I’ve started and stopped about 20 posts on this election, sat down to the computer with some thoughts and an idea of what I wanted t0 talk about, and frankly had to bail, basically intellectually pull up before I plowed myself into a smoking hole in the ground of pissyness and snark.
There really isn’t anyone else to convince anymore so I’m wasting time trying to move opinions. Tuesday can’t come fast enough and yet I find myself a little worried about the outcome.
My thoughts-
On the Presidential race; I’ll be voting for Obama. I toyed with idea of voting for Mitt. As I’ve said before, the version of Mitt that was the Governor of Massachusetts I would vote for in a heartbeat. The version that was running during the primary scared the shit out me, the version that we’ve seen the last few weeks is more reasonable, I’m just don’t have confidence as to which one would be President.
All of them Sank! So you say.
Comes down to these issues for me-
On social issues I’m a strong Libertarian. Getting more so the older I get. Get the Government out of the doctor’s office, bedroom, classroom, blah blah blah. Since this president will nominate 3 Supreme Court justices, the thought of a bunch Anton Scalias and Clarence Thomas’ on the court scares me do DEATH. Citizen United almost brought me to the point of thinking that I should just stop voting.
Speaking of social issues:
Abortion. I thought we’d be done arguing about this years and years ago. But it still comes up in 2012, and even more shockingly so does birth control. Thank you Rick Santorum. Rape is not a good enough reason to allow abortions. Rape. In 2012. Personally if my daughter, sister, niece, wife, aunt, whomever were raped and a baby were conceived in that process, under Paul Ryan’s America we’d be on our way to Canada in a hot second (assuming we weren’t already there as Political Refugees) Remember I’m the guy who’s own birthmother was honest enough to admit that were abortions legal in 1963 “you wouldn’t be here”. Nuff said. Supreme Court justices appointment is high on my list.
Same Sex Marriage, I’m on the record here. I think government and religion should part ways on marriage. Register your partnerships at the County Courthouse and be done. You want a religious ceremony, go have one. You don’t? Don’t. BTW, the Biblical definition of marriage includes multiple wives and sleeping with slaves and concubines. That’s a biblical marriage. One Man One Woman as the billboard says, an interpretation of the bible. Listening to the arguments on same sex marriage in Minnesota frankly, has shaken my very belief in God. The more I see sides manipulating and reinterpreting God the less I believe that there is anything to religion other than a social institution. And we’ve been fighting about it since the second person asked “who am I?” and discovered their answer to be different from the first guys answer.
BTW, I’m tired of the Orwellian doublespeak going on around this issue. Win or lose, in 20 years I’m certain we’ll look back on this like we do miscegenation laws today. Non-factor.
Voter ID Speaking of Orwell, he would love the Voter Id amendment. I can hear the conversation in the bowels of the Republican Strategic War Room.
2010. Coleman concedes the Senate election to Al Franken. Republicans are flabbergasted that a carpet bagging New York Jew could come back to Minnesota after several decades and beat their golden boy, another New York Jew, but their New York Jew.
“We lost the Franken/Coleman race by 300 votes. Dayton beat our man Emmer by 9000 votes, less than ½ a percentage point. What can we do? Here’s an idea.. voter ID. Create an issue where there isn’t one. In this case report that we have massive voter fraud. The Republican base will buy it because it explains what they cannot, that reasonable people vote for liberals. Put the measure on the Presidential ballot, it’s a win win. It will bring out the conservative voter either way, and if it wins, it will take a percent or two out of the Democrats voter ranks. What’d’ya think? Let’s do it.”
And they did. And people are buying and somewhere the ghosts of Nicolai Machiavelli and George Orwell are laughing their asses off. Well played right wing, well played.
Then again this is the kind of shit that had Lee Atwater begging for forgiveness from George Dukakis and Willie Horton and the rest of the Body Politic at the end of his life. He screwed all of us by honing the lie cheat steal mode of political discourse. Seems Lee was diagnosed with a brain tumor after the Bush election and really thought he was going to hell for the things he’d done. Maybe there is a God after all.
