Right. That's me over the edge.
I try not to judge people on their politics.
Oh I disagree with them, I disagree hard and frequently. But usually I can see that there would be a reason, however dodgy I personally find it, why a rational person would vote for a particular candidate.
But, dear American flistees, if you vote for Romney/Ryan tomorrow, don't ever tell me, because I will judge you harder than I judge a smoking parent holding a newborn.
I was doing so well at letting you all make up your own minds (which I am sure you already have) without any input from me, but Romney declaring that Obama has been the most partisan president ever is a lie so egregious and self-evident that I have just been throwing balls of knitting yarn at the news on my TV.
Long before Obama was in the White House he gave the keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic convention, in which bipartisanship was a key theme. In his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope, it was a major topic. This is not a new thing for him, this is a long-term intellectual position.
In 2009, his party took the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to the Senate and agreed to nearly $150 billion worth of changes from the Republican Party, with most of those changes favouring high income earners over low-paid workers, which was in diametric opposition to Obama's personal belief system, but which he agreed to in the interests of including every representative voice. After all this, THREE Republicans voted for that bill in the Senate and none in the House.
The Republicans have also relentlessly attacked Obama on that package, despite the fact that the less 'valuable' parts of it in terms of job preservation were their own amendments.
The Affordable Healthcare Act, which the Republicans call Obamacare and which has been the central goal of this administration, contains more than 100 Republican amendments, which shifted the bill away from the more European/Australian style of public health that Obama was intellectually committed to and towards a compromise that he thought would gather broader political support. Despite this, not a single Republican voted for the bill.
The DISCLOSE Act of 2010 would have required campaign donations to be disclosed, so that whoever made donations needed to be named, and broadened the definition of election adverts to include attack ads not coming from campaigns, requiring the individual behind the ad to take responsibility for it. It needed a Republican co-sponsor. Despite the fact that Senator John McCain had been a co-sponsor of the 2002 Campaign Reform Act, which was designed to crack down on soft money and broaden the definition of election adverts, and despite the fact that many Republicans, especially McCain had spoken out in disapproval of Obama's massive private fundraising in 2008, not a single Republican would co-sponsor the bill, and it did not proceed.
Also in 2010, the Bipartisan Task Force for Responsible Fiscal Action Act of 2009 was exactly what it says on the label and put before the Senate a recommendation to create a bipartisan 18-person commission to study and advise the Senate on the fiscal condition of the federal government and to make recommendations that would be put before the House and Senate. It was co-sponsored by Democrat Kent Conrad and Republican Judd Gregg, and there were six Republican co-sponsors of the bill. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader had been a keen supporter of the bill. Until the Saturday before the vote when Obama spoke out in favour of it. The six republican co-sponsors all withdrew their sponsorship and when the bill was voted on, they voted against it, along with every other Republican including McConnell, and it failed.
There is a partisan bias here, but it's not Obama's. And don't even try to convince me he's a Socialist: my ribs have only just finished healing.
So, even if you're prepared to ignore the fact that Romney and Ryan don't think that gay people have a right to visit their partners in hospitals *, even if you have no problem with making abortion illegal and thus killing women as well as foetuses**, even if you're absolutely fine with a tax plan to extend estate tax cuts for the wealthiest 0.3% while ending tax credits for 13 million working families in the lower and middle classes (that's about 26 million children's worth of families), then could you consider not voting for someone who is completely divorced from reality?***
And if you feel you must, then for goodness' sake, shut up about it around me, because I almost never defriend people, but I'd feel obliged. And of course, if you now want to defriend me, it's probably for the best. I wish you well.
* “Governor Romney supports a federal marriage amendment to the Constitution that defines marriage as an institution between a man and a woman,” Romney advisor Bay Buchanan told Buzzfeed today. “Governor Romney also believes, consistent with the 10th Amendment, that it should be left to states to decide whether to grant same-sex couples certain benefits, such as hospital visitation rights and the ability to adopt children. I referred to the Tenth Amendment only when speaking about these kinds of benefits - not marriage.”
** This what has happened throughout history when access to safe abortion is prohibited. Currently, 68,000 women a year die as a result of unsafe abortion. And yes, even as an atheist who thinks a foetus is just cells, I agree that abortion isn't an ideal option as it's wasteful and invasive. But it's often the best remaining option. And until there is such a thing as perfect contraception and we live in a world without rape, that option needs to remain.
*** Democratic Party supporters who wish to complain that Obama is overly centrist and has made political mistakes through his commitment to bipartisanship in places where Bill Clinton (and, indeed, Hillary Clinton) would have just lead with a right cross can go wild. That's fair.
