America Avoids Romney Apocalypse

Congratulations to Barack Obama!

Congratulations to all of us who rooted, worked, contributed, and / or voted for his re-election.

We watched the returns come in until after Midnight, East Coast Time. We made popcorn. [Note to self: If I am going to keep mentioning popcorn in these blogposts, I really should see about getting a popcorn manufacturer as a sponsor.] I have to confess, I was a little bit worried, watching the early returns. That blue line was shorter and was growing more slowly than the red line. Not to worry, we were told by the people on TV, this was the early reports from the red states coming in early

Florida remained grey (or yellow or white, depending on which network you watched) until Saturday. I am so very happy that the election did not depend on Florida for the final result. The 2000 convention earned us the nickname Florida-Duh and may be one of the reasons Florida residents are called Floridiots, Actually, I think both names were earned once again when we allowed Rick Scott to buy the governorship a couple of years ago. Even without Florida’s 29 electoral votes, Barack Obama was re-elected president, and that suits me just fine. In the final count, including Florida voters, Obama won by 332 electoral votes to Romney’s 206.

Mitt Romney was the first Mormon nominee. I thought that might trigger a backlash from some anti-Mormon fundamentalist Christians. I am suppose there were some snake-handlers that thought considered Mitt to be the spawn of Satan, but most of them might have kept quiet because they considered Obama to be the devil himself! I thought Romney would have basically tied up the Mormon vote. But, as it turned out, a smaller percentage of Mormons voted for Mitt Romney than had voted for George W. Bush in 2008.

This was not a pretty presidential campaign. Lies were told. There were those who insisted that Obama was not born in the US. The sellers of bumper stickers that said “Don’t Re-Nig in 2012” tried to bring political discourse down to a new, disgusting, low.

There is a lot of political talk going around now about how Romney and his GOP cronies didn’t appeal to Hispanics or to African Americans, or even to younger voters. All of these things may be true, but I don’t think it suits anyone for any candidate to focus primarily on playing to factions of the population or to complain that they didn’t get their support afterwards.

The president, once duly and legally elected, is the president of all the people. For the GOP to be licking its wounds and comforting itself with thoughts such as, Obama won just because of the Latinos or —just because of the poor really doesn’t help anybody’s cause.

I believe that the GOP and Romney failed, not because they appeared not to be benefiting any one slice of the American voting population pie chart, but because they did appear to be primarily benefiting an even tinier sliver of that same pie chart — the one percent of Americans that control an ever-increasing share of the nation’s wealth, currently about 40 per cent. Because of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling (something I am hoping that an Obama Supreme Court appointment will someday undue) these wealthiest of all Americans can funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into the race for president and into races across the country.

This tine it did not work. We, as an electorate, did not allow Mitt Romney or Sheldon Adelson or the Koch Brothers to buy the election.

And that is one of the greatest things about our country.

I am sure the Romney’s are disappointed. But, Anne Romney can be can console herself with the knowledge that she doesn’t have to move into a smaller house, in public housing no less.

But, I still wonder, if Tagg Romney wanted to take a swing at the president before the election, what’s he fantasizing about now?

The Final Push

Tuesday is Election Day.  

That means that Wednesday morning we will all wake up and learn whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney will take the Oath of Office in 2013.

Or will we?

Some of us still have echoes of the presidential election of 2000 echoing around our heads.

With the efforts by some to keep others from casting their rightful ballots, and the confusion over early voting rules in some battleground states, and with the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast — not to mention this election looks like it might be as close as the king and queen of the prom during that last dance of the night, — and we might not know for days or weeks.

All of the annoying TV and Internet ads will stop, and that alone is a victory for everyone.

If you live in any of the states that allow early voting and have already voted, I salute you. You have exercised your right to take part in the flawed, yet stabilizing process we call representative democracy. If you voted for Barack Obama, and for Democrats in the US House and Senate to support his continued efforts on behalf of the middle class of this country, I not only salute you, but heartily applaud the choices you have made.

If you have not yet voted, I hope you do decide to go out and vote. The lines may be long, but it is worth the time and effort.

If you plan to vote for Obama, then I think we are on the same page, here. I would only remind you to keep in mind that the president will need forward-thinking men and women in the House and Senate to keep the improvements coming.

If you are leaning towards Mitt Romney, or are undecided, I can only commend you for reading this far and ask that you read on a bit more.

I will not try to list all of Obama’s accomplishments in the first four years. He has signed legislation which would guarantee equal pay for women and men doing the same job. He signed a middle-class tax cut which has cut the taxes of the average family by over $3,500 over the past four years. He also cut taxes for small businesses.

Obama’s Recovery Act saved or added millions of jobs, and probably prevented a depression. He revitalized the Student Loan Program, eliminating banks as middlemen, and cutting the cost of borrowing for college. He successfully saved the auto industry and got it back on its own footing again. He has ordered streamlining of thousands of pages of contradictory, redundant, or unnecessary regulations, while putting in place mechanisms to help ensure that useful regulations are followed, thus making food products, manufacturing processes, and work environments safer for consumers and workers.

Obamacare and the Healthcare Reform, which has been a favorite target of Romney and other Republicans, offers tremendous benefits to millions of Americans who were priced out or otherwise kept out of the healthcare insurance market. It wasn’t that society wasn’t providing some sporadic medical care for these citizens, its just that we were paying an incredibly high price for it. So much easier to offer affordable healthcare insurance to everyone and save most Americans money in the process. Eleven million children, who otherwise would have had no healthcare coverage, will have it because of action taken by President Obama.

Obama and the Democrats deserve your support for heeding the warnings of nearly one hundred percent of the world’s climate scientists, by taking unprecedented action to reduce carbon pollution from our vehicles and promote clean energy production in the United States. I don’t think we are doing all we should , but at least they first steps are being taken. He has also created historic international agreements to curb carbon emissions from other nations as well as the US. Again, it’s a start, and one the Republicans will not even acknowledge as necessary or beneficial.

Obama has shown he has the maturity and the knowledge to deal with ever-changing issues. Foreign issues will continue to be a very important part of the job of president. Obama ended the war in Iraq, is bringing troops home from Afghanistan, and has taken action against some of our greatest enemies. If you see any Osama Bin Laden tapes on the news, you will know they are reruns.

There are more things I could list. There are probably more things you could list. But, you can see that Romney’s claim that Obama’s four years has been a failure is an untrue statement, shouted just to convince members of the middle class to vote against their best interest.

Romney and Ryan, on the other hand, offer a plan that is based on the failed idea that, if we help the rich and superrich make even more money and pay even less in taxes, somehow, some of those crumbs will truckle down to the middle class and make them more well-off. This has not worked in the past, it will not work now.

Their plans to privatize Social Security, turn Medicare and education into voucher programs certainly aren’t good for the people who will depend on those services, our elderly and our children, and they won’t help those in between, either.

Obama has spent four difficult years digging us out of the hold that two wars and the Bush Tax Cuts put us into. It has taken longer than expected, because he has had to fight the Republicans in Congress, who have made it their prime directive to make sure he fails — no matter who gets hurt. So, It is a wonder that he as accomplished as much as he has. It makes absolutely no sense to go back to the policies that caused those problems in the first place.

It is so very hard to know where Romney stand on any issue. His responses have seemed to be generated by what he perceives a particular audience wants to hear on a given day. He much more resembles a weathervane than a qualified candidate to lead the United States of America.

If you are still not convinced, I will let Romney himself convince you that he is not fit to be your president.

Mitt Romney has refused to release his tax returns for the past ten years, as requested by many members of both parties. Yeah, old story, I know. He did release his 2010 and 2011 tax returns as promised. In 2011, Romney paid 14.1 per cent of his income in taxes. Had he claimed all of the deductions due him, he would have gotten away with paying an amount much closer to nine per cent. Wow, good guy, right? Loves his country, patriotic, right? Putting aside the fact that he has years to file an amended return and get those millions back from the IRS, quietly, secretly.

However, Romney himself said in July, "Frankly, if I had paid more than are legally due, I don't think I'd be qualified to become president. I'd think people would want me to

follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires. "I pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more," He has also said, "I don't think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes."

I don’t see why we wouldn’t want a candidate to pay more into the coffers of the country he loves than he legally owes, but if Mitt Romney sais this action makes him unqualified to be president, then who am I to argue with him?

Vote for Obama. It’s the least you can do to help poor Mitt Romney keep what shred of integrity he has left.

 

Dan J. Hicks

Uh Oh, there's a Mitt-stake in this Paper

Here is a Letter to the Editor I wrote for the Tampa Tribune in response to the paper’s endorsement of Mitt Romney for president. I didn’t see it in print, but it might or might not have appeared on the paper’s website. I am proud of it, though, so I am sharing it with you here.

Tribune Endorses Mitt, Really?

After some well-reasoned editorial opinions from the Tampa Tribune Editorial Board, I was looking forward to an endorsement of President Barack Obama, to continue on his course of repairing the damage done to the United States by eight years of Bush rule.  

After all, you warned us against deceptively-named amendments which would only give power and tax-breaks to the already well-off.

You Endorsed Bill Nelson, who is most likely to work on behalf of the working people of Florida, and the candidate best suited to support Obama as president for the next four years.

You issued a thoughtful yet fervent plea to Florida voters to keep the current Supreme Court judges, who are only being targeted because they aren’t indebted to the Republican Party and rich out-of-state manipulators.

Yeah, it looked pretty good for the Tampa Tribune to support a president who has been willing to swim against the red-state tide, and work against those who have set his failure as priority one, no matter how it hurts the middle class of the US.

But, then “with confidence and enthusiasm” you endorsed Mitt Romney for president!

I suppose you don’t mind that Mitt’s Opinions on a wide variety of subjects seems to change with the direction of the wind, and what he perceives that day’s audience would like to hear. I suppose it doesn’t matter that Mitt Romney’s foreign affairs experience has to do with off-shore investing, annoying the Brits prior to the Olympics, and helping to ship jobs overseas. I suppose you decided to overlook that fact that Mitt, if elected, will owe huge debts to those who helped him move into the White House. I don’t mean the voters; I mean the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson, without whom his candidacy wouldn’t have stood much of a chance.

Did you feel the need to balance the endorsement the Tampa Bay Times would be giving Obama? I would certainly hope you would not base such a critical editorial on such shallow reasoning.

With the state of Florida such an important battleground for this very important election, your endorsement of Mitt Romney for President simply doesn’t make sense.

Dan Hicks