On deciding to be undecided

jesse

@ October 22, 2008

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In the comments of my "Obamaganda!" entry, Undecided Man writes:

While I'm a big fan of David Sedaris, he (like most voters whose voting pattern was pre-determined years or decades before the current candidates were nominated) confuses thinking about the important issue of who to vote for (which many undecideds are doing) with not thinking about it (which, by definition, most decideds have stopped doing). My reply to Mr. Sedaris can be found at http://www.undecidedman.com under "Naivete".

Okay, I'll bite.

To start, Sedaris is making less a point about being undecided in general than he is making a (highly partisan) point about being undecided in THIS particular election: in his (and my) view, the choice is either chicken, or a shit sandwich with bits of glass in it. Sure, maybe chicken isn't your thing, you prefer steak, or you are a vegetarian... but you aren't actually going to eat the shit sandwich, are you?

And okay, Undecided Man, you don't agree. John McCain isn't actually a shit sandwich, and Sarah Palin isn't actually little bits of glass that have been embedded in the shit sandwich. But the election is in... (does some quick math) ...13 days. Less than two weeks. In fact, you can vote right now in many places - I plan on casting my vote this Saturday at one of the early polling places here in Houston. If not decided now, then when? What exactly are you waiting for? What bit of information do you feel is lacking to make the decision?

You talk about your "decision to be undecided" as thinking about the issue. But being a decided voter at this point in the election cycle does not necessarily mean that you are choosing to vote based on a decision that was made "months or years" ago either.

John McCain has been the Republican nominee since February 5th, after he won the Super Tuesday primaries. Barack Obama has been the Democratic nominee the end of the primary calendar on June 3rd.

Going back even further, Barack Obama announced his candidacy for president on May 2nd, 2007. John McCain announced even earlier than that - March 1st, 2007. For all intents and purposes, these men have been campaigning for over 18 months. You need another 13 days? Really?

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Undecidedman @ October 22, 2008 10:25 AM

Your response is appreciated. As you note, I do not think either McCain or Obama represent "shit sandwiches," although I appreciate the fact that many other people do feel that way (or, at least have already made up their mind regarding who to vote for due to really liking one candidate or really not liking another).

The fact that I have chosen to believe both candidates are worth considering gives me room to actually consider both of them from a number of different angles (as you can read on my www.undecidedman.com blog). Using as much of this time as possible is actually liberating since it allows me to take what's given to us by each campaign and by the media and apply different filters to it (historical filters, such as the piece I wrote called "Continity," issue filters, such as the entries "It's the Economy, Shithead" and "Ruthlessness").

If I had made up my mind months ago (as I probably would have had both candidates not turned out to be so interesting), there would be no point to thinking about the bigger picture, or looking at issues in more detail, simply because my decision would have already been made and I'd just be using such exploration to demonstrate to myself and others that I was still pondering something that was, in fact, already a done deal.

If the election were tomorrow, my pondering would end today and I would make a choice. But since the Constitution gives me until the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November to think about this important subject, I choose to take maximum advantage of that time.

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