Racist Voters

One of the beautiful things about living in the Youngstown, Ohio area is the entertaining political atmosphere. Two of our esteemed state representatives have weighed in on the importance of the presidential race. Of course, as elected officials from the Mahoning Valley, there is no question regarding where their political and party affiliations lie. However, they have thrown good sense to the wind in statements about the coming election. In their words, at least for people in the Valley, there are 1000 reasons to vote for Senator Obama, and only 1 reason not to: race. Read the statement here.

I would be naive to deny that race plays no factor in this election. Sadly, some who would normally vote Democrat will not this time because of race. But to make such a blanket statement as that above, Reps. Hagan and Lestson have dismissed any political or philosophical differences that one may have with Sen. Obama. Several of my coworkers refuse to vote for Obama because of his position on abortion. Their share the same racial heritage as the Senator's. Are they racist?
And could we not likewise say that the only reason people will fail to vote for McCain - Palin is because they are chauvinists?

I'm sure our forbears envisioned the election process as that which brings out the best in Americans. If they could see us now!