Earl Warren died 1/3 of a century ago already: Why I support Barack Obama

Like most voters in the Democratic primaries and caucuses, and like both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, I'm an American Liberal. That is, I believe the rules by which our society's natural abundance is distributed must be crafted so that everyone can attain some minimum reasonable standard of living and so that power disparities, if not disparities in creature comforts, are minimized. I believe that worth is not measured simply in wealth, and also that the incentive of wealth should be made to better comport with other thing we value, such as our physical and ethical environments. I believe that while government rightly gets involved where we infringe on others, government must not infringe on our rights to shape our own lives when that does not directly infringe on others, even if most others think we are unwise or set bad examples. And I believe America's foreign policy should reflect all of Americans' values, not merely our desire for plundered bounty and ego gratification.

( Read more... )