2012 Election - Four More Years

My election blog ... also posted on FB.
This is my musings on why I choose Obama and in general why I choose the Democratic party.

1) Diversity – When I see an Obama crowd I see all the colors and nuances of our human rainbow. I know they select who we see in the filmed footage, but I also know the diversity is real. I fundamentally believe this diversity is key to the future of our country; engaging all people in the dialog is what Forward is all about for me. The policy choices in the next 4 years are limited; it is crucial that everybody be at the table, to provide their input and to understand and support the tough choices we have to make. Failure to work together, to listen to and consider all points of view and to be open to compromise and we will go backward; I don’t want to go back.

2) Leadership – Obama inherited a fiscal train wreck. Only one time in our national history did we have a more challenging economic situation – the Great Depression. In fact the Great Recession may have turned out much worse had our leaders not taken the actions they took. I credit Obama for being a steady hand on the tiller through these challenging seas of fiscal uncertainty. I also am aware that we cannot declare victory in our efforts to overcome the Great Recession, but I am certain that we cannot return to the policies of the past and be successful as a nation. I vote for four more years to continue to steady this nation’s economy.

3) Intolerance - Carl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, Grover Norquist, Mitch McConnell, the Koch brothers, Fox News and other persons and entities who seem to believe so totally in themselves and their ideas that they will not compromise. What are we to think when the minority leader of the US Senate, Mitch McConnell announces two years before the election that his number #1 legislative priority is to keep Obama a one term president? For the next two years our Congress was in gridlock and I primarily blame Republican leadership. The only compromise I remember was on taxes and only when “everyone” got what they wanted in the way of tax relief – extension of the Bush Tax cuts and extension of the Payroll Tax cuts. We can’t keep compromising like that and pushing off the tough decisions on our fiscal problems until tomorrow.

4) Humility - We need to share our ideas, listen to the ideas of others and work together; we owe this to our children. Inflexibility and intolerance are destructive and undermine the principles our country was founded on. I look at the increasing diversity of our great nation with hope and excitement.

If you haven’t voted please do.