Winds of Change

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Hurricane Sandy blew through our area last week.  Some parts of my neighborhood are still out of power.  We lost power for 48 hours and it seemed like an eternity.  I can’t imagine still being in the dark on these cold days and nights.  But, even with the power outages, we were lucky.  Our house is still standing.  The strong winds didn’t blow any trees onto our roof, through the windows, or into the yard.  We were spared the severe devastation and heaven forbid, the loss of life, which occurred within an hour and half from our home.

Now, more winds are blowing, but these winds are those of the election.  Tomorrow, across this great country, people will go to the polls and cast their ballot for the candidates of their choice.  My candidate is President Barack Obama!

President Obama took office in January of 2009 with our country teetering on the verge of a major economic depression.  We were fighting two long wars that were aiding to the bankrupting of our nation.  Our reputation around the world was in the dirt due to the Cowboy diplomacy of the Bush administration. 

As I watched him take his oath of office on that early winter day, I was filled with hope and pride.  The awful state our country was in was surely no match for the brilliant, compassionate man that held his hand on the bible.  My confidence was well founded.

Through the last four years, actually still closer to 3 ¾ at this point, I have watched with pride as our President cautiously and mindfully navigated the rocky road that lay before us.  His stimulus bill was an immediate help. He wanted it to be larger, but republicans started thwarting all his efforts from day one.  Instead of their goal being to help our country get back on solid ground, their main thought was for their political survival.  Their main thought was to work against our President, to keep the country in the toilet, so they could regain power.  How sick is that?  Why did the media not call attention to their strategy, a strategy that borders on treason?

Had the stimulus been larger, as most economists had suggested, the turnaround would have been swifter and more dramatic, however, the stimulus that was passed was large enough that it stemmed our hemorrhaging of jobs, (we were losing 800,000 per month when President Obama took office).  Our President offered a tax cut that gave each person some extra pocket money.  It is well known that giving money to the middle-class is more stimulating than giving it to the uber wealthy as the middle-class needs to spend it.  They pay bills, they buy groceries, and they go out to dinner.  These small purchases add up to a large help to the economy at large.  The more you and I go out to dinner, the more the restaurants are busy, they hire more waitresses and waiters and they in turn then have money to buy candles or whatever…which makes the other retail stores need to hire more people and so the economy grows.

But giving more money to the already super wealthy?  They can already buy whatever they want so they just sock it away or hide it overseas (like Romney).  They do NOT stimulate the economy with it and therefore the label the republicans have given them, as “job creators” is a lie.  The uber wealthy will only hire as a last resort as they want to aid their bottom line, not lessen it.  So they will only hire when there is dire necessity.  They feel no obligation to support the economy; their only obligation is to their stockholders.

After the stimulus was in effect, and things stabilized a bit, the President had also been working on health insurance reform, financial regulations, ending the wars, and restoring our country to a respectable standing around the world.  All these things he accomplished despite a record amount of filibusters and being called every name in the book by a disrespectful, arrogant minority party. 

The Affordable Care Act, known as ObamaCare, is a wonderful piece of legislation that, although demonized by the right wing and fox, is a policy that respects individual responsibility.  You have to be covered for none of us knows what the day has in store.  The healthiest among us could be hit by a bus and end up on life support by the end of the day.  Risking not having health care in those instances has caused our fellow citizens to pay for treatment as no one can be denied care in the Emergency Room.  The ACA makes it so everyone is covered.  There are no exemptions for pre-existing conditions, there are no lifetime limits, insurance companies have to use 80% of their dollars on CARE not bonuses to the CEO’s, and those young people 26 and under may remain on their parents health coverage.  All of these together make life and healthcare more affordable to those of us in the middle class.  It will enable horrific diseases to be discovered early and treated before they are out of control, more costly, and deadly.  But, the republicans ran around screaming “Death Panels” and Government run healthcare…of which ACA is neither.  But, facts never stopped a republican from screaming their crap.  Aided by the republican propaganda machine known as Fox News, their idiotic lies become part of the dialogue.  The other news channels don’t dispute, they just put on one person from one side and one from the other and let them duke it out.  The outcome of that is no one knows there is a truth…but ratings are high and that’s apparently all the mainstream media is concerned about.

The auto industry was about to go down, GM was in big trouble.  Chrysler was in dire straights.  Mitt Romney said, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt”.  His thinking was that he was not thinking.  Luckily, our President never speaks before his ideas are well thought out.  President Obama knew there would be no private funds available at that point in time with the willingness or ability to back the auto industry. (Heck, even Bain turned it down!)  So, our wonderful President bailed them out and it has paid back a million times over.  Hundreds of thousands of jobs were saved.  Today, the auto industry is back, roaring strong!  All the associated industries are doing extremely well and the loans are almost all repaid. 

