Why I Can't Vote for Barack Obama

As a twenty-three year-old living in Boston, every day I feel the weight of my dirty secret: I will not be voting for Barack Obama on November 5. From what I have read in the New York Times, this clearly must mean that I am a) racist, b) a war-monger, c) the mortal enemy of polar bears, and d) looking forward to losing my Depression-fifteen. No one seems to give credence to the possibility of being none of those things and yet finding oneself diametrically opposed to supporting his campaign. There are, of course, several reasons, but most of them could be conceded if not for The One Reason: Obama’s explicit promise to erase all defenses of the unborn.

Many people will be outraged that I will base my vote on that one, single issue. If we were talking about gun rights or tax rates, then yes, I would agree that my single-mindedness is simply narrow-mindedness. Allow me to explain how this one issue truly does define the candidate.

Our country was founded upon the principles of every man’s right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. First among this list is life. Many other important rights followed these three, but there is a reason why these are first. They are non-negotiable. They trump all others. I support women’s rights. If there was a way that no woman ever came to resent the life growing within her and that no child was ever conceived in an unwelcoming world, believe me I would support it. I am not unaware of the tragedy that pregnancy is to many women- reputations soiled, homes broken, lives disrupted, careers derailed, health strained… the list goes on. I hear that sorrow. Even louder, though, then these cries are the cries of the over forty-eight million children slaughtered in their innocence since 1973 in America. Abortion “rights” do make life easier for women who do not want to be pregnant. Many women who have had abortions go on to accelerated careers that would never have been achieved with a child or go on to have a family with the right man at a better time. That’s nice. But, what shame, what inconvenience, what re-shaping of plans, what future could possibly outweigh the value of that one life taken? I do not believe that a woman’s right to choose her future should ever be worth more than the rights of the twenty-four million would-be women who have seen their rights to any future sacrificed for them.

What is the purpose of leadership if not to speak the hard truths when people most need to hear them? What does America represent if not the promotion of equality and defense of the innocent? What possible good could come from a leader who has such little regard for the value of human life? Is it possible to believe words of peace when they come from a man who even supports killing children who survive botched partial-birth abortions? His words of hope and his support for the depths of depravity cannot be reconciled in my mind.

This is not to say that I am particularly moved by John McCain. Truly, he does support several things that have damaged America and will continue to damage America. The suppression of human rights that blossomed under Bush and has the potential to be continued under McCain is particularly troubling. But, under Obama, even if we returned to the most sparkling human rights record, saw an economic boom, and patched up the whole in the ozone layer, we would still be a shining city built upon rotting corpses, just as we were when we were built upon slavery- a lesson that the first African-American presidential candidate seems to have tragically forgotten.