the all important election day where the dems have a real possibility of taking back control over the house and senate.
a canvasser stopped by today with materials supporting davis and the rest of the dem ticket. i've thought about this race a lot more over the last couple of weeks. i do have issues with the davis campaign, his views on certain issues, but the canvasser mentioned that davis was willing to pull back from the iraq war... however davis has stated he does not think all troops should be pulled out, and no timetable should be setup. here's an article about the differences between davis and his incumbent opponent reynolds. as you can see, there's not much difference. i would definitely feel guilty going for reynolds, because there are some issues that i feel really strong about that reynolds does not support, namely abortions and same-sex rights/marriage. while these issues affect some people... the big issue that affects everyone no matter if they are gay, straight, pregnant or not is the economy, and i don't support davis' plans to put up trade barriers and tariffs. it will not only raise prices of goods that we buy, but perpetuate an inefficient, bloated sector in the US known as manufacturing. why shouldn't we off-shore jobs that require little to no skill to do if they can be done for cheaper? these jobs help developing countries build up their own industries, and down the line increase demand for trade for other goods. instead of sustaining these low skilled jobs, government should provide funds to educate and train these americans in other sectors. putting up barriers also may harbor more ill will internationally on the political side... but also we will pass up opportunities to capitalize in other markets and lose out against other countries. if we will not support free trade, another country will, and will definitely pick up the slack. another point of view is to look at the issue through technology. technology is an increasing part of people's lives. driving new technology adoption comes from a decrease in the price of whatever it is we are looking to use. one of the ways to control price is have a competitively manufactured product. if the product is priced prohibitively high, why would you adopt it? if technology serves as a competitive business advantage, a company will adopt it no matter what. however, if the product costs more to purchase in the US because of tariffs, versus a company based in germany, canada, uk, etc... the advantage goes to a company based elsewhere. so if you are a small/mid-size company, how do you compete in a global market? you need to find ways to cut your costs elsewhere, or increase your revenues and profits to offset those costs just to remain at a comparable level with your foreign competitors. in the end putting up these barriers would hurt consumers, businesses, and probably cause some developing economies who are dependent on exporting out goods to the US some financial and maybe political turmoil.
ok... even if the economy is a minus, balances out the plusses (same-sex issues, abortion) in the davis campaign... back to the canvasser... she definitely did come out and say that with a davis win, the dems have an even better chance of taking over the house. while that is true... i am not so sure how the democratic philosophy would be furthered with davis in house considering davis' point of view, and the fact that he doesn't see eye to eye with most of the local officials within the democratic party. what it boils down to now for me, is... which candidate would be better for buffalo and the wny region. reynolds is a high ranking representative in the house, it has been shown he can work effectively across party lines and people who he doesn't agree with to get things down when needed... and so he can funnel more money to us. davis... he's a political novice who does not have the warmest of relationships with either the dems in his locale or republicans. how is he going to either funnel money or projects to the area? how is he going to promote change for this area? is he going to do it by re-establishing the manufacturing industry here in buffalo? we seriously have to let that go... we have to promote other industries... for pete's sake we have a bunch of area colleges in the area. we have to keep our college grads in the area instead of having them move away (we have 5 suny colleges/university within an hour drive, among the other suny community colleges and private colleges). so what... we're gonna have our kids go through higher education to work on an assembly line? good thinking there.
these are just some things i've been thinking about recently... and why as much as i hate to say it... i will be casting my ballot reynolds.