You are a racist.

I can prove it to you, but it would take more effort than it's worth. Now, you could be a trailblazer and just believe me from the beginning - that would be refreshing, but not particularly likely.

Ok, why do I start with such an inflammatory statement? Partly because it's true, but mainly to underscore my real point which is this: Your racism may be the only reason that you won't vote for Barak Obama.

Most of the people with whom I speak who have explained why they won't vote for Obama have listed reasons like "taxes", "gun control" or "gay marriage", whatever. The real reason is that in their heart of hearts they know they could never vote for a black man for president of the United States. Therefore, they'll cling to their bullshit belief that it's for reasons other than outright racism.

My joy has been to cut their arugments short: Under the most recent democrat president (Clinton), even if taxes have been "raised", their personal financial buying power was in fact higher. Also, even though Barak has admitted he'd raise taxes on the top 2%, he said he'd lower taxes for the remaining 98%. If you're reading this, or talking to me in person, guess which bracket you fall into.

Additionally, under the last two republican presidents, both ironically named Bush, your personal financial buying power has actually dropped by about 5% - regardless of your tax situation.

Ok, now to gun control, which in fabulous Nebraska is near and dear to most hearts. There is a rumor floating around that the very first thing Obama will do AFTER raising everybody's taxes, is to take away their guns. I'm not even sure where this came from except that it's presumably part of the democrat party line. In fact, I don't remember having heard Barak mention anything about gun control in any of his speeches.

That point notwithstanding, if memory serves, the party line of the left is to ban assault weapons. This is apparently the slippery slope that the right (meaning wrong) is afraid of. I might believe that if the majority of Americans wanted to see all weapons banned, but I don't believe that that's the case. Personally, I don't really care if weapons are banned because I've lived in England where they are basically banned and I didn't feel like I was missing anything.

Besides, I don't need guns because I have two really large German Shepards. Anybody who breaks into my house might not wake me or my family up, but the dogs certainly aren't going to be sleeping through it. Granted somebody who breaks in with a gun could pretty easily shoot the dogs, but they're probably going to split right after since, although they don't know if I have a gun or not, they have to assume that we're awake at least.

Like I said, I don't have anything against guns. We have two or three ourselves in fact. My argument is, unless the majority of Americans are really clamoring for an all-out ban, I doubt that even if Barak wanted to could he pull it off. To me, this is more of a common sense argument than anything.

Another anti-Obama "argument" is gay marriage. I think I mentioned it in a previous post, but the most ridiculous statement I've ever heard IN MY LIFE was by this anti-gay-marriage person who literally said, "Well, if we start allowing gay marriage, it's just a matter of time before people are marrying their toasters."

I'll give you all a minute to digest that...

This was not uttered by the town idiot, nor by someone with a serious mental impairment (as it's normally defined), but by a "normal" person who thought that she was actually making a brilliant point. I stood there stunned and speechless. Eventually, I just shook my head and walked away. No doubt, she thought she had me at a loss and was likely silently congratulating her outstanding debating skills. Meanwhile, I just lost a little more will to live.

But, back to non-retarded arguments regarding gay-marriage. My question to you homophobes out there is this: Why the fuck do you care? Because of some bullshit morality that you trot out when it suits your needs? I have to say that most people who have ever said anything negative about gay-marriage are about as morally bankrupt as everybody else I've ever met. No more, no less.

Gay people are at least as capable of falling in love and staying in a committed relationship as anybody else I've ever seen. So, what difference does it make if they are legally married? Straight people are 50% likely to get divorced in every marriage they enter. Besides, how many TRULY happy married people have you ever met? 2, 3 maybe?

So, my question is where the hell is the morality? Besides, isn't there supposed to be some kind of separation of church and state anyway? Why should the christian mythology be the deciding factor in who's allowed to be legally married? That doesn't stand up to any kind of logic that I can come up with.

So, at the end of the day, what am I trying to say? Basically, this: if you don't want to vote for Barak Obama, you have to ask yourself this: "Do I have a valid argument, or am I just a racist bastard?" I don't think you'll like the answer.

But, not to worry, you'll get over it.