Why Vote For Obama

In a recent Facebook discussion, someone asked what about President Obama’s term in office has impressed me.

Oh, I thought, let me list the ways! For starters, he:

·     Signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

·         Stopped the country’s plunge off the economic cliff and ended the Great Recession created by Bush and Republican Congress fiscal irresponsibility

·         Substantially cut taxes for working Americans -- twice

·         Private-sector jobs grew for the past 29 straight months

·         Rescued the U.S. auto industry, which resulted in saving not only hundreds of thousands of auto manufacturing jobs, but thousands more related jobs that would have been lost in a domino effect

·         Eliminated bin Laden and most of the other top al Qaeda leaders

·         Assisted NATO in ending Quadaffi regime

·         Delivered on promise to end the Iraq war

·         Ended Don't Ask, Don't Tell

·         Created Consumers Financial Board to help end financial industry gouging of Americans

·         Signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with provisions that:

Ø  Provides healthcare coverage for millions who previously were uninsured, including:

      People under 26 years old who can stay on their parents’ insurance plans

      People who were barred from coverage because of “pre-existing” conditions (which had become as ridiculous as having been pregnant).

Ø  Reduces a major reason for skyrocketing rise in healthcare costs – insurance premiums – by requiring 80 percent of premiums to be spent on actual care

Ø  Bars insurance companies from charging women higher premiums than men

Ø  Extends viability of Medicare and benefiting those who use the program in at least two ways:

      Covering preventative procedures such as annual physical exams, which Medicare previously didn’t cover, and other screening procedures, all of which is much less costly than trying to treat chronic and acute diseases after they have become advanced and create collateral damage

      Closing the prescription drug “donut hole” and allowing price comparison

      All reforms paid for by reductions in costs, not by increased fees to users or costs to taxpayers

·         Stands up for women by advocating for pay parity with male counterparts and against discriminatory policies that target, repress and denigrate women and put them at risk.

·         He has done all of that and more with his hands tied behind his back because of a Congress that will do nothing that Obama proposes – even measures that were, in fact, initially Republican proposals, such as the ACA insurance mandate – that would benefit the country for fear that it might help his re-election.

Here’s proof:

Ø  Republicans have mounted the worst filibuster record in Senate history, blocking bills that would have increased employment and blocking key appointments, including judges, to the detriment of the justice system

Ø  The McConnell rule, which Mitch McConnell articulated two years ago as “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” That’s the Republicans’ #1 priority.

      Not create jobs

      Not reduce the unemployment rate

      Not improve the economy

      Not national defense

Ø  While defeating President Obama might be the Republicans’ political objective, making that their number one governing objective has not been and still isn’t in the best interest of the country or the People

It is beyond me why anyone, and certainly why any woman, would not vote for President Obama.

I urge you to share this with everyone -- especially those who might be undecided in the upcoming presidential election or who wonder why they should vote for President Obama.

Liberal Conservatives

A friend replied to my “Epiphany” post of a few days ago, agreeing with my view of Las Vegas.

‘It makes me shudder,” she wrote. “Everything I want to avoid.”

Although she has self-identified as a lifelong liberal, after reading my blog, she’s beginning to understands that, like me, she might also be truly conservative in many respects, such as family and (truly conservative) family values.

“Family is where love and charity grow,” she said. “Family is at the very core of our society and needs to be strong, supportive and connected. Family does not have to be husband, wife and children, of course. It can be any close-knit group or even couple.” 

I stumped her, though, in asserting that in many way, people who embrace today’s concept of conservative (not!) ideology and label.

“Can you explain more?” she asked.

Sure.

In many areas, people who are called conservatives these days advocate the liberal application or use of a number of methods, tactics, policies, practices and options, which illustrates just how topsy-turvy, even meaningless, the terms have become. Here are some examples:

• The death penalty.  So-called conservatives are generally in favor of imposing the death penalty for certain types of crimes and even expanding it to include even more categories. That seems like a pretty liberal stance. E.g., the liberal application/use of the death penalty versus the rare and conservative use of imposing the death penalty.

• Military intervention.  Today’s conservatives are far more likely to support military attack and/or invasion and maintaining a military presence in foreign affairs, as opposed to those considered liberal in today’s parlance who favor the very conservative use of military force, only in the most dire circumstances in defense of our country and not pre-emptively. Just today a nouveau conservative commented on a Facebook status update I posted about a blog post titled “The Shock Doctrine Push To Gut Social Security And Middle Class,” comparing it to the run-up to Bush’s invasion of Iraq. “The"run up" to the war was as popular 8 years ago as Obama was 3 years ago,” he wrote. Perhaps with his crowd, but it sure wasn’t with mine and millions like us.

• Religious beliefs and practices. Modern-day conservatives—particularly those who profess to be Christian and even more particularly the more ostentatiously Christian—are not the least bit conservative about imposing their religion onto others, into political discourse and into public/policy. They have nery liberal views of how much their religion can be inserted into and influence government, the First Amendment to the Constitution not withstanding.

 Those are just a few areas. More later.