As an ER nurse in Philadelphia, Pa., Thank you for such a succinct commentary. You are a fabulous writer. And I will post the NYTimes article - A Fatal Mistake - at my work place tomorrow. To hear physicians grumble about Obamacare makes me cringe with shame. Their resistance can only be driven by greed.
To some, it's a given, the US is circling the drain. To others, fundamtailism and living in the past offer hypothetical solutions.
Unfortunately there are too many living at the edge of crisis - too close to financial doom and too far away from a fading American Dream.
And there are the smoke screens - when the tough real stuff seems impossible to manage, the wing nuts trot out value judgements based in old fashion religion. Their misdirections included, but not limited to: abortion, birth control, skin color, prayer in school, more prisons, socialism, bigger armies and American imperialism.
I basically see two internal battles: The fight against ignorance and the fight for re-making a fair and just democracy.
i think i have mentioned this on more than one occasion, but i am terrified of the republicans getting in.
mitt romney is a horrendous specimen of a man, how dare he! how dare he even think that my right to control my own body is not my right. how dare he refuse to submit tax returns, when people- particularly in the US where the gap between rich and poor is so obvious (just look at the devastation *still* left from katrina). and i thought sarah palin was bad, at least we could laugh at her.... mitt romney is so horrendous he's not funny.
if i could vote, it would be obama all the way. all i can do is hope and pray.
ps- does the person who keeps posting on your facebook that they're going to vote republican read this? because that person scares me, also.
October 17, 2012 at 12:35 AM
Anonymous said...
Well said, julochka. I agree.
I can only guess that the logic which drives many Americans to support the GOP is based on their need to have an enemy. It's not that they are voting for Mitt, it's that they are voting against Obama, the enemy.
It's warped, but it's the way so many people think now. Haters gotta hate, 'ya know?
Well said. Here in SA we are watching events in the US completely befuddled by what's going on. As you said, politicians basically suck.
October 23, 2012 at 4:06 PM
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four years ago at this time, this blog was filled with politics. after eight years of dubya, and with the colorful figure of sarah palin (i actually kinda miss her) involved, i just couldn't get politics off the brain. plus, the air was filled with hope and promise with obama in the race. now, four years later, i find i feel much less passionately about it. and i don't feel even a glimmer of hope. what i feel is an inability to comprehend and a great degree of fear for the world which my child will inherit.
that said, i think obama is getting a bad rap. memories are short as to the mess he was handed after eight years of dubya. no one really yet knew at that point what the financial crisis meant. i would postulate that we still don't fully know. but he does seem to be a bit mired down. partially in an uncooperative house and senate and partially in an overwhelming array of things gone wrong. there aren't any easy answers.
i am bewildered that anyone could possibly be against universal healthcare. just read this story by nicholas kristof and tell me it makes sense. we have universal health care in denmark and although i was frustrated last winter with my local doctor, that had far more to do with a lack of customer service-mindedness than it had to do with socialized medicine. it is an enormous relief to know that if something is wrong...sabin falling from her horse in a riding lesson...we don't have to hesitate to go to the ER to find out if her collar bone is broken. we don't even think twice (tho' next time, we will get food before we go there, as there can be a wait - but that's true of ERs everywhere and again, has nothing to do with socialized medicine).
i am puzzled that anyone accepts the rhetoric against women being spewed by the republican party. it is the twenty-first century and it's simply unacceptable that in the so-called developed world there should be any question about access to birth control or a woman's decision-making ability over her own body.
and how romney can be forgiven for his 47% statement, made to a group of people he was sure were like-minded. he has said outright that he has no respect for half of the population. he won't release his tax returns. and he doesn't give a single detail of any concrete plan. and his supporters and their shirts saying, "let's put the white back in the white house" are simply beyond shameful. how anyone with a functioning brain can consider voting for him is beyond me.
but i really, truly don't get people who should seriously not be voting republican - for example, because they are living in a lesbian partnership and work for the federal government on an indian reservation and until recently had a child that was in state-sponsored care in a home - are intending to do so. because that seriously makes no sense.
it's like there's another logic in play in the US, one to which i no longer have access.
but that said, i have cast my absentee ballot for obama. i think he's the best choice if i want the world to still be a place i can in good conscience hand over to my child. plus, i want my president to be smarter than me. and i'm sure he's that. i can't say the same for slippery mittens romney.
7 Comments
Close this window Jump to comment formAs an ER nurse in Philadelphia, Pa., Thank you for such a succinct commentary. You are a fabulous writer. And I will post the NYTimes article - A Fatal Mistake - at my work place tomorrow. To hear physicians grumble about Obamacare makes me cringe with shame. Their resistance can only be driven by greed.
October 16, 2012 at 8:07 PM
To some, it's a given, the US is circling the drain. To others, fundamtailism and living in the past offer hypothetical solutions.
Unfortunately there are too many living at the edge of crisis - too close to financial doom and too far away from a fading American Dream.
And there are the smoke screens - when the tough real stuff seems impossible to manage, the wing nuts trot out value judgements based in old fashion religion. Their misdirections included, but not limited to: abortion, birth control, skin color, prayer in school, more prisons, socialism, bigger armies and American imperialism.
I basically see two internal battles: The fight against ignorance and the fight for re-making a fair and just democracy.
October 16, 2012 at 8:08 PM
Well said! I couldn't agree more! Best wishes, Tammy
October 16, 2012 at 8:58 PM
i think i have mentioned this on more than one occasion, but i am terrified of the republicans getting in.
mitt romney is a horrendous specimen of a man, how dare he! how dare he even think that my right to control my own body is not my right. how dare he refuse to submit tax returns, when people- particularly in the US where the gap between rich and poor is so obvious (just look at the devastation *still* left from katrina). and i thought sarah palin was bad, at least we could laugh at her.... mitt romney is so horrendous he's not funny.
if i could vote, it would be obama all the way. all i can do is hope and pray.
ps- does the person who keeps posting on your facebook that they're going to vote republican read this? because that person scares me, also.
October 17, 2012 at 12:35 AM
Well said, julochka. I agree.
I can only guess that the logic which drives many Americans to support the GOP is based on their need to have an enemy. It's not that they are voting for Mitt, it's that they are voting against Obama, the enemy.
It's warped, but it's the way so many people think now. Haters gotta hate, 'ya know?
October 17, 2012 at 11:34 PM
I wish there was something I could do to help prevent any Romney-isms from here in Canada. It so sucks to sit on the sidelines and watch the madness.
October 18, 2012 at 7:12 PM
Well said. Here in SA we are watching events in the US completely befuddled by what's going on. As you said, politicians basically suck.
October 23, 2012 at 4:06 PM