I have to be crazy to be writing near dawn, but isn’t this what writers do ? Hijack the inspiration when it arrives and take it to new places ? When you find something that feels worthy enough to occupy a few sentences, it is not a right, but an obligation to place those words down before they are lost.
So, at hours where I should be and had hoped to be sleeping, I am instead seizing the motivation invoked by both conventions. What is perplexing to me is how divided we are as a country. How incredibly different the politics, views and visions are for each candidate. One man so driven by wealth and success, he is totally out of touch with the average American. I know Ann Romney tried to make a good case to connect with hard-working women and the struggle of single parents, paying the bills and having enough money for groceries. Not to blame her for trying, but does she really believe anyone struggling could relate to her ? When was the last time she had to worry about a grocery bill ? Aren’t they renovating their beach house now ? You know, the one that has the elevator for their cars.
I don’t think anyone begrudges Romney for his success. That is the American dream. We applaud it. I do. What most truly resent is how he got there. Taking over businesses, driving them intentionally into the ground, paying himself extraordinarily well, while watching workers lose their jobs, their pensions, their future, everything. And when he tells a group that America was built on inventing, on entrepreneurship, that’s true. But when he says, start a business and if you don’t have the money, borrow $10,000 to $20,000 from your parents. Mr. Romney, as another well-known millionaire Republican said,” Read My Lips.” Only that millionaire president was a lot more in touch. People in this country are struggling. Their parents are lucky to pay their mortgage each month. Where in the hell are they going to get an extra $20,000 ? Maybe you, Mr. Romney would be generous enough to give it to them.
When people say we need a businessman in the white house. Really ? One whose budget has a plan to create 800,000 new jobs under a new bill. W hat he doesn’t tell you is that those new jobs will all be overseas because he doesn’t think it matters where companies have jobs. How about in the U.S. where we desperately need them ? Or are you going to charter planes to take us back and forth ?
And how can we vote for a man who talks about creating jobs in other countries, agrees that no woman has the right to choose decisions over her own body, even in the case of incest and rape. Rape is questionable anyway. I am referring to the bill co-sponsored by Ryan and Todd Akin that allows abortion only in cases of forcible rape. Is there any other kind because I’m a bit confused here. One of his party members said he consulted with a male doctor who agreed with him. Well, after all, he should know all about a woman’s body and what it feels like being violated, being of the opposite gender.
Romney is against the same healthcare plan he created in Massachusetts. I know about this. I live there. So, it may not be perfect but it’s a start, like most new programs. You continue to tweak it. Isn’t it a good thing that kids who come out of college and are loaded with debt can stay on their parents insurance until they are hopefully on their feet by 26 ? Isn’t it a good thing that a person with cancer can’t be denied care because it’s too expensive for insurance companies ? I don’t know if I heard any better solutions from the other side of the table.
And Romney and Ryan and friends actually think they can cut the deficit by giving a few more trillion dollars of tax cuts to the 1% ? How did he figure that out because there doesn’t seem to be much logic to that. You mean, cut more from an already exploding deficit ? And how are we going to bring down the deficit again ? Where and who will we be getting the money from ? Am I the only person who thinks there’s something wrong that 1% own 42% of this country ? Hey people, you do the math. That’s nearly half. Maybe Grover Norquist, the conservative lobbyist who seems to own the Republicans gave him the idea.
I would like to know how Romney can call himself a good tax paying American when the majority of his money is stashed in off-shore accounts to avoid paying taxes. Is this tax evasion ? Sounds like it to me.
Even the Republicans didn’t want Romney at first. They were hesitant about endorsing him. Newt, a perfect name for a perfect man, finally succumbed and said he would endorse him because the party is going to nominate him. That didn’t sound like a strong endorsement to me.
