You have a friend or a colleague who has kids? Or one that has grandkids? Or is thinking about having kids?
Are they thinking that McCain is “moving to the center” (as I was told by a colleague earlier today)? Are they considering voting for McCain because Obama “doesn’t necessarily have the right experience” or for some other nonsensical reason? Do they believe the lies that McCain was “very against the war from the beginning”? Are they unfamiliar with McCain’s “there will be more wars” comment? Do they not know about his 100 years in Iraq comment?
If there is no other distinction that people can understand (or care enough about) – even though there are more distinctions than I can easily count to (and I am an accountant), it is this one: if McCain wins, he and his neoconservative buddies will ensure that there are more wars. Enough of the “more wars” that not only many of us, but our children and grandchildren will be shipped off to fight..
So, I plan on telling one of my closest friends, who is a self described “moderate libertarian” who happens to vote republican because of his wallet (he owns 2 dental practices) that his 7 year old son, 4 year old daughter and 1 year old son (who I am the godfather of) could likely be shipped overseas to fight in one of the many wars that McCain will start or inflame.
And I will tell my parents, who think McCain is not conservative enough that if he wins, they will be setting things up so that my 4 year old niece has a shot at being drafted into the decades long war that he plans on continuing (I will personally flee the country with the little mollusk if need be). Ditto for my work colleague down the hall who has 2 sons under the age of 6, and all of the people in my neighborhood who have young children, including my next door neighbors who have twin grandchildren who are around 2 years old.
It is that simple to me. It is that clear. SCOTUS is of utmost importance, however the damaging impact from McCain SCOTUS picks are not as easy to describe in tangible terms as “McCain would gladly have your kids kill and possibly die halfway across the world – or come back with PTSD or permanent injuries”.
Or the reverse – “Do you want your kids or grandkids to become fodder for McCain’s continuation of failed aggression?”
Either way, it is a very powerful question, and paints a picture in very stark terms of what we can expect under a McCain presidency. And with there being absolutely no coverage of Iraq on the major news outlets and therefore no talk of the human cost in lost and damaged lives, I can think of no stronger more powerful way to pointedly show what is at stake here.