Ben-Ami: I would vote for John McCain
Joseph Ben-Ami would cast his ballot for Republican John McCain
Joseph C. Ben-Ami - November 3, 2008
One of the things I like about fixed election dates here in Canada is that they typically ensure that votes happen in the fall of the year, around Remembrance Day. I am always motivated to vote in elections held around that day (give or take a few weeks) regardless of how I feel about the credentials of the candidates running or the quality of their campaigns. It’s really not hard to understand why I feel this way. I was raised in the shadow of World War Two, the child of one of millions of refugees from that great conflagration.
My father came to this country in 1952 having survived life under Polish dictatorship, followed by Communist Russians, followed by the Nazis, followed by the Communist Russians again, and finally, when the war and he made his way to what was soon to become the country of West Germany, under Allied military rule. For him, freedom and democracy were not abstract concepts that had been “defended” by, among others, scores of thousands of Canadians -- it was a deliverance to be earned through responsible living and thoughtful community participation. To him and my mother, voting was a duty and in our household, duties were always taken seriously.
I often hear people say “I don’t like any of them” when justifying their decision not to vote, a sentiment that I confess I have never been able to understand. Just because I don’t like everything that candidates or parties stand for doesn’t justify me breaking faith with those who fought and died to ensure that my father could live in freedom by refusing to discharge the most basic responsibility of that freedom. And so, in spite of my own displeasure, if I can’t vote for something I want, I will vote against something I don’t want. Or if I can’t do either I will weigh each candidate and party as a whole against the others and I will choose the package that I think is better for the community, even if I don’t believe that it is the “best” that could be achieved.
This is a bit of a long-winded way of answering the question, for whom would I vote in the American presidential election this year. The answer is John McCain, and unlike Ann Coulter who has stated publicly that she too would vote for McCain but would hold her nose while doing so, I would cast my ballot for Senator McCain with my head held high.
Don’t get me wrong – there are many, many tings that I do not like about the Senator from Arizona and the team he has sounded himself with. For me, voting is not about the candidate, the party, or the platform, however; it’s about the act itself, and when voting becomes at least as important as what or whom we are voting for, we are compelled to look beyond the ideal in search of the best compromise – and in my view, that’s John McCain.
That being said, conservatives in the United States have a colossal task ahead of them in the next two years as they prepare for the 2010 election cycle – but that’s the subject of a future essay.
Joseph C. Ben-Ami is President of the Canadian Centre for Policy Studies. You can view a collection of his columns and essays at Josephbenami.com.