I guess what’s so perplexing is that these men are in our age range. Yes, there’s almost a 20 year span with boomers, but I’m talking about the boomer group now in their 50’s and 60’s. The ones that knew what being fair was, the ones to march for freedom in the civil rights movement, the ones to demonstrate that war was not okay, the ones you picked up hitch hiking and invited in for a meal and a place to stay when they needed one, the ones that wanted peace and thwarted authority to break them into kinder and more compassionate people who could see a person beyond long hair and love beads. The generation that was unified and wanted a better world. The ones that were anti establishment, in order to build a new one. I still believe we exist and I think most Americans want the same thing. I just don’t know how we’re going to get there with all the fighting, stonewalling and discord in Washington.
What about the women that fought for equal rights and Roe versus Wade. Shall pregnant women who were violated, made a mistake, or have a child with so many disabilities be forced back into the dark alleys of mock doctors with knitting needles ? Or, if an abortion is considered, should a woman have to endure an invasive procedure which probes her body in order to make sure she needs one. What if the men who got them pregnant also got invasive procedures ? I know a woman could never think up such a thing, not on either side of the aisles and I would be hard pressed to believe they could. So, a man gets to dictate what we do with our bodies ? I ask myself, where in the hell did all these fair-minded people go ? Have they fallen into a delusion ? Or are women turning over their power to men who want to dictate and who have the Gordon Gekko philosophy that greed is good ?
I am not necessarily talking parties here. I am speaking of the candidates who are running and what they stand for. I shudder when I think about all the rights a woman has today and how easily they can be taken away. I think I can speak candidly when I say every person I have spoken to, whether Democrat or Republican is sick of our politicians sitting in Washington and getting nothing done. They are too busy working on their own agenda to see our agenda and work for the American people, which is why we voted them into office to begin with. I have never seen such disrespect, disdain, arrogance and selfishness among politicians. Are the people going to vote in these same law makers ?
I remember years ago, even not that long ago, when Kennedy worked with McCain and other Republicans to co–sponsor bills to better the American people. They actually worked together and sometimes agreed with each other. It’s true. The two parties would disagree on the floor but often come together to reach a compromise. They took care of business then would go out for a drink together afterwards. Does this even exist today ?
I walk away from these things puzzled, disappointed, shocked and totally perplexed. Why is it that the logic of myself and friends seem to have more rational solutions than the politicians ? It seems simple in theory but they make it so damn complicated. Always. There’s always a quid quo pro. Congress has the worst record of passing bills since 1947. Amazing, isn’t it ? No wonder nothing’s been done. Out of close to 4,ooo bills put before them, only 61 have been passed. In 4 years ? Are they kidding ? And they wonder why the country is still in bad shape ? And paralyzed ? Not everyone is numb. Because they planned it this way. They wanted to get Obama from the day he took office. How about doing some work and worrying about elections a year or less before ? They care more about winning than the American people they are working for. We are their employers because we’re paying their salary. We can fire them anytime.
Term for senators and congressmen, just like presidents should be limited. Initially this was done for a president to avoid a dictatorship, but we have one anyway. With people in Washington for 20, 30 and 40 years. They make a life out of it. I say there should be no more career politicians. No more old boy’s clubs. Get rid of it. No Pac money either. That’s bullshit. Let’s put a limit on campaign spending. Let’s give a cap of $2 million so anyone can run and have a fair chance of winning. No automatic pensions for them on our backs either. Let them pay into a fund like most of us have had to through social security and while I’m at it, they can get their own health care insurance too. We pay for their Cadillac health insurance ? They should get the same plan we do. We’ll see how fast they’d get it done and I bet it would be pretty damn good too.
All I know is I’m now exhausted and my head about to explode. A faint light is beginning to come through the trees. I will end with this- before you make your mind up on any candidate, first, don’t believe the regular media, the major stations and networks. Especially FOX news. Out of all of them Fox is the worst for objective information. They don’t have any. They only have too many biases. These days CNN, MSNBC, public TV, NPR will give you a different perspective. They are more worthy, a little more objective, but I have my suspicious about them too.
I use caution in what I hear. I check the lie-o-meter. Fact check. There are sites where that’s all they do. On both sides. Decide for yourself. But don’t believe the spin. Because often that’s all there is. My next post will talk about the other party. And I can only end by saying, whatever you do, Do your homework.
Till next we meet….
aboomersvoice 