election 2012
four years ago, i watched barack obama win the presidency. i was in bloomington during my first semester at iu. i called my mom, and we stayed on the phone talking about the rare chance that indiana would vote democratic for the first time since 1964. we were about to hang up the phone and turn off the tv, and i looked one more time - indiana was blue.
i wish that i could say i did more during the 2012 election - i should have. but, you know, it's really kind of easy to get caught up in living in a blue state. it's easy to just assume that everyone feels the same way about everything here. and i know that is so untrue. but while you can assume that most people in the south don't want gay marriage, you can assume most people in the pacific northwest do. and assumptions are not always true, of course, but they stem from some truth. i mean, oregon has voted for a democratic president in all of the elections in the past ten years; indiana has once since the 1960's! that's insane. and even that one vote for obama was in another sea of republican wins.
then beyond the bubble that is portland, i just cannot see how people can even vote for romney/ryan. romney changes his platform nearly every time he makes a speech, and he is basically counting on the american people to believe the best version of whatever he said (even if it is the exact opposite of what he said the day before). and then all of the terrible things that republicans have said about women and rape this election has been insane - from "legitimate rape" to binders full of women to rape being god's will. what does that say about women if we allow these men to stay in office? what does that say about america?
and then as i'm learning more and more about the judicial system, i am really seeing how long the presidential term lasts through their supreme court nominees. the longest-serving supreme court justice is justice scalia. he was nominated by ronald reagan in 1986! and he is still serving! he has served on the supreme court longer than i have been alive. whoever wins the presidency will have at least one more nomination - one more nomination to serve our country for maybe the next 20+ years. think of how many controversies will come up in that time... how many decisions will be decided by a romney/ryan nominee... how many opinions that will change the way we live our lives for many, many years to come... i think vice president biden actually said it best during the vice presidential debate: “the next president will get one or two supreme court nominees - that's how close roe v. wade is." so true. and so, so scary.
sorry for the rant. like i said, not much debate going on here in portland...
i wish that i could say i did more during the 2012 election - i should have. but, you know, it's really kind of easy to get caught up in living in a blue state. it's easy to just assume that everyone feels the same way about everything here. and i know that is so untrue. but while you can assume that most people in the south don't want gay marriage, you can assume most people in the pacific northwest do. and assumptions are not always true, of course, but they stem from some truth. i mean, oregon has voted for a democratic president in all of the elections in the past ten years; indiana has once since the 1960's! that's insane. and even that one vote for obama was in another sea of republican wins.
then beyond the bubble that is portland, i just cannot see how people can even vote for romney/ryan. romney changes his platform nearly every time he makes a speech, and he is basically counting on the american people to believe the best version of whatever he said (even if it is the exact opposite of what he said the day before). and then all of the terrible things that republicans have said about women and rape this election has been insane - from "legitimate rape" to binders full of women to rape being god's will. what does that say about women if we allow these men to stay in office? what does that say about america?
and then as i'm learning more and more about the judicial system, i am really seeing how long the presidential term lasts through their supreme court nominees. the longest-serving supreme court justice is justice scalia. he was nominated by ronald reagan in 1986! and he is still serving! he has served on the supreme court longer than i have been alive. whoever wins the presidency will have at least one more nomination - one more nomination to serve our country for maybe the next 20+ years. think of how many controversies will come up in that time... how many decisions will be decided by a romney/ryan nominee... how many opinions that will change the way we live our lives for many, many years to come... i think vice president biden actually said it best during the vice presidential debate: “the next president will get one or two supreme court nominees - that's how close roe v. wade is." so true. and so, so scary.
sorry for the rant. like i said, not much debate going on here in portland...