September 4, 2012--The Case for Obama
It is claimed that this is the time when voters--especially undecided voters who will determine the outcome of the presidential election--begin to pay attention. The summer is over; the kids are back at school; and though the football season is beginning, many tune in to the speeches and debates.
On the other hand, political junkies like me have been paying attention for nearly four years. We began speculating about who the Republicans would nominate to run against Obama in 2012 the afternoon he was inaugurated. Actually, the morning after he was elected. And so did the Republicans who from day-one unabashedly declared their intention to make Obama a one-term president.
Those addicted to MSNBC or Fox News were engrossed when Michele Bachmann won the Iowa straw poll and leaped to the lead in the polls and how Rick Perry swept to the top spot after she faded and then how there was the brief Trump flare followed by Herman Cain of 9-9-9 fame who inexplicably came to the fore. And the political class remembered how Newt then became the front runner before being destroyed by a barrage of Romney attack ads. Ditto for Rick Santorum.
Did I forget anyone? Ron Paul? He never represented a serious threat to Romney or anyone else. He and his son Rand were happy to have a platform from which to promulgate their crackpot ideas about the economy.
Pundits on the left called it a Clown Show with Mitt Romney the last clown standing. And now he has fulfilled his father's dream and is three gaff-free debates away from perhaps becoming our commander in chief.
I am not and never have been an undecided voter. Like, apparently, at least 90 percent of the electorate who have their minds made up and for whom there is nothing that can happen that will make them or me switch our votes. This is not a pretty political picture, probably not the best way for a democracy to work. But there you are.
Having confessed this--that my mind has been made up for four years and I am going to vote for Barack Obama--I will do so with no enthusiasm.
For me he has been a disappointment.
Yes, we have Obamacare, which may turn out to be a good thing; and don't-ask-don't-tell; and he did get us out of Iraq; and there was the stimulus program (good enough for Paul Ryan to go after money for his district after condemning it and voting against it); and there were the GM and Chrysler bailouts, which were promoted and carried out by Barack Obama against fierce GOP opposition.
But, and it is a big but, we still have not and will not under Obama reinstitute essential regulations to curtail the kinds of banking and investment abuses that caused the economic mess we're in, and we will not see any legislation to bring about tax fairness, nor will there be any serious effort to reform the budgets of entitlement programs. And thus we will continue to see trillions added to our debt.
This is not because Obama would not like to see any of this happen. It is because if he is reelected Republicans will still have the votes they need in Congress to thwart every Obama initiative.
Romney-Ryan say they have plans to do better so why not give them a chance?
Because we know what they will do, especially with Republican majorities in both houses of Congress. They will gut all entitlement programs--Obamacare will not be repealed but will be defunded, Medicare and Medicaid will no longer be recognizable, student college loans and grants will be much harder to obtain, food stamps and unemployment insurance will be cut in half, and the economy will become an Ayn Randian dystopia with the "free market" allowed to run unchecked.
So, it is essential that Obama be reelected, not to get anything done or to carry out whatever agenda he has--that will be politically impossible--but to stand in the way of Romney-Ryan doing serious structural harm to our country and our most vulnerable citizens.
We need Obama to prevail in November and Hillary to run and win in 2016--I'm not undecided about that either. The Republican Party is now the Tea Party and Paul Ryan is its titular head. Expect to see him at the top of the ticket in four years. This is what is at stake.
______________
Rereading this, I'm actually now feeling enthusiastic about voting for Obama. Not the enthusiasm I felt in 2008. It's now not about hope but about protection--we need to preserve what we have.
On the other hand, political junkies like me have been paying attention for nearly four years. We began speculating about who the Republicans would nominate to run against Obama in 2012 the afternoon he was inaugurated. Actually, the morning after he was elected. And so did the Republicans who from day-one unabashedly declared their intention to make Obama a one-term president.
Those addicted to MSNBC or Fox News were engrossed when Michele Bachmann won the Iowa straw poll and leaped to the lead in the polls and how Rick Perry swept to the top spot after she faded and then how there was the brief Trump flare followed by Herman Cain of 9-9-9 fame who inexplicably came to the fore. And the political class remembered how Newt then became the front runner before being destroyed by a barrage of Romney attack ads. Ditto for Rick Santorum.
Did I forget anyone? Ron Paul? He never represented a serious threat to Romney or anyone else. He and his son Rand were happy to have a platform from which to promulgate their crackpot ideas about the economy.
Pundits on the left called it a Clown Show with Mitt Romney the last clown standing. And now he has fulfilled his father's dream and is three gaff-free debates away from perhaps becoming our commander in chief.
I am not and never have been an undecided voter. Like, apparently, at least 90 percent of the electorate who have their minds made up and for whom there is nothing that can happen that will make them or me switch our votes. This is not a pretty political picture, probably not the best way for a democracy to work. But there you are.
Having confessed this--that my mind has been made up for four years and I am going to vote for Barack Obama--I will do so with no enthusiasm.
For me he has been a disappointment.
Yes, we have Obamacare, which may turn out to be a good thing; and don't-ask-don't-tell; and he did get us out of Iraq; and there was the stimulus program (good enough for Paul Ryan to go after money for his district after condemning it and voting against it); and there were the GM and Chrysler bailouts, which were promoted and carried out by Barack Obama against fierce GOP opposition.
But, and it is a big but, we still have not and will not under Obama reinstitute essential regulations to curtail the kinds of banking and investment abuses that caused the economic mess we're in, and we will not see any legislation to bring about tax fairness, nor will there be any serious effort to reform the budgets of entitlement programs. And thus we will continue to see trillions added to our debt.
This is not because Obama would not like to see any of this happen. It is because if he is reelected Republicans will still have the votes they need in Congress to thwart every Obama initiative.
Romney-Ryan say they have plans to do better so why not give them a chance?
Because we know what they will do, especially with Republican majorities in both houses of Congress. They will gut all entitlement programs--Obamacare will not be repealed but will be defunded, Medicare and Medicaid will no longer be recognizable, student college loans and grants will be much harder to obtain, food stamps and unemployment insurance will be cut in half, and the economy will become an Ayn Randian dystopia with the "free market" allowed to run unchecked.
So, it is essential that Obama be reelected, not to get anything done or to carry out whatever agenda he has--that will be politically impossible--but to stand in the way of Romney-Ryan doing serious structural harm to our country and our most vulnerable citizens.
We need Obama to prevail in November and Hillary to run and win in 2016--I'm not undecided about that either. The Republican Party is now the Tea Party and Paul Ryan is its titular head. Expect to see him at the top of the ticket in four years. This is what is at stake.
______________
Rereading this, I'm actually now feeling enthusiastic about voting for Obama. Not the enthusiasm I felt in 2008. It's now not about hope but about protection--we need to preserve what we have.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:20 AM
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