POLITICS: We Don't Have to Live Like This
Photos
It’s been a depressing four years.
President Obama asks us to accept the sinking economy in this country – subpar economic growth, chronically high levels of unemployment, declining incomes, shrinking housing values, vanishing savings, an undervalued dollar, high gas prices, 1 in 6 people living in poverty, 47 million Americans in need of food stamps – as the “new normal.” Not in those words exactly, but in a speech he gave just after Labor Day, the president told us his economic recovery plan “may be harder, but it leads to a better place.”
Better for whom?
President Obama’s implicit response to these dismal conditions are, “I’m not done, trust me, eventually it’ll be worth it.”
All the economic misery of the past four years will make things better for someone, somehow, someday. It’s all very vague and frankly, I don’t understand how American decline is going to lead to his utopian “better place.” Maybe I’m dense, but I’m just not “getting it.”
There’s an Eagles song from a few years back, “Do Something,” with a line that says, “I pick up the morning paper, and all the news is bad. How did we get on this road we’re traveling?” I heard the song again recently and when they sang this line, all I could think was, “That’s exactly how it’s felt these past four years.”
Every day the front pages are full of stories about an across-the-board deterioration in the economic and international status and power of the United States. How did this happen to us?
Fortunately, my belief in my cognitive abilities is restored when I listen to what Mitt Romney says about the past four years. His words make sense to me. He gets it.
At last Tuesday’s candidates’ debate, I loved some of the things Romney said precisely because he doesn’t suggest we must accept what’s become of our country. He acknowledges things have been awful; he's sure they don’t have to be this way; and he promises to implement policies that will enable our country to prosper again if he’s elected.
His words are very encouraging, very reassuring.
Here's some of what he said the other night that sounded right to me:
“…I look at what’s happened in the last four years and say this has been a disappointment. We can do better than this. We don’t have to settle for, how many months, 43 months with unemployment above 8 percent, 23 million Americans struggling to find a good job right now…
“We don’t have to live like this. We can get this economy going again. My five-point plan does it…I want to make small businesses grow and thrive. I know how to make that happen. I spent my life in the private sector. I know why jobs come and why they go. And they’re going now because of the policies of this administration.
“I think you know that these last four years haven’t been as good as the president just described and you don’t feel like you’re confident that the next four years are going to be much better either. I can tell you that if you were to elect President Obama, you know what you’re going to get. You’re going to get a repeat of the last four years. We just can’t afford four more years like the last four years.”
I’m not so naïve to believe just because a politician says he’s going to do something means he’s going to do it. During the past four years especially, I’ve come to expect words and actions to diverge. If anything, this experience has made me much more wary of elected officials’ promises.
Still, I think I have enough residual faith – maybe it’s idealism, maybe it’s trust – to believe what Mitt Romney says. I believe that he’s a sincere man.
But my faith isn't blind. Romney has an extensive record of accomplishment that we can look to. He’s a man with deeply held moral values who has lived those values his entire life. He not only says the things that, admittedly, I want to hear; he also possesses the knowledge, the experience and the conviction to actually implement these things.
He doesn’t strike me as a deceiver, a cynical manipulator, a pretender, a man who’ll say or do anything to gain power for himself.
With Mitt Romney, I get no sense whatsoever that “it’s all about him.” I sense only that it’s all about restoring a sickly, beaten-down America to vigorous health.
Romney was exactly right when he said, “…(this election is) about who can get the middle class in this country a bright and prosperous future and assure our kids the kind of hope and optimism they deserve.”
This is still America. We still have the right – the birthright, in fact – to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Here’s hoping for happiness, for looking forward to a brighter future again, come Nov. 6.
Terry Moore
11:19 am on Monday, October 22, 2012
I'm always surprised when a woman sticks up for a republican, especially Romney,
He pledged to overturn Roe V Wade. Do you have a daughter? Want the government (yes, the very government that Republicans want to shrink to let Americans make their own decisions?) to make that decision? I want my daughter to make her own decisions about her body.
