look forward into the next four years…
The Presidential Election is tomorrow. We've had an entire year of campaigning, mud-slinging ads, fact-checking, debates, zingers and Facebook memes, all trying to convince us for whom to vote. And yet, the race is still neck-and-neck!
What shocks me to the core is that any ONE of Mitt Romney's indiscretions should have been enough to effectively kill his campaign, and yet half of the country is still vowing to vote for the man tomorrow! In the wake of the "Occupy Wall-Street" movement, where we kept hearing defiant men and women declare "We are the 99%", where people were up in arms over the conduct of the fat-cat bankers and how they had been spending the bailout money that had been awarded to them to save our economy, the idea that one of those people-the 1% could run for office and even be taken seriously for more than five minutes is beyond me.
Next, we began to hear about the flip-flopping. Depending on which day you spoke to him, immigration was either "what makes this country great" or "the scourge of our country". The day he was no-longer the "Republican Presumptive", but their official candidate for the office of President, he vowed to repeal Obamacare on his first day in office. Later, the whole thing was HIS idea! Assault weapons should be banned because of the threat they pose to law-abiding citizens of our country, then, when he's addressing the NRA, all guns are suddenly the most important items that our citizens can own! (next to an elevator for their Cadillac) The way this man has insulted the American people by implying that we're all just that gullible is severely insulting. And yet HALF of us say they want him in office!
Which brings me to foreign policy. A survey was done recently of other countries and what they think of our current state of affairs. Of twenty-one countries, only ONE seemed to be even remotely interested in seeing Romney take the Oval Office: Pakistan. Of course, they're still a little sore over our boys in Seal Team Six coming in and popping Bin Laden in the eye… "Russia is our number one geopolitical foe"? Does he not remember the Cold War? I grew up in the 80's, when the fear of a nuclear holocaust was something that was constantly in the backs of all of our minds. I'd prefer not to piss off Russia again, thank you very much. This is to say nothing of how he was booed off of the stage when he went to visit Poland or how he insulted our closest ally, Britain with his remarks about the 2012 Olympics!
Then there is his lovely wife, Ann, with her contemptuous attitude toward us. "We've already given
you people all the tax returns we need to". And what about those tax returns, anyway? Two years' worth? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a candidate for President of the United States required to show
ten years' tax returns? My wife applied for a job as a librarian the other day and even SHE had to provide ten years' employment history, with all gaps accounted for and explained! In the midst of accusations about how Romney made millions of dollars by ruining the lives of the employees at Bain Capital, why wouldn't he happily give up all the tax returns we asked for, unless he has something to hide? This all wreaks of corruption and scandal. It's bad enough that this wouldn't actually prompt a ban on Mr. Romney's bid for the presidency until such matters were disclosed and all of the questions answered. Not only did this not happen, but voters still stood up and proudly announced that they are going to vote for this man? What the hell is happening?
And in the final days before the election, a super storm wipes out New York City! Anyone with a brain, who is running for President of the United States would have seen this as an opportunity to rush over (after first stopping to buy a new pair of jeans and another plaid shirt) and help the people who are in need there. Where, exactly, did Romney go? 600 miles away, to buy $5,000.00 worth of water and canned goods, which he posed with during his "Relief Rally" before starting in again about how voters "can't afford another four years of Obama's failed policies." During this rally, he had the nerve to suggest that federally-funded relief programs, like FEMA, are "immoral" and said that he thinks that this kind of service should fall on the shoulders of privatized relief companies. Mind you-this is a man who believes that a college student should simply borrow money from his or her parents if they want that higher education, and that if the money isn't available, they're basically on their own. How does this attitude play into a privatized emergency relief system/company? Will I need to be sure to have my credit card with me in order to get an air-lift off of my roof, should my house suddenly be washed away by a torrential downpour?
And now, it looks as though this man STILL has a chance to be voted into office.
I haven't even really talked about the fact that numerous economics professors have demonstrated that his "five-point" plan is mathematically impossible. I haven't said anything about Paul Ryan. I haven't begun to speak about the hypocrisy behind Romney's condemnation of Obama, chiding him publicly for not clearing up the mess that Dubbya left behind with only four years to do so, while admitting that
his plan will take
eight to ten years to have any real effect on our economy. Some of us are looking forward to the day after tomorrow; we'll be happy to log into Facebook and find the same old familiar pictures of people's dinners and pictures of them with their boyfriends and girlfriends. We're all just a bit tired of the rain of emails filling our boxes daily with requests for money to help our candidates to buy more airtime, and we're sick of hearing about how we need to get everyone we know and go to the polls to vote as though our future depends on it, because it does.
But what about the next four years? In a country this divided, how is it going to feel, no matter who wins? The next time you're at a party, when you ask someone how they're doing, you will run a 50% chance of the reply being some jaded, cynical and frustrated remark about how nice it is that the other guy is in office. For the next four years, half of everyone you know will have an automatic excuse to have a bad day, and if you happen to have wanted "the other guy", well, it's probably best for your friendship if you just try to avoid reminding him of that. Here's to a long four years, folks…
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