No liberal option

Damn.

There’s just no real liberal option. Starting on 20 January 2009, our country will be run by one right-leaning president or another. It’s just a question of how far to the right he’ll lean.

I can’t possible choose Senator McCain, for many obvious reasons. That leaves me to choose Senator Obama (or to toss my vote in the bin by voting for some minor-party candidate who has no chance of winning, just to make a statement).

That means I have to vote for someone who opposes same-sex marriage.

But his campaign said that Mr. Obama’s opposition to the initiative, which will appear on the state’s November ballot, did not signal a change in position. He remains opposed to same-sex marriage, but supports civil unions and domestic partnerships.

That means I have to vote for someone who still wants restrictions on abortion, contravening the choice of the mother, and threatening her health.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says “mental distress” should not qualify as a justification for late-term abortions, a key distinction not embraced by many supporters of abortion rights.

In an interview this week with “Relevant,” a Christian magazine, Obama said prohibitions on late-term abortions must contain “a strict, well defined exception for the health of the mother.”

Obama then added: “Now, I don’t think that ‘mental distress’ qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term.”

That means I have to vote for someone who thinks that religion belongs in our government and the programs it supports.

Senator Barack Obama said Tuesday that if elected president he would expand the delivery of social services through churches and other religious organizations, vowing to achieve a goal he said President Bush had fallen short on during his two terms.

(and here)

“Now, I know there are some who bristle at the notion that faith has a place in the public square,” Mr. Obama intends to say. “But the fact is, leaders in both parties have recognized the value of a partnership between the White House and faith-based groups.”

That means I have to vote for someone who now supports making it easier for the government to spy on Americans, and giving immunity to companies that agreed to an illegal request for private information.

Senator Barack Obama’s decision to support legislation granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with the Bush administration’s program of wiretapping without warrants has led to an intense backlash among some of his most ardent supporters.

Thousands of them are now using the same grass-roots organizing tools previously mastered by the Obama campaign to organize a protest against his decision.

That means I have to vote for someone who agrees with the conservatives on the Supreme Court — the four Bush-41 and Bush-43 appointees — that the death penalty is OK in cases of child rape, going against the decision of the majority of the court, including the liberals and centrists.

Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said, “I think that the rape of a small child, 6 or 8 years old, is a heinous crime, and if a state makes a decision under narrow, limited, well-defined circumstances, that the death penalty is at least potentially applicable, that does not violate our Constitution.” He added that the Supreme Court should have set conditions for imposing the death penalty for the crime, “but it basically had a blanket prohibition, and I disagree with the decision.”

To be sure, Senator McCain’s stand on all these issues is worse, much farther to the right, and to be sure, I agree with Senator Obama on other things. Still... what happened to Mr Liberal, Mr Change?

Damn.