I Just Read About That…

For reasons that are not clear to me, this upcoming Presidential election is evidently going to be very close.

Think of yourself as an employer (which is what you are in this case).  Do you hire the 72 year old man who thinks things in your company are going great and should continue on the track they’ve been going, or do you pick the 47 year old man with energy, ideas and a plan to make your company even better?  The choice seems pretty obvious…do you want to look to the past or the future.

Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother got me thinking about this election in a slightly different way, especially with his slogan “Never trust anyone under 25.”

If you’re under 25 (or even under 30, let’s be honest) and thinking of voting for McCain, you really need to double and triple check yourself.

Oh, and if you’re eligible to vote and you’re thinking of skipping this election, then this paragraph is just for you.  I’m not going to preach anything about how to run your life, but I want to impress this upon you: it will take just a few minutes to vote.  This election has the potential to impact your future in monumental ways.  You may not even give a moments thought to what your life will be like in twenty years.  But imagine how mad your future self will be if things turn out rotten in twenty years and you think, if I had only voted in 2008, I could have made a difference.  So, go vote.  Your future self will thank you.

Anyhow, there are dozens of reasons not to vote for McCain and you can find them just about anywhere.  But this particular reason is of special interest to anyone under 25:  McCain is not interested in the internet or email.  This is not recent news.  It was stated in an interview with the New York Times in July.  Read this excerpt from July 13, 2008:

Q: But do you go on line for yourself?

Mr. McCain: They go on for me. I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself. I don’t expect to be a great communicator, I don’t expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need – including going to my daughter’s blog first, before anything else.

Q: Do you use a blackberry or email?

Mr. McCain: No

Mark Salter: He uses a BlackBerry, just ours.

Mr. McCain: I use the Blackberry, but I don’t e-mail, I’ve never felt the particular need to e-mail. I read e-mails all the time, but the communications that I have with my friends and staff are oral and done with my cell phone.

I highlighted the parts in red that are particularly astonishing.  (And this is before one of McCain’s staffers said that McCain helped to invent the Blackberry.)Now, I teach senior citizens (which McCain is, let’s not forget) how to use the computer.  And I highly applaud McCain, or anyone, for trying to learn to use the computer.  As my students tell me, you can’t really function in the 21st century unless you are computer literate.

Your parents no doubt use computers every day.  Maybe your grandparents use the Internet, maybe they don’t, and that’s fine.

But I point out here: McCain is trying to become PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES, one of the leaders of the world, and he doesn’t know how to use the Internet?  He doesn’t use email??  How much responsibility would you give to an employee who couldn’t use email?  Or, worse yet, didn’t think it was that important.

It may seem silly to say that since he doesn’t use email he shouldn’t be president, but is it, really?  I don’t have to give statistics about Internet and email usage, nor do I have to point out that if he’s not using email, then he’s certainly not using IMs or Twitter or any other technological invention that’s been invented since you learned how to use email.

But, so what, you say, what does this have to do with the Presidency.

Three things:

1) Technology is the future.  We all know that.  Internet and Email technologies have been around longer than you have.  In the span of your lifetime, this man who wants to be in charge of the country has not bothered to learn this technology that you take for granted.  How could you trust the future of our country to someone who can’t be bothered with a technology that is over twenty years old?  No matter what his advisers say, he makes the final decision, and he simply doesn’t look towards the future.

2) If he doesn’t look towards the future, and more to the point, if he doesn’t care about a technology that is an integral part of your daily lives, how much do you think he’s going to care about other issues that impact you?  Do your grandparents care about things that are important to you?  Sure, a little, because they’re your grandparents, but do they think regularly about national issues that will impact you directly?  Probably not, since they have national issues that impact them directly.  So, no offense to their concerns, but wouldn’t you rather vote for the candidate who is concerned about issues that matter to you, especially since they will impact the future of the country?

3) This may be a stretch, and yet on a simple level, I think it’s true.  How many people have you met online that are from another country?  And have you chatted with them, maybe learned about their country or culture, maybe even made friends with people from around the world?  If you never thought about how amazing that is, think about it for a second.  Twenty years ago people only interacted with other cultures by vacationing there.  Now, we talk to each other on a daily basis.  And, it goes without saying that If you are friendly with someone, chances are you’ll be willing to work through differences rather than just saying, screw it.  The World Wide Web has created connections across the globe.  People who never cared about other cultures actually become interested in them when they can associate a person with the culture.  Do we want a President who doesn’t take part in this global experience?  I’m not suggesting that McCain has no international experience, he has quite a lot.  However, his experience is 20th century.  He can’t possibly understand the way the Internet brings people closer.  As world leaders become more and more hostile towards each other, wouldn’t it be nice for your future if our President worked at creating allies rather than enemies?  Further, how mad would you be if your friend’s country blew up part of your country?

I’ve voted in every election since I was eligible to vote.  I am super cynical about politicians, and frankly, I don’t think they ever look out for anyone but themselves.  Despite that, I am excited about Barack Obama.  I was absolutely moved by his speech at the Democratic Convention.  He spoke of the future. He spoke of how we could make things better.  He brought a message of positivity.  He spoke about alternatives to the state of the world today.  And, most importantly he spoke for young people.

By contrast, the Republican message was simply angry, bitter and cynical.  Sarah Palin spoke sarcastically, caustically and spitefully.  Neither she nor John McCain offered hope for the future, they just offered attacks.

I’m sick of attacks.  I’m sick of attack ads.  In fact, don’t watch any political ads at all.  Why are people swayed by political ads?  We know very well that ads for other products aren’t truthful, so why should we believe a political ad.  A political ad could tell a baldfaced lie (and many do) and yet there is no fact checking… and even if it is proven to be wrong, the lie is still out there spreading like a virus.

Read what the candidates have to say (from the candidates themselves, not from their spinmeisters) and you’ll see the difference.  And if you read McCain’s positions and his voting record, I think you’ll be swayed away from him pretty quickly.

It’s entirely possible that Barack Obama is just another slick politician who will get into office and do exactly what every other politician has done.  And if that happens, then I give up on following politics.

However, if Americans vote for McCain rather than Obama, if they really want to look towards the past rather than the future, if they are swayed by these politics of bitterness, belligerence and myopia, then I have to give up on Americans.