I was finally exit-polled after voting today. Sadly, on one of the important questions—a checkbox of five possible issues to list as the one most important to me—the issues provided were ridiculous. They were: the economy, energy policy, the Iraq War, terrorism, and health care. All of these are important, I grant, but none of them really rises above the others for me.

• The Economy: My take can pretty much be summed up thusly: Fix it!
• Energy policy: end government subsidization of oil! Let the prices rise to market value!
• The Iraq War: This is what I actually checked. When the Iraq War began, I frequently defended it. I had some faith in the WMD claim, and I believed in the idea that Iraq could realistically transition into a democracy. I understood absolutely nothing about tribalism, nationalism, or the tremendous work of getting large numbers of people to identify with each other in the pursuit of common life. It takes years, miracles, tremendous work, and a hell of a lot of luck. (And, for Americans, it took a bloody Civil War.)
• Terrorism: I’d be tempted to check this if I thought it could be interpreted reasonably. Terrorism has exposed the US’s biggest weakness: fear. It has shown how ready we are to sacrifice everything dear and necessary to our common life in the name of “security”. We are ready to kill, murder, torture, imprison, mutilate, terrify, and generally victimize anyone deemed necessary for the sake of that security. The Bush administration, and too much of the GOP, has raced—utterly unself-reflective—to justify every hope of the terrorists who perpetrated 9/11 and, I fear, to fuel the dreams of many terrorist hopefuls. I think, though, that this would have simply been interpreted as “Save our freedom from the terrorists!” Don’t get me wrong: we really, REALLY need to prevent terrorism. The idea of having my skin slowly melt due to the radioactive fallout of a dirty bomb in our nation’s capitol strikes me as unpleasant. But you know what? So does the idea of having my children die in UN bombing runs. American lives are not worth more than Afghan lives. If we are to fight horror in this world, we must acknowledge that all horror is part of that. This fundamental American solipsism must be fought and it must not be allowed to guide our foreign policy.
• Health care: Look: things can’t really continue the way they are. Something needs to change. Is Obama’s plan the right one? It strikes me as attractive due to its moderation, but I’m pretty pessimistic about the chances of seeing it actually happen. Language about the “right” to healthcare strikes me as inaccurate and unhelpful, but I also find the lack of sympathy for the poor that fuels so much of the opposition to single-payer healthcare utterly appalling.

Had I had an option to write in a response, I would have put “Rule of Law”.