The Iraq war was ended.  The war in Afghanistan is winding down.  This isn’t good to the right wing that never met a war they didn’t like.  So, what do they want to do?  They want to go to war with Iran!  The lunacy of this is beyond anything anyone could adequately discuss, but they don’t care.  They rattle their sabers and chant about freedom and liberty…meanwhile, they don’t send their families to fight.  Of course not.  They send the young men and women who join the military trusting that battle will be a last resort; men and women who want and need the training of the military due to the high cost of college.  Who will fight for their safety?  Is there a lobbyist for them?  Yes there is, thankfully, our President, President Obama IS looking out for the military with care and diligence.  His supporting of the troops goes beyond a bumper sticker.  He uses them carefully and only when absolutely necessary.  Like when he planned and succeeded in killing our number one enemy, a man who killed 3,000 innocent Americans on September 11, 2001, a man who bush swore to get “dead or alive” before he decided it wasn’t really that important after all.  President Obama ordered the operation that captured and killed Osama Bin Laden.  We had closure.  The man responsible was no more. 

When it comes to equal pay for women, President Obama passed that as his first legislative priority.  Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, repealed.  Our President is for equal rights for all and marriage equality.  He is a caring, intelligent, wonderful man and he has earned and deserves a second term. 

I could go on for so many topics, each one shows the clarity of thought and understanding of the problems we each confront every day, each one our President has excelled at moving in the right direction, but I must spend a little time on our President’s adversary in this race, Willard Mitt Romney.

Governor Romney started life off as the son of a Governor, a wealthy automobile executive.  He never knew about needing anything, he never knew what it was like to start without advantage and he was apparently never taught compassion.  As a vulture capitalist his goal was not to create jobs, it was to maximize profit.  He did that well apparently, but at great cost to the lives of millions of hard-working, middle-class Americans.  He would swoop in, load a company with debt, end pensions, end environmentally sound policies that may cost a few cents more, and cut payroll (he readily admitted he liked to fire people).   His company (corporations are people, too, my friend – he said) his company grew while the misery index of those he laid off sky-rocketed.  Then, once they were unemployed, he went on to call them moochers, meanwhile he doesn’t pay taxes and shelters his money overseas so as to be sure to NOT HELP the country that gave him everything on a silver platter.

During the Vietnam War, he was very outspoken about those who protested the war…those who had to fight it.  He was proud in his standing up FOR the war, while he was in Paris spreading the word of Mormonism…naturally his pretty rear-end didn’t have to be in a fox hole waiting for shots to be fired at him, or breathing in Agent Orange…. no, he was privileged.  He was eating in outdoor cafes and writing love notes in the sand.

When running for Governor of Massachusetts, Mr. Romney swore he would fight for a woman’s right to choose. (Now he is adamantly pro-life).  He was for health insurance reform, Romneycare, before he was against Obamacare…(the same plan).  He is for more tax cuts for the uber wealthy, which will further add to the deficit that he claims to care about.  He wants to end Planned Parenthood, heaven forbid poor women get the healthcare they need.  He wants to end FEMA, to privatize it.  Well, at least he did before the winds of Hurricane Sandy blew in last week and millions on the East Coast NEEDED FEMA.  Thankfully, FEMA worked flawlessly under the Obama administration and Romney was left with egg on his face.

Romney’s lies about the auto bailout, about his tax plan, and his lack of diplomatic skills as were exemplified when he insulted the British during the Olympics and the Italians last week, are frightening.

Romney wants to be President. He thinks he is entitled because he has been entitled his whole life.  From holding down a young gay man in college to bully him, to putting his sick dog on the roof of his car, Romney shows he has no empathy for his fellow human beings or any creatures for that matter.  Romney’s lies and the things he says behind closed doors are not only problematic for him; they are ugly and not worthy of the office of President.

Tomorrow, my vote will go to President Barack Obama.  He has turned our country around in a miraculous way despite the great animosity consistently aimed at him.  (What other President was called a Liar in the middle of a State of the Union address – none –not even Bush who WAS lying!!)  He has been called a terrorist, a Marxist, a Socialist, a Fascist, un-American etc…when what he is is a brilliant man who worked his way up from humble beginnings to become the most powerful man in the world.  He has a loving family, a strong faith, and an even stronger love for his country and his fellow man.

I admire my President for millions of reasons and can’t understand how anyone could even consider voting for a return to the policies that sunk us under the Bush administration.  How can anyone vote for a liar like Romney…a man who won’t even disclose his tax returns let alone let us know what loopholes he plans to cut or anything about his economic policy.  A man who wants to voucherize Medicare and end social security as we know it…why….because he will NEVER NEED EITHER!!

The choice tomorrow is clear.  On one side we have a proven, steadfast man who adheres to thoughtful in-depth understanding and the other who teeters from one thought to another with no understanding, a man who can’t see beyond the afternoon headlines.

We can vote for an honest man, President Obama, or a liar, Myth Romney.

My vote is for my wonderful President and four more years of a growing, prosperous economy with equity and opportunity for all.

Obama/Biden all the way!!