Patriotism

I was reading on MSN the other day about John McCain and Barak Obama's definitions on patriotism, sounds like there respective writers went to the same school.  For two candidates talking about how different they are from other people that have run for president, they sure do sound like they came from the same political cookie cutter to me.  I've only had the ability to vote in one national election thus far, but I've been scrutinizing candidates my whole life.  I know this is kind of different from most people my age, but I feel it's what every responsible citizen should do.

For the record I am fundamentally a Republican.  I don't wholly align myself with the republican party because I don't feel that they adequately represent my views.  Democrats I have even less in common with.  It's hard living in a state that votes democrat every time.  It never really matters who I vote for because the state of Washington always goes to the blue team.  But this year it seems to matter even less.

You see this year I don't want either candidate.  On one hand we have a republican candidate that brags that he would be good for security, but he lobbies in favor of outsourcing military projects.  That's a little backwards I think.  He talks and votes like every other republican aside from that.  Then we have a democrat that says he's totally different than the norm.  The news loves writing about it too.  They say it over and over, but really, what's different about him?  If I never say a picture of Mr. Obama, never heard he was black and all I ever knew about him was how he votes, he'd be just another democrat.  So apparently the only thing that qualifies him to be President is that he's black.  He's had limited experience in politics, but he's black and that means he's different?  He talks like just another politician.  I haven't seen any real political differences.

This is just my opinion really, but it seems all we have is a republican and democratic candidate.  Whoever wins, they'll vote right down party lines.  We may get higher or lower taxes, fewer or greater social programs, but beyond that...  Now I know why people quit voting, I'm tired of picking the lesser of two evils.  The sad part is, I haven't been doing it all that long yet.

Back to patriotism, I love my country.  I don't have any writers, and I really don't have anything really deep to say about it in order to define it.  I can only express it with a prayer:

Whether its the red team or blue team, God bless America, we need Your love, mercy and guidance.