Thoughts About 2012 and Beyond

I rarely write about my political views on this blog because, frankly, I’ve seen how social media has fractured relationships that would have otherwise been okay.  The conversation usually goes something like this:  (insert political party or candidate here) is ruining our country and only the presence of (insert other political party or candidate here) can save us from impending disaster.  And then civil discourse takes a back seat and it starts to get personal, etc.  Just like everyone else, I have opinions but will only attack the issues and the people behind the issues.  Not friends, acquaintances, family members or anyone else who might be reading this.

People who know me know that I tend to lean Democratic, as (a) they actually have a chance to win elections and (b) they more closely represent my viewpoints on most issues.  But  every now and then though, I’ll vote Republican for what I deem to be good reasons as I did this year in our state gubernatorial election.

There’s something though that I always remind myself of before I cast my vote:  Democrats and Republicans all work for the same people.  Money talks and their campaigns are being funded by PACs (they really need to go away), insurance companies, banks, hedge funds, energy conglomerates, and so on.  And they expect a return on their “investment”.  I have no expectations of anything getting better strictly by virtue of who wins or loses a presidential election.

Having said that, I do try to assess what kind of a future might be looming by trying to understand a political  party’s platform.  Four years ago, I dropped a blog post regarding how thrilled I was that Barack Obama was elected.  Four years later, I’m not nearly as excited and have come to understand just how polarized we are in this country.  There are nearly three times as many annual filibusters in the Obama years as the “W” years, for example.  Lots of people with a –R at the end of their names really dislike this guy.  Because he’s a Democrat?  Because of his policies?  His race?  Yes, yes, and (unfortunately in 2012) yes.

Has Obama done a perfect job in his first four years?  No he has not.  But despite the ideologues who refuse to work with him, and want to see him fail no matter what the cost to the middle and lower class, we are slowly coming out of the long-term mess caused largely by a person I consider the worst and most irresponsible president we’ve had since I’ve been on this rock.  And that even includes Nixon.  I could go on about Bush but why bother.  He’s yesterday’s news.  Let’s learn the lessons we’ve had to learn and move on.

Here are a few things that I'd like to see happen this term (not that anyone has consulted with me on this):

•  Obamacare needs to get roots.  It HAS to be a priority, end of sentence.  We’re getting older as a demographic and unless there’s a plan like this in place, the day is not too far off when far too many of our citizens (and their family members) will have to decide whether or not to go bankrupt to stay alive.  Then we can all watch every other form of consumer spending bite the dust along with it.   If tax increases are necessary then so be it.  Tax the wealthy at the rates they paid 20 years ago.  Alter the laws and tax structures so that the Mitt Romney's of the world aren't rewarded for moving their millions offshore.  Heck, tax me a bit more.  I’m not rich by most definitions but am doing okay and am fine with that if we can avoid turning away our disenfranchised.  And by the way, at the risk of being called a “socialist” (a word bantered around by some righties in a completely misunderstood fashion) I’m for a single payer system as well and believe health care needs to be available to all.

• Related to this, we need to make sure that big businesses (such as insurance companies who would just as soon exempt you due to a pre-existing condition as see that you’re treated) play by the rules as opposed to circumnavigating them so that a few lucky VPs at the top of the food chain can get rich.  I think we all saw how well that worked with the lending industry a few years back.  If they can’t police themselves, pass legislation and send a few to the Greybar Hotel.  The rest of the corporate lab rats will see this happening and start to push the button that doesn’t deliver the electric shock.                        
• Get out of Afghanistan.  Enough said.  And let’s use the money we’re not spending on wars to start fixing our infrastructure before it crumbles away.  The shelf life is closer than we think.

I could go on, but I’m up to more than 700 words on this post already.  So I'll just say here’s to hoping that during the next four years we decide to look out for one another with more conviction than we have in recent memory.

“A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”

~ Mahatma Gandhi