Why I’m voting for Obama

Complex issues are complex because they embody many disparate conflicting goals, issues and values, and it is not clear how to balance those conflicting goals and values. In making decisions about really complex issues the trick is to figure out which of the many conflicting values or issues is most important; which is so important that it overrides all other issues.

Choosing a presidential candidate to vote for in this election is a complex decision (at least for those of us who don’t just automatically vote the party label). Both candidates are personally appealing. Both are nice guys. While there are differences between them in style, in truth there probably isn’t going to be a lot of difference in how they govern, because (rhetoric aside) there really isn’t that much difference these days between the two political parties in America. Both have to compete for the same voters, both have to satisfy the same big-money corporate interests (big corporate interests hedge their bets and give to both parties), both have to respond to the same public concerns and react to the same swings in public sentiment.

And although we often ascribe a lot of power to the President, in fact the presidency is normally too constrained by Congressional pressures, the inertia of the vast established federal bureaucracy, budget realities, public expectations, and world events to make radical or sudden changes. Whether Obama or McCain is the next president, the federal deficit will no doubt continue to climb, Iraq and the Middle East in general will continue to be a problem, oil prices will continue to escalate, politicians will continue to be unable to bite the bullet and do the necessary painful things to combat global warming or solve the Medicare and Social Security problems, and the economy will continue to have problems. These are all long-term structural problems, and no president is likely to make much of a dent in them in one or two terms.

But there is one place where the president has a good deal of long-term power – the appointment of Supreme Court justices. It is true that these appointments have to get past Congress, and it is also true that Supreme Court justices, once appointed for life, sometimes turn out to have different judicial views than expected. Nonetheless, the liberal-conservative balance of the Supreme Court has significant long-term implications for the nation, and a president can (if enough openings occur during his/her) term) affect that.

In my mind, one of the most important issues in our nation today is the erosion of civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism. We now hold suspects (at Guantanamo) indefinitely without trial. The government has sanctioned torture of some prisoners. Congress has just meekly passed the Electronic Surveillance Act that allows the government to continue to wiretap our phones and monitor our email without a warrant (and both Obama and McCain supported that bill). For several years now the FBI has been eliciting private information about citizens in secret (the law forbids those asked to reveal that a request has been made). These are all trappings of a police state.

I am reminded of words Benjamin Franklin wrote: “Those who can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”.

I’m also reminded of the text of the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probably cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Now it’s to be expected that governments, and especially the police forces of governments, will always push for more powers and less civil liberties, because it makes their jobs easier. The counterbalance to that pressure in our society are the courts, and in the end the Supreme Court. So the makeup of the Supreme Court is crucially important to the long-term preservation of our civil liberties. And at the moment, the Supreme Court is finely balanced between conservatives and liberals, which is why recent important cases have often been decided by 5-4 splits.

So I’m voting for Obama, not because I expect him to govern better than McCain, but because it is more likely he will, if given a chance, appoint a liberal to any Supreme Court openings that occur during his terms, and that makes it more likely (not certain, but at least more likely) that the Supreme Court will in future cases come down on the side of protecting our civil liberties. And, on balance, I think that protection of (even restoration of) American civil liberties is an issue that trumps all other issues in this election, and matters more for the long-term health of this nation than any other issue currently being debated in the election.