Oh I disagree with them, I disagree hard and frequently. But usually I can see that there would be a reason, however dodgy I personally find it, why a rational person would vote for a particular candidate.
But, dear American flistees, if you vote for Romney/Ryan tomorrow, don't ever tell me, because I will judge you harder than I judge a smoking parent holding a newborn.
I was doing so well at letting you all make up your own minds (which I am sure you already have) without any input from me, but Romney declaring that Obama has been the most partisan president ever is a lie so egregious and self-evident that I have just been throwing balls of knitting yarn at the news on my TV.
Long before Obama was in the White House he gave the keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic convention, in which bipartisanship was a key theme. In his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope, it was a major topic. This is not a new thing for him, this is a long-term intellectual position.
In 2009, his party took the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to the Senate and agreed to nearly $150 billion worth of changes from the Republican Party, with most of those changes favouring high income earners over low-paid workers, which was in diametric opposition to Obama's personal belief system, but which he agreed to in the interests of including every representative voice. After all this, THREE Republicans voted for that bill in the Senate and none in the House.
The Republicans have also relentlessly attacked Obama on that package, despite the fact that the less 'valuable' parts of it in terms of job preservation were their own amendments.
The Affordable Healthcare Act, which the Republicans call Obamacare and which has been the central goal of this administration, contains more than 100 Republican amendments, which shifted the bill away from the more European/Australian style of public health that Obama was intellectually committed to and towards a compromise that he thought would gather broader political support. Despite this, not a single Republican voted for the bill.
The DISCLOSE Act of 2010 would have required campaign donations to be disclosed, so that whoever made donations needed to be named, and broadened the definition of election adverts to include attack ads not coming from campaigns, requiring the individual behind the ad to take responsibility for it. It needed a Republican co-sponsor. Despite the fact that Senator John McCain had been a co-sponsor of the 2002 Campaign Reform Act, which was designed to crack down on soft money and broaden the definition of election adverts, and despite the fact that many Republicans, especially McCain had spoken out in disapproval of Obama's massive private fundraising in 2008, not a single Republican would co-sponsor the bill, and it did not proceed.
Also in 2010, the Bipartisan Task Force for Responsible Fiscal Action Act of 2009 was exactly what it says on the label and put before the Senate a recommendation to create a bipartisan 18-person commission to study and advise the Senate on the fiscal condition of the federal government and to make recommendations that would be put before the House and Senate. It was co-sponsored by Democrat Kent Conrad and Republican Judd Gregg, and there were six Republican co-sponsors of the bill. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader had been a keen supporter of the bill. Until the Saturday before the vote when Obama spoke out in favour of it. The six republican co-sponsors all withdrew their sponsorship and when the bill was voted on, they voted against it, along with every other Republican including McConnell, and it failed.
There is a partisan bias here, but it's not Obama's. And don't even try to convince me he's a Socialist: my ribs have only just finished healing.
So, even if you're prepared to ignore the fact that Romney and Ryan don't think that gay people have a right to visit their partners in hospitals *, even if you have no problem with making abortion illegal and thus killing women as well as foetuses**, even if you're absolutely fine with a tax plan to extend estate tax cuts for the wealthiest 0.3% while ending tax credits for 13 million working families in the lower and middle classes (that's about 26 million children's worth of families), then could you consider not voting for someone who is completely divorced from reality?***
And if you feel you must, then for goodness' sake, shut up about it around me, because I almost never defriend people, but I'd feel obliged. And of course, if you now want to defriend me, it's probably for the best. I wish you well.
* “Governor Romney supports a federal marriage amendment to the Constitution that defines marriage as an institution between a man and a woman,” Romney advisor Bay Buchanan told Buzzfeed today. “Governor Romney also believes, consistent with the 10th Amendment, that it should be left to states to decide whether to grant same-sex couples certain benefits, such as hospital visitation rights and the ability to adopt children. I referred to the Tenth Amendment only when speaking about these kinds of benefits - not marriage.”
** This what has happened throughout history when access to safe abortion is prohibited. Currently, 68,000 women a year die as a result of unsafe abortion. And yes, even as an atheist who thinks a foetus is just cells, I agree that abortion isn't an ideal option as it's wasteful and invasive. But it's often the best remaining option. And until there is such a thing as perfect contraception and we live in a world without rape, that option needs to remain.
*** Democratic Party supporters who wish to complain that Obama is overly centrist and has made political mistakes through his commitment to bipartisanship in places where Bill Clinton (and, indeed, Hillary Clinton) would have just lead with a right cross can go wild. That's fair.