The Twitter and Facebook posts have been posted and reposted. The jokes have been passed around. The arguments have been had. It’s Election Day, and before I go out and vote, I am going to make my formal declaration. I am voting for Barack Obama. This blog entry will explain why.
Towards the end of the Bush administration, I saw that the economy was falling apart. At the time, I was a school bus janitor and assistant to the school district’s mechanic. The radio was on at work, and I remember a story where senator and candidate John McCain’s financial advisor (his name escapes me) said that there was nothing wrong with the economy, and that it was the “mental economy.”People were just afraid to spend. Many neo-cons were trying to convince the people that Bush’s policies were working, and that the economy was fine. Due to two seemingly unwinnable wars and a faltering economy, and the fact that the prospects of any Republican taking the 2008 election would really just herald W’s third term with a new face, I knew that the Democrats were poised to take the White House. However, being an observer of human nature and patterns of behavior, I was certain that the conservatives weren’t going to sound the economy alarm until that Democratic president took office. As the election season dragged on, and things were taking an even bleaker turn, I knew that such a Democratic president would have their work cut out for them. I knew that they weren’t going to get the job done in one term. The way I saw it, the fixing of America would take two progressive terms from either Clinton or Obama. In addition, someone riding in on that Democrat’s coattails, and therefore continuing that progressive reform for at least one term, would fix America. I didn’t expect miracles, but I did expect resistance from neo-cons digging their heels. I am the neo-cons’ worst nightmare - a voter with a good political memory and long-term vision. This is the main reason that I’m voting the way I am. I understand that he’s not perfect, but at least he’s trying to create progressive reforms. And I’m not going to vote for a third party candidate because it’s destructive, useless, and senseless, unless we can get rid of the Electoral College. As someone said, if we’re “screwed either way,”I’m going with the guy who’ll let me take the morning after pill the next day. Now that the opening declaration has been made, I will tackle the issues that are important to me, one by one, in no specific order.
HEALTHCARE– The Affordable Care Act, though a far cry from the reform that I had hoped for, is reform nonetheless. It has gotten more people insured, and when all of its changes fall into place in 2014, more people will keep their insurance. This is not a government takeover of healthcare. In fact, it promotes a free market competition, and puts a crack in the insurance monopolies.
EDUCATION– Mitt Romney wants to get rid of the Department of Education. “The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.” This is an enduring truth spoken by Diogenes. The Department of Education not only should be preserved, but also restructured and strengthened. If our graduates are to compete academically with their international counterparts, then we need a nationally standardized curriculum. It needs to be equitable and fair. There’s nothing fair in the fact that high school students in one part of the nation have a well-funded arts program, excellent science courses, and a variety of languages to choose from, while high school students in another part of the nation struggle to keep their arts together and sift through old and outdated books. The threat to get rid of the Department of Education just reeks of the anti-intellectualism that seems to have permeated the neo-conservative movement.
LGBT RIGHTS – Admittedly, it took a while for the president to warm up to marriage equality. However, though a little slow to fight, he is fighting on our side. This is evident in his stance on DOMA and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Personally, I don’t like the idea of people who claim they want “small government” cutting my options for marriage in half.
SOCIAL PROGRAMS – This is a blanket phrase which covers FEMA, Medicare, Social Security, veterans’ benefits. There is no reason not to at least raise the social security tax cap. This will continue its solvency. SS is not broke. It is being robbed. Robbed, like many other social programs. They are being robbed by the very people who want these programs privatized. Privatizing these programs also, in turn, would put money back into the hands of the very people who were dismantling them in the first place. Put in those terms, who the fuck would want to sign on with that deal? When set up by the government, the single goal of social programs is providing services to the people. If privatized, there will be another goal taking center stage: looking out for the corporate profit margins.
ROLE OF GOVERNMENT – It’s obvious why politicians under Wall Street’s control want less government. That’s just like why burglars want homeowners to have a weakened guard dog. That makes it easier to rob people. The role of government, to me, is simple: to be the guard dog at the command of the American people.
ECONOMY– There is no reason to believe that trickle-down, laissez-faire economics could ever work. Back when Reagan started it, it was deemed bullshit by those who called it “voodoo economics.” The top dogs have had their tax cuts for over a decade now, why aren’t the jobs rolling in? This Halloween, did we give the richest kids candy, hoping that they’d share it or drop it so the poor kids would get some? How do you think it would work if you distribute Christmas presents like that, too? It wouldn’t. And we shouldn’t believe it would work with people and entities that have made gathering wealth their top priority. We strengthen the economy by building a strong base. The middle class are the true job creators, because it’s their demand for goods and services that motivates the economy.
I have a few final words to make before I go perform my civic duty. If Romney does win, it would mean that the people have forgotten what got us into this mess in the first place. It would mean that they got swept up in the pandering of a wheeling-dealing salesman. Yes, that’s all he is. The fact that a man can sit at the end of a corporate oval table, and would sell out his own countrymen, means that he would work for Wall Street when he sits in the Oval Office. I know what some of you are thinking: “But Obama’s taken corporate money, too, blah-blah-blah.” Save it. As far as this presidential race is concerned, no candidate has been a cozier fuck-buddy for Wall Street than Willard Romney. If Rmoney is elected, but the Democrats take Congress, I’m unsure if they would be tasteless and classless enough to sink to the Republican level of obstructionism just for the sake of revenge. I wish they would, but they probably won’t.
If Obama is re-elected, half of the birthers will diverge into a quest for a new goal: getting to the bottom of how he stole the election, forming a new group –frauders. Corporate attention whore and thinly-veiled racist Donald Trump will egg them on, undoubtedly. If Obama’s election is accompanied with a Democratic win in Congress, then we might see more progressive momentum in the next four years. If not, then we’d have two options: the obstructionists might see that we really do want liberal progression, and therefore would soften their stance; or the obstructionists would double down and resist, which would further enflame the frauders, leading to more gridlock.
Another thing I’d like to say is directed at people who say that Obama is extremely radical and leftist. While I support him in this election, I would like to point out that he is nowhere near as radical, at least as not as radical, as I would be in his place. Among my first acts would be to have the major players of the Bush administration turned over to the UN for violation of the Geneva Convention rules. I would have marijuana legalized. I would have the Department of Education strengthened, with reforms similar to what Japanese schools have. I would send advisors to Europe to study the healthcare systems there, and reform our own with guidelines inspired by those studies. For nearly destroying our economy and putting many Americans in peril, I would have those responsible for the collapse charged with treason. Also facing charges of treason and possible execution would be those who fight for corporations to buy the government. Since the banks want to consider themselves “too big to fail,” then I would enact laws and regulations that would treat them like public works. Having said that, I’m going to put on some martial industrial music, and stomp off to the voting booth.