Immigration. When I hear my Anglo friends complaining about how “bad” my hometown is now, “it’s Spanish everywhere” and “crime and gangs and graffiti and drugs and all that stuff… to me, as a student of history, this is sounding more like a reaction to the Latinization of the American Southwest and West. The arguments I hear from Stockton concerning Mexicans are the same arguments which put forward when the Chinese were the immigrant horde taking over America. Look up Chinese Exclusion Act for a little eye opening view of anit-immigrant racism. We’re a country of Me Firsters, ironically with some very short memories because in this case there’s a valid argument for Mexicans in California, Arizona, New Mexico etc should be complaining about 150 years of Anglicization, since technically, they were here first. (apologies to my Native friends) Cultural borders rarely respect political borders, and conflict along them, exactly what we’re seeing here. 12M illegals in the US. Give them a just path to citizenship and lets move on.
Obama Care. I’m not all that happy with health care reform, but from my seat, because it didn’t go far enough. On this issue I’m a socialist. I want a health care system that provides benefits for the greatest number of people. Period. In 2012 it’s a crime to me that American’s have to worry about being one catastrophic illness away from financial ruin. It’s also a crime that the richest country in the world has some of the worst statistics in the developed world when it come to infant mortality and life expectancy. We can certainly do better here. I would feel a ton better about voting for a Republican who instead of simply proclaiming opposition to Obama Care would perhaps, and this might be a lot, tell me what their alternatives are, ’cause what we have now is a real problem.
The Economy. Crushing debt. High unemployment. The Great Recession. I get it. Obama inherited a mess and made it worse. I’m not smart enough on this to put forth an opinion, but in my simple mind looks likes this:
Our national debt is a problem. Has been a problem since 1776. We almost went bankrupt paying for the war of independence. Now we’re going bankrupt paying for Middle Eastern wars, $1.3 TRILLION. We’re going bankrupt paying $1.6 TRILLION for debt financed tax cuts, thank you George Bush. Our current Medicare programs also about 1.6 TRILLION in deficit. Some due to government contracts and BS and some due to Bush prescription drug benefits. Another Trillion for Obama’s economic stimulus, and finally the Great Recession. About another TRILLION in gap in tax revenue. Made worse by loopholes, offshoring blah blah blah.
So what’s the fix? Lower taxes again to spur the economy? Get rid of regulation stifling American Business? Cut some centerpiece environmental protections so we can continue to drill baby drill? How about we take taxes back to where they were during America’s most recent economic boom, that would be the Clinton years. We’re paying the lowest taxes in our recent history at the moment and we still whine. Lets close the loopholes that allow the Koch brothers and GE to not pay a nickle in income taxes? I don’t have faith in the Romney plan. And finally, lets penalize companies that offshore their production to escape our regulations and our taxes. You want to business in American communities, you have to pay American taxes. Seems reasonable.
Now my cynical self, which has become even more acute this election.
- Elections in this country are bought and paid for. No candidate will actually make any of the changes needed to move us forward. There’s too much money and influence in the system.
- We are run by a cabal of business interests and lobbiest for various industries that see the government as a profit center. Been that way for 150 years, and it won’t change now.
- Religion has no business in politics or government. In 2012 the fact that we’re arguing everything from abortion to creationism and everything in-between really leaves me depressed and not all that hopeful for our future. On the other hand, I’m sort of encouraged that the next generation seems to even less influenced by religious dogma that mine. 60% of kids today have no religious affiliation. The Catholic Church is closing parishes by the score, partially because the ranks of Priests and Nuns is in absolute free fall in Western countries and partially because American Catholics are having a hard time with an institution run by the successor to Torquemada the Grand Inquisitor. (The Bavarian Cardinal Ratzinger, in last gig was the head of the modern successor to the Inquisition.) Bottom line, the more I hear the arguments coming from the Faith community the more I find myself wondering how much I’ve let my own faith force me to make irrational decisions.
- Citizens United has been a disaster to good TV and honest campaigns. We’re as dirty now as we were at the turn of the last century. The Out of Context shit, I can’t stand it. Michelle Bachmann is the worst. Speaking of which, she lies about EVERYTHING, how do my Republican friends continue to support her. She is a BAD human being, stop electing her.
That’s it. I’m done with elections 2012. Got a lot off my chest here. See you on the other side, for good or for bad.