Romney has pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act “on day one” of his presidency, so one of his first acts would be to cut off millions of women and families’ access to affordable preventive care, returning to the days when you could be discriminated against for pre-existing conditions.
He wants to remove funding for Planned Parenthood, which protects access to basic preventive care to the nearly three million patients who rely on their health centers for lifesaving cancer screenings, well-woman exams, and birth control.
By the way, while not a rabid pro-Obama supporter, I do like many of his initiatives and he is not the one that got us into this financial mess. And every time he tried to “reach across the aisle,” the Republicans, as avowed, did EVERYTHING to block any legislation to straighten out the economy. But Romney, is even disliked by his own party by his equivocations. We've watched him turn from a Massachusetts's moderate, to a right winger in the primary debates, back to a moderate to please the electorate, especially in the swing states, as he continues to shift. He's shifty and swing candidate.
Terry Moore
Jake Smith
1:25 pm on Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Well Terry if your daughter is old enough to make her own decisions and control her own body, then she should be held responsible for the outcome. I never once heard Mitt say he would overtunr Roe v Wade. Please show us exactly when and where that was stated. He's against the government paying for it. Why should I or anyone else have to pay for your daughter's mistake? You want to play then you have to pay. You Democrats really do hate life and do not believe it's precious. Always quick to flush away a mistake instead of acting like an adult and taking responsibility.
Planned Parenthood has NEVER performed mammographies! Stop believing the lies.
That is the problem with the Democratic party and that is why I am a FORMER Democrat. Of all the issues facing our country, this is the one that bothers you? Bottom line is, we are worse off today than four years ago! He has done zero to change that fact - but Dems hate facts that get in the way of their idealogy. Fact: unemployment not where prez promised, gas price double, food prices going up, college grads can't find work and for the first time ever our credit rating has been dropped.
Please, get off the abortion issue and look at the state of this country. He has plummeted us!
Fran Hopkins
10:43 am on Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Terry, I take a "bigger picture" view of this administration. I believe that it has demonstrated in numerous ways that it does not feel particularly bound by the Constitution, including separation of powers, or by other laws. Instead of legislating through Congress, it relies heavily on regulations and executive orders to work its will. In my opinion, this administration has also demonstrated that the truth is not very important (latest example: will we ever learn why those four Americans had to die at the hands of terrorists in Libya?). It has not earned our trust and I worry about what would happen in a second term ("Tell Vladamir that I'll have more flexibility after the election") when the "restraint" necessitated by the need to be reelected is gone. This is a dangerous bunch and we need to make a clean sweep of them in two weeks.
Terry Moore
12:46 pm on Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Fran, I agree that we must hold the presidency to the laws of the Constitution but your comments reflect the very same concerns that were echoed during the Bush Administration but with more serious violations like wiretapping ordinary citizens and waterboading. Some of the very same advisors, like Cheney, who supported waterboarding, is on his campaign team are likely to be a part of his administration, if he’s elected. The Libya question, an easy diversion from other problems to be debated, should be made more transparent by the Obama administration. We should be talking about Romney's desire to use clean coal (an oxymoron), his possible appointees of one or two more activist right wing justices to The Supreme Court, his backward stance on immigration, his two trillion dollar increase in military budget are just some of my concerns. But mostly that he just continually shifts his policies for one purpose-to be elected, not because he believes in the policy (or his party’s position). And therefore is caught in outright lies, like how he wasn’t eager to let the auto industry fail, how he now is now in favor for a 2014 pull-out from Afghanistan, trying desperately to morph from a hawk to a dove. Some Republican pundit compared his message to John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance.” It made me sick. I can’t trust this man as far as I can throw an aircraft carrier.
