I’m slowly losing interesting in the U.S. presidential election now that the result seems inevitable (get on with the inauguration already). However, the Obama–McCain dance-off video (via Kottke) combined with a feature in the latest The American Conservative, has temporarily piqued my interest again.
In said feature, The Right Choice?, 18 prominent conservatives were asked to discuss “how they are voting, whether they see their vote as advancing a particular issue or fitting into a larger strategy, and what conflicts their choice might entail”. This from Francis Fukuyama:
America has been living in a dream world for the past few years, losing its basic values of thrift and prudence and living far beyond its means, even as it has lectured the rest of the world to follow its model. At a time when the U.S. government has just nationalized a good part of the banking sector, we need to rethink a lot of the Reaganite verities of the past generation regarding taxes and regulation. Important as they were back in the 1980s and ’90s, they just won’t cut it for the period we are now entering. Obama is much better positioned to reinvent the American model and will certainly present a very different and more positive face of America to the rest of the world.
The split between those polled is overwhelmingly pro-third party, closely followed by Obama. McCain brings up the rear, drawing level with ‘no vote’.
More Fukuyama? I implore you to read The End of History and the Last Man.