Now that the election is thankfully over, I have a confession to make before I return to normal. After watching, from afar, the performance of President Obama during Hurricane Sandy, I have come to believe that I would have voted for him, changing over from voting for Governor Romney on election day. As it is, I was content with my third-party vote because I sense that many of the things percolating through these ‘fringe’ elements today will be the mainstay of our discourse tomorrow. And we need fresh discourse.
There are other reasons, besides being a Pisces, why I would have so brazenly undecided my way into the Democrats. (Get a clue, Ned, no one cares.) As a conservative and as a Republican, two elements of this election were offensive to me. And they came from my own party. First, I cannot recall an election in my lifetime, at least one that I followed, where an anti-democratic élite tried so brazenly to finance an outcome. It made me shudder.
This second ‘doozie’ may have occurred at some other time and I was simply too out-to-lunch to get it. Nevertheless, I found the concerted effort to intimidate and disenfranchise minorities to be, well, disgusting. It was something beneath the dignity of our people. What perhaps frightened me the most was how quickly I acclimated myself to this racism.
For example, in the third debate (during the one intemperate moment that I recall the President displaying through months of grueling work and astounding pressure), I found myself thinking, “Well aren’t you uppity?” Trust me when I say that, had Vice President Biden or Governor Romney or Representative Ryan said the same, I might have been irate but not thinking he was uppity. Strange thing is that I do not recall feeling that ever in 2008.
Race was an issue, at least for me, I regret to admit.
Since his election the first time, President Obama has impressed me as among the best America can produce. His policies? Way, way different story. You all know well that I am unsure of many things and often insecure these days. Yet President Obama – unimaginative and dangerous as some of his policies are – remains one of the finest people we have elected to the Presidency.
As I said to a Peace Corp bud, President Obama – from my Republican view – is a great, great man with terrible policies. Unfortunately, though I felt sorry for the savagery of political attacks against him since many seemed to be based on his being very wealthy, Governor Romney lost my vote for certain things he said or did that led me question his fitness for the oval office.
First and by far foremost, he politicized the Libya murders and the protests in Cairo from Day-1. Governor Romney and Representative Ryan showed two unsavory elements of their personalities. Namely, these guys were willing to say anything or disregard the grievous loss of anybody to get elected. They vastly under-estimated the common sense of the people they had asked to vote for them. Most Americans instinctively knew that, frustrating and outrageous as this terror attack was, it was unfair to blame the president for it.
Second, both Governor Romney and Representative Ryan never answered questions transparently asked on how they could balance the budget and cut tax-rates when eliminated deductions could not close the budget-breach likely to ensue. To re-name that old rock song from the Chicago Transit Authority (‘25 or 6 to 4’), this was 59 or five to zero.
Third, Governor Romney’s incessant opposition to defense cuts under sequestration and to ObamaCare indicated to me that he would rather sustain an over-extended military force on a war-time procurement footing than strive to secure the right to at least minimal health care. The latter is a thorny question and I dislike health-care reform as it currently stands because I do not think we can afford it. Nevertheless, when intelligent analysis demonstrates that the mandatory defense cuts under sequestration amount to levels seen in past post-war demobilizations, this rhetoric displays a deeply ingrained preference of guns over butter.
http://www.csbaonline.org/publications/2012/08/analysis-of-the-fy2013-defense-budget-and-sequestration/
So, much as I prefer not to see Republicans lose, there are reasons why I am happy with the vote a week ago for proving, at least for now, the following precarious principles:
I am sure I will have my problems with the President over the next four years (like anybody really cares) but these things I have mentioned were attacks on values that mean a lot to me. The Republicans are defending other important values, as I have written. Sadly, I was so focussed on finding things wrong with President Obama that I overlooked equally corrosive, if not more subversive, thinking from my side.
There are other reasons, besides being a Pisces, why I would have so brazenly undecided my way into the Democrats. (Get a clue, Ned, no one cares.) As a conservative and as a Republican, two elements of this election were offensive to me. And they came from my own party. First, I cannot recall an election in my lifetime, at least one that I followed, where an anti-democratic élite tried so brazenly to finance an outcome. It made me shudder.
This second ‘doozie’ may have occurred at some other time and I was simply too out-to-lunch to get it. Nevertheless, I found the concerted effort to intimidate and disenfranchise minorities to be, well, disgusting. It was something beneath the dignity of our people. What perhaps frightened me the most was how quickly I acclimated myself to this racism.
For example, in the third debate (during the one intemperate moment that I recall the President displaying through months of grueling work and astounding pressure), I found myself thinking, “Well aren’t you uppity?” Trust me when I say that, had Vice President Biden or Governor Romney or Representative Ryan said the same, I might have been irate but not thinking he was uppity. Strange thing is that I do not recall feeling that ever in 2008.
Race was an issue, at least for me, I regret to admit.
Since his election the first time, President Obama has impressed me as among the best America can produce. His policies? Way, way different story. You all know well that I am unsure of many things and often insecure these days. Yet President Obama – unimaginative and dangerous as some of his policies are – remains one of the finest people we have elected to the Presidency.
As I said to a Peace Corp bud, President Obama – from my Republican view – is a great, great man with terrible policies. Unfortunately, though I felt sorry for the savagery of political attacks against him since many seemed to be based on his being very wealthy, Governor Romney lost my vote for certain things he said or did that led me question his fitness for the oval office.
First and by far foremost, he politicized the Libya murders and the protests in Cairo from Day-1. Governor Romney and Representative Ryan showed two unsavory elements of their personalities. Namely, these guys were willing to say anything or disregard the grievous loss of anybody to get elected. They vastly under-estimated the common sense of the people they had asked to vote for them. Most Americans instinctively knew that, frustrating and outrageous as this terror attack was, it was unfair to blame the president for it.
Second, both Governor Romney and Representative Ryan never answered questions transparently asked on how they could balance the budget and cut tax-rates when eliminated deductions could not close the budget-breach likely to ensue. To re-name that old rock song from the Chicago Transit Authority (‘25 or 6 to 4’), this was 59 or five to zero.
Third, Governor Romney’s incessant opposition to defense cuts under sequestration and to ObamaCare indicated to me that he would rather sustain an over-extended military force on a war-time procurement footing than strive to secure the right to at least minimal health care. The latter is a thorny question and I dislike health-care reform as it currently stands because I do not think we can afford it. Nevertheless, when intelligent analysis demonstrates that the mandatory defense cuts under sequestration amount to levels seen in past post-war demobilizations, this rhetoric displays a deeply ingrained preference of guns over butter.
http://www.csbaonline.org/publications/2012/08/analysis-of-the-fy2013-defense-budget-and-sequestration/
So, much as I prefer not to see Republicans lose, there are reasons why I am happy with the vote a week ago for proving, at least for now, the following precarious principles:
- An election can not be bought.
- Poor voters can not be disenfranchised or intimidated.
- Fear and anger need not dominate the national discourse.
- A political party can not undermine a President and get away with it..
I am sure I will have my problems with the President over the next four years (like anybody really cares) but these things I have mentioned were attacks on values that mean a lot to me. The Republicans are defending other important values, as I have written. Sadly, I was so focussed on finding things wrong with President Obama that I overlooked equally corrosive, if not more subversive, thinking from my side.
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