chris
6:08 pm on Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Fran, you are 100%right. Terry, sorry, but your rant reads like a bunch of goppidy goo. No one is talking about taking away a woman's right to get an abortion. It should be a state's rights issue, period. It definitely shouldn't be THE issue that is somehow always becomes in national politics. The left wants to scare women into believing if they elect a republican they won't be able to get an abortion or birth control. Give me a break! Romney is saying you shouldn't get birth control for free! He KNOWS what it will take to get this economy roaring again. And when he's elected and the economy comes soaring back, high paying jobs, people getting promotions & bonuses again, the housing market takes off, we see the fruits of wise energy policies come to fruition -- I can JUST hear it from all you libs -- "SEE this is all a result of Obama's policies!! It just took more time!!!" Such bologna! This man has NO idea how to get us out of this mess. Do you honestly think the insane spending (more bogus 'shovel ready' jobs) will accomplish anything? Just let him keep giving our money to 'green energy' companies that go bankrupt - companies that donate to Obama's campaign! As for the auto industry, Romney is 100% right -- bankruptcy and then emerge a stronger company on the other side was the right approach. And as for this childish 'romnesia' -- Romney has held the same positions the whole campaign - he's exposing Obama's lies about him.
Jake Smith
1:25 pm on Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Chris, you are on the money! All the government money given to his friends in the green energy industry and how many of them have gone bankrupt? Most of them. It is disgraceful.
And Fran, thanks for a great article.
chris
6:08 pm on Tuesday, October 23, 2012
And by the way, if you think Obamacare is so great, get ready if god forbid this thing is implemented. Want a great read on what to expect? It's short -- I suggest you start opening your eyes. It's called "Why the doctor can't see you." Get ready for a two-tiered health care system where the 'haves' can see doctors, and the 'have-nots' have to wait months. Wall St. journal -
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443404004577578980699719356.html
Fran Hopkins
8:50 pm on Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Thanks, Chris! Terry says he can't trust Romney, who as far as I know, hasn't deliberately run a company or a country into the ground the way Obama has. Terry, has President Obama earned your trust? Chris, you're more charitable than I am; I think that the Obama administration's policies are intended to redistribute wealth, not only from the so-called "rich", but from the US as a whole and then spread it around to the rest of the world.
Thanks for sharing that link about the actual expected impact of Obamacare on our healthcare system.
Jake Smith
1:25 pm on Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Obama wants to be the head of the One World Government.
Marion Crecco
1:25 pm on Wednesday, October 24, 2012
You are right Fran. It would be the worst thing that can happen if he were re-elected. He is an obvious socialist or Marist ideologue and doesn't respect the constitution. I suggest Terry read his book,"Dreams from my Father" and see exactly who this man is.. He should take the time to read the Obama-care disaster and how this will destroy to the American health care system. Health care rationed-per year for individuals and familllies,health care for illegals, all doctors will earn the same amount of money regardless of their specialty, end of life decisions.. and the list goes on and on. This bill alone, which he demanded, should make any American frightful. Bureaucrats will be making our life and death decisions. His anti-American philosophy is not the America I grew up with. Mitt Romney will repeal this monstrosity!.
InterestedParty
1:54 pm on Wednesday, October 24, 2012
"deliberately run a company or a country into the ground the way Obama has"
Enough said...you have no credibility when you make statements like that.
Fran Hopkins
8:57 am on Thursday, October 25, 2012
I make that statement because I observe that, over the past four years, the policies he's implemented have been the opposite of ones that have been demonstrated historically to help us recover from recessions. Then, after time had passed and it was obvious that they weren't helping our recovery, President Obama just continued with the same ineffective policies. I don't think he's unintelligent, so I have to conclude that he's been doing what he's done on purpose.
chris
2:55 pm on Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Watch and learn D-Zone. When Romney gets in, starts implementing policies that will create an environment where small businesses aren't afraid to hire, aren't crippled by these insane regulations, aren't worried what taxes are going to be thrust upon them around the next corner, they will start hiring and GOOD jobs will start coming back. As for Romney's work at Bain Capital, it always astounds me the strange twists liberals come up with. Creating jobs wasn't the aim of Bain or any other private-equity firm -- they measure success by returns produced for investors, bottom line. Through his efforts companies like Staples, Sports Authority and Bright Horizons were able to thrive. Not every company is going to make it. There are going to be winners & losers in any capitalistic society, period. And by the way, venture capitalists do stand to make a ton of money, but they also stand to lose a lot too. With great risk can come great reward, and I personally wouldn't want it any other way. If you do, I suggest you move to France.