses two important points.

1) A person can vote however they choose.

While Keith goes to at great lengths to ask “why” someone would vote in favor of Proposition 8 I feel that he misses the point that people can vote however they want.  There seems to be this growing sense in America where many people think “you can vote however you want as long as it furthers my point of view and if you fail to do that well than you’re a very mean/stupid/ignorant/raciest person” and to me this pretty much misses the point of voting entirely.

The whole idea behind voting is that I have my beliefs and you have yours and when it comes to voting, we can vote how we believe.  We vote based on our beliefs, morals, principles, and what we feel is right.  You will be hard pressed to find a group of people who all believe the exact same thing.  That’s why we vote.

Keith Olbermann’s rant, comes off as a giant statement about why someone who voted for Proposition 8 is “wrong” for doing so.  Maybe it’s his delivery but it seemed very poineted and “how dare you”-ish.

2) When it comes to the Christian faith, it is largely about “hate the sin, love the sinner”

Another thing that Olbermann brings up (quite a bit) is the Biblical principle that we should love our neighbors as ourself.  Granted he gets it right that this is Jesus’ greatest commandment but he leaves out the first one (yes, there were 2).  The first commandment Jesus gave was to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul” and the second was to love your neighbors.

Since most Christians and religious people believe that homosexuality is a sin (and most will point to Romans where Paul wrote that God gave the Romans “over to their sin” as proof of this fact), it makes perfect sense that they would vote in favor of a law that defines marriage as something that can only occur between a man and a woman.

Also, God doesn’t say that because someone sins you can’t “love” them, in fact he encourages Christians to love everyone regardless of sin because (again) Biblically “we are all sinful in the eyes of God” and no one is blameless.  The Bible makes it very clear that Christians are to love others, but despise the sin in their lives.

So while, Olbermann might have thought he was convicting Christians of hypocrisy, he in fact was making an ill-informed statement.  It is not “wrong” for a Christian to vote in favor of a proposition against gay marriage.

I respect Keith Olbermann’s right to say what he says.  But I just think that some clarification is needed as well as a reminder that as individual citizens, it is our right to vote as we want.  For or against a proposition.  It is our right to vote with our hearts, minds, beliefs, ideals, morals, and anything else we hold dear.

So if you voted for Prop8, or against, good for you for taking a stand for what you believe to be right/wrong/whatever.  That is what makes America so great.

Now, to all of you whom are trying to get the fact that Prop8 passed overturned in court with a bunch of lawsuits, you are a blight on this system and should regulate yourself to live with scum.  Should you succeed, you will prove that the whole concept of voting is rendered useless and disenfranchise anyone who takes time to go and vote.

Allow me to clarify that this is most definitely not the case.  While I do believe in smaller government, less regulation, and in general lower taxes, I do believe that the government can help out those that really need it.  I do also think that several of our current systems need to be reworked.  Quite simply I believe that you should work for what you have/want.  You shouldn’t expect it to be just given to you (by the government or anyone else).

My largest issue with the whole redistribution of wealth is that it gives a sense of entitlement to those that survive off government programs.  We already have enough people that believe the government should just give them money.  Why do we want to further propegate that idea.

I’m okay with the government helping out the common hard working man.  But it needs to be done in a reasonable and intelligent way.  I’m not okay with just giving handouts to people who are too lazy to get a job, education, or even read a book.

I don’t believe that further taxing the rich (a group that already pays somewhere around 90% of the taxes collected in this country) or profitable corporations for simply “making too much money” because I feel that is pusnishing success.

I believe quite simply that “if man does not work, he shall not eat” and I do not believe in the idea of entitlement.  I don’t believe that anyone is entitled to anything and that if you want to be rich, have more money, or a higher position that you have to work to achieve it.  I don’t believe it should just be handed to you.  Does that mean that this doesn’t happen?  It does.  Do I agree with it?  Not really.

The current system isn’t perfect and it does need to be re-evaluated, tweaked, and in some cases, completely reworked.

It really upsets me that people assume that a lot of people are not voting for Obama because he is black.  Do we really believe that the large majority of people are that ignorant?  Are there people out there that are that ignorant?  Yes, there are.  But to just assume that people who aren’t voting for Obama are doing so based on race, that seems far more ignorant.

You want people to “look at the issues” and when they do and decide that they don’t like your candidate, you decide they must be “racist” and nothing could be further from the truth for people.

Obama wants to take the rich and profitable corporations more and then give that money back to what he’s calling the “middle class” and call me ignorant if you’d like but that sounds exactly like “redistribution of wealth” which is socialism.  So excuse me, if as someone who actually works and makes a decent wage, I’m a little upset that I’m going to be taxed further, and have my money goto people who make less than me or don’t have a job at all.  Kiss my white, hard working, American rear-end if you think that I’m racist because I believe that since I actually work for my money I should get to keep as much of it as possible rather than give it to those that can’t be bothered to learn a trade, get an education, or even just simply get a job.

And for those that want to tell me that this country is already socialist, yes I’m aware that things like welfare make the United States a somewhat socialist state.  However, we’re no where near other countries in this world.  I would simply like to avoid seeing someone get into office that wants to make this country more socialist than it already is or needs to be.

All you people who think Obama is going to “save the middle class from those evil rich bastards” better get a wake up call.  If you tax a profitable corporation for simply being success full and having high profits, you better expect that those same companies will raise their prices (which directly effects the middle class) to cover those new taxes.  So great, you taxed the “evil” corporation for making a lot of money, but you have caused the middle class to have to pay more for whatever product that “evil” corporation is selling.  So you’ve in a sense accomplished nothing.

People who wish to vote for Obama need to really sit down and think about how economics and taxes really work.  They also need to do some research.  If they did, they’d realize that “the rich” already pay the largest part of the taxes collected yearly in the United States.  They’d also realize that Obama’s plans are the very definition of socialism (the redistribution of wealth).  Of course, I can understand how that’s hard to see when he says a whole bunch of pretty things in his speeches.

Footnote: I don’t really like McCain for president either.  So before you go telling me I’m brainwashed, or racist, or a McCain-ite, understand that if I vote for McCain it will simply be because he is what I consider to be the lesser of two evils and no other reason.  (I wonder how many people will see this note since it’s at the bottom, rather than reading the first 2 paragraphs and blasting me in the comments)