Bullets vs Ballots

This isn’t anything new for me to talk about. Maybe I should leave it alone but for some reason I cannot. I really don’t like to continue to complain about the Republican Party because the Democratic Party does stupid things too but I guess when you mess with people’s rights it bothers me more than most other things. As you know Republicans are trying to make it harder for lots of American citizens to cast their votes this November. They say it is because of the possibility of voter fraud. Since the year 2000 there have been 2068 alleged cases of voter fraud. During that time there have been more than 600 million votes cast in presidential election not to mention state and local elections then we would get into the billions. This (2068) is a very small amount and from that only 10 were in-person voter fraud. So how can Republican push through these Voter I.D. Laws to combat this non-existent problem? You know the answer. They want to suppress the vote. They want to decrease the number of people voting for President Obama and it is working.

 

If you are among the people that feel it is okay to require people to show I.D. to combat the problem of In-Person Voter Fraud then I wonder why? I say that because voting is a right, just like speech and bearing arms. Should we really make it harder to vote because of the actions of 10 people since the year 2000? Over 9,000 people are killed every year with guns but we are not making it harder to buy guns. Over 70,000 people are injured with guns each year and some would say we have made it easier to get guns. You can do the math. Does this make sense to you? When it comes to guns the Republicans say even though lots of people are killed we have the ‘right’ to keep and bear arms and that right should not be infringed upon. Why do they not use the same logic when it comes to voting? Maybe because this effort affects mostly the poor, the elderly and students and as a party those are three groups that the Republican Party doesn’t care about.  

I know all Republicans don’t feel this way. I will say that all of my Republican friends that I have talked to about Voter I.D. think it is a good idea. I even know some that say they are Democrats and they are okay with Voter I.D... I don’t know ANY Republicans that want stricter gun laws.  

To bring this to a close, it is Rights vs. Rights and only one of them can quickly cost you your life.  One of them has a big money lobbying firm behind it and the other is being used to try to get Mitt Romney into the White House.

Why O'bama?

So much stuff in the news to talk about but I am going to stay with the election. The Republican National Convention is in Tampa this week and that has me asking myself, why Obama?

Why should I give Obama four more years? I can’t say for sure that another four years will make a difference. What I can say is that I don’t think it is fair to give President Bush eight years to make a mess, as I see it, then give President O’bama only four years to fix it. Now if you don’t think President Bush made a mess then you should vote for Romney. The thing is these past almost four years have not been easy for The President. Before President O’bama even took office The Republican Party leaders had already decided that they were not going to work with him. They said “our #1 priority is to make O’bama a 1 term President”. They have done everything in their power to meet their objective. They have not worked with him but they have certainly worked against him.  They worked and continue to work against him not because they think his ideas are wrong, but because the ideas are approved by him.  

Some of the things he approved were their ideas and once he approved them they all of a sudden were against them. Things like, Carbon Tax and Health Care Mandates were Republican ideas before O’bama came along.  If you want to see more click here. This is a new type of politics that the Tea Party has presented to the nation. They appear to be saying “it’s our way or no way”. They don’t believe in compromise. They refused to raise the debt ceiling last year and when the nation’s credit rating was downgraded, the Republicans said it was The President’s fault. They refuse to let him get ANYTHING done, then turn around and blame him for NOT getting ANYTHING done. The problem with these new Tea Party Republicans is that I’m not sure if anyone can work with them. They are so far to the right that they appear to be politically suicidal and have no problem taking the rest of us with them.

I have a hard time blaming The President for not fixing in four years what it took eight years to create.  In 2010 the Tea Party came along and put the brakes on everything while screaming that nothing was getting done. I don’t know what O’bama could have done if they would have been willing to work with him. The problem is the Tea Party is still there. I don’t think Romney will stand up to them and get anything done either. I think he just wants to be President and will be happy just to get the job. He would be the happiest President that ever lived. I question if that is what we need.

 

I don’t pretend to know the answer to ANY questions about what is best for this country. Anyone that says they know would not be telling the truth. Unless they can see the future then they are guessing just like I’m doing. The things I want to see get done are based on the way I see the world and the direction I would like this country to go. At the end of the day it is still a guess at how to make it all happen. I realize that what is right for my life will not be right for the next person. The question should be how do we find some common ground? My fear is, for some of us there is no common ground. When you have that type of attitude you should not work in government. With more than 300 million people in this country you can’t have it your way.

I say President O’bama needs to fight for us. I’m willing to give him four more years to finish what he started. The stipulation I would add is that if he is not willing to stand up to the Republicans while they suppress voter rights, deny women their right to have an abortion, try to deregulate all things government, and kill the unions, then he doesn’t deserve a second term.