This country is divided, whether we like it or not. The good thing is, though, that the two political parties have shown their true colors over the last few months and years, and to me it looks like this--the Democrats/Liberals are the party of the middle class, trying to give everyone a fair shot and government as it was intended to be--by the people, for the people. The Republicans/Conservatives are a conglomeration of racists, homophobes, uneducated head-nodders, gun-lovers, Bible thumpers, and corporate big-shots who are attempting to buy control of the country, and lie about telling you that that is what they are doing. The former wants a fair shot for people to vote too, and the latter wants less people to vote and are attempting to lie, cheat and steal their way to victory on Tuesday in both the presidential election and congressional seat contests. Here are some thoughts/observations as we head into Tuesday, and I hope you will take them seriously before you go to the polls.....
*Women in this country, if you are planning to vote for Romney/Ryan, you don't care about the health and well-being of yourselves, your daughters and your granddaughters. The right has become so radical that they have accepted into their platform of August's Republican National Convention that abortion is illegal even in the case of rape or incest. That has been spoken bluntly by the likes of Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, and the question has been avoided by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. Why? Because it's CRAZY and if they tell the truth no woman in their right mind will vote for them. Romney has said he plans to overturn Roe vs. Wade, de-fund Planned Parenthood, and he supports the Blunt Amendment which denies women the right to contraception as part of their workplace health insurance plans. The Supreme Court is already 5-4 conservative, and if Romney wins, he will likely get to appoint 1-2 justices, and Roe vs. Wade would be overturned, making abortion ILLEGAL in this country and in particular making it illegal even if your daughter or granddaughter is raped and gets pregnant. Some of the crazy right has even deemed abortion illegal even in the instance of life of the mother. Think about that for a minute. They think the mother should die so that the child can be born. Without a mother. What the fuck is wrong with these people? And while these guys want smaller government, they have no qualms about making women who want an abortion to have an ultrasound against their will and to point the screen at them so that they can see the unborn fetus they are trying to dissolve. That is bullying and shaming and it's big government in its truest sense, and it's just wrong. And it's where this crazy conservative right is going. So women, do the right thing on Tuesday.
*The day President Obama was being inaugurated, several GOP leaders were having dinner at a nearby restaurant in DC. Their plan? To make sure Obama only gets one term. To make sure they take back the House in 2010 and then block every single good bill Obama puts on the table, even if it's destructive enough to make our country default on its obligations for the first time in history. And if you look at the past two years, that's exactly what they have done. In particular, Obama put a The American Jobs Act on the table 14 months ago, and it stalled and was voted down over and over again by the Republicans, because it would have created A LOT of jobs and stimulated the economy in the process. They have blocked, and in the case of the Senate, filibustered bill after bill after bill that would help the economy recover quicker than it has. On purpose. Think about that for a minute. How fucking evil is that really? You want to inflict economic pain on families across this country so that you can elect your guys into office? It's morally wrong, and it's insane to think that Fox News and other right-leaning media has hoodwinked people into believing that the President is at fault for slow economic growth. Notice I said slow and not non-existent. That's because despite all of the obstruction, we've had 2.5 years of private sector job growth, and unemployment has continued to decline. And when it ticked below 8%, Republicans all went crazy and said it was a left conspiracy to cook the books. Really, douchebags? Who is trying to cook what book here? Obama cares about getting people back to work, Romney cares about giving more tax breaks to himself and his wealthy friends.
*Some of these crazy right-wing, union-busting governors that were elected in 2010 (Scott Walker, Rick Scott, John Kasich) in swing states weren't done so with the intent of keeping people from voting in 2012? Look at what's happening in those states right now. Wisconsin, Florida and Ohio, respectively, are trying or tried to push through Voter ID laws in order to make voting more difficult. They are trying to create long lines and have groups like True the Vote intimidate people into not voting. Why? Because the more people that vote, the more votes for Democrats. Don't believe me? Here is Paul Weyrich, the founder of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), explaining to a group of Bible thumpers in 1980 how he wants less people to vote. You may notice that ALEC is responsible for pushing, you guessed it, voter ID bills into state legislatures. They also are behind anti-abortion legislation, union-busting and other bills that you may have noticed are popping up in right-wing state governments everywhere. Oh, I forgot about Pennsylvania. This one legislator in the state house in Harrisburg came right out and said it--that their Voter ID law was meant to allow Mitt Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania on November 6. And why is this not happening in Alabama, Mississippi or Alaska? It's only happening in swing states where the GOP is trying to suppress the vote. Don't let them. Go out there and vote and make your vote count.
*Contrary to what Republicans would like you to believe, Obama has shrunk the size of government and curbed government spending. When Paul Ryan said Obama has "doubled the size of government," Politifact correctly rated this as "Pants on Fire." Obama has trimmed where he can, but the GOP wants to roll back regulations which will make our air and water dirtier, make our food unsafe to eat, and possibly bring our economy to the brink of collapse like Bush did in 2008. Why? Because the Koch Brothers and others who want to pollute the air are throwing gajillions of dollars at them in order to let them pollute the air in the name of more profits for them. It's insane. And Mitt Romney may have indirectly led to the recent meningitis outbreak by having less regulations in the pharmaceutical industry while he was governor of Massachusetts. Of course, I don't think he did anything intentionally, but he wants less regulation.
*Seniors, the right wants to turn Medicare into a voucher system. You get a check for $15K, and you can buy your own insurance. See what you can get for that kind of money. And then they spew this nonsense about "if you're under 55, this won't affect you." I'm sorry, but I'm 48. And that means I'm royally fucked. I already had to deal with having a pre-existing condition with my back, and not only did insurance have a rider that prevented them from paying anything related to my back, but they raised my rates every year. Before we moved to Wisconsin in 2010, we had Blue Cross Blue Shield, and our premium went from $400 per month to $1200 per month over the course of 5 years. The health insurance field in this country is a mess, and Obamacare was put in place to fix all that. And oh yeah, Obama did not steal money from Medicare to fund Obamacare. Here, read this article--it explains this BS better than I can. But the bottom line? Repealing Obamacare would be detrimental and dangerous when we made so much fucking progress over the last year or two.
*Most of our debt over the past decade was created by the Bush tax cuts, unfunded wars and funding Medicare Part D. Not because of Obama's "reckless spending" as the GOP would want you to believe.
*Obama killed Bin Laden. Bush said he didn't spend much time worrying about Bin Laden, and Romney said in 2008 he would not move heaven and earth to kill Bin Laden. Look at the scoreboard, Republicans.
*Austerity does not work. Look at Europe. Look at what happened here in the '20's, leading to the Great Depression.
*Romney wrote an Op-Ed in the New York Times called "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." Obama saved the auto industry with a bailout and many jobs in Ohio and Michigan and Wisconsin and Illinois. It worked, Romney. People in those states, especially Ohio, are doing better. And Romney has fabricated lies about Jeep shipping jobs to China which has prompted freak-outs from Chrysler, GM and Ford executives. You want hypocrisy? Romney's Bain Capital owns Sensata Industries in Freeport, Illinois, a plant that is planned to close tomorrow in order to ship jobs to, you guessed it, China. Wow, just wow.
*I'm sorry, but this is the most important one. Romney is a liar. He has no core values and only panders to as many people and groups as possible in order to get votes. That's why he flip-flops and lies and Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and all of the money being allowed to flow into the campaigns to fund lies and distort you into believing all that garbage is why he has no moral compass. Obama, on the other hand, has beliefs and convictions and is doing everything he can to help the American people. Do you want a wishy washy President? Is that who we want to be the leader of the free world? I don't think so. So do the right thing on Tuesday. Vote for Barack Obama for a second term. Do it for your kids, your grandkids, and yourselves.
