On Political Polarization and my Support for the Re-Election of Barack Obama

Our democracy of late has been plagued with polarization.  I am well aware of this difficulty, and despise how it seems to have pitted Americans against each other in ways seldom seen in our history. But how does one respond to outright lies and misrepresentations? How does one respond to corporate interests attempting to hijack our democracy? There is ample evidence that citizens' united has caused election year spending to skyrocket, which inherently favors those who have money to campaign.  If campaign spending is to be viewed as an investment, then those who donate millions must expect that sort of compensation and more in political favors.  In looking at political platforms, how does one respond to a platform that one finds objectionable on many levels? Are we not supposed to voice those opinions and concerns? 
 
I am deeply troubled by many things about Romney's platform. His stances seem to change by the hour--we could witness his "Etch-a-Sketch" in action even during different parts of the debate last night--and he seems disturbingly comfortable in telling even the most obvious lies. (He was fact checked numerous times in debate, once by the moderator). He has yet to produce anything remotely resembling a comprehensive tax reform plan, despite that being the