We are only moderate political animals. In fact, we try very hard to practice
moderation in just about everything.
But this political season has brought out some of our more intense
responses, because it has all been so amazing.
The word that is most frequently used is polarization,
because there are indeed two extreme factions, one on the liberal side, and one
on the conservative side. We cannot
help, however, believing that between those two polar points, there are lots of
people that are either like us, with pretty secure ideas and beliefs, and
possibly a goodly number that are wavering.
It must be believed that there are many who are wavering,
because between them, both political parties are anticipating spending enough
millions in advertisements to seriously improve the well-being of many areas
such as Joplin, Missouri, which were so badly damaged in storms, last year and
this. The thing that we cannot
comprehend is why on earth would anyone decide who they would vote for, in any
election from city council to President, without listening to the words of the
candidate themselves and without checking out facts?
To us, Mr. Obama is calm, deliberate and pragmatic, offering
conciliation, refusing to vilify but certainly willing to challenge false
claims and misstatements. The
accomplishments of his administration have been real and significant and
utterly taken for granted when they haven’t been attacked. We have seen how the stimulus program saved
the entire American automotive industry, intense diplomacy has improved
America’s reputation significantly (which it needed after initiating two wars,
including one entirely unprovoked), a major health care program is benefitting
millions of Americans and will benefit many more when fully implemented,
finance reforms have been proposed although being fought tooth and nail by
opposition, both our terrible wars are winding down, and the President has
tried and tried to push through programs to create jobs and create new
industries to deal with climate change.
Oh, and did I mention trying to get an immigration policy established?
To us, Mr. Romney is an amazing amalgam of all the political
philosophies that dominated the eight years of the Bush administration, and
which implementations almost utterly destroyed the U.S. and world
economies. In other words, a Romney
administration would be running around the same Bush we had for those eight
years, misspeaking, saber-rattling, failing to understand the lives and needs
of ordinary people. As we say in this part of the country, “be
switched if we haven’t been around that Bush enough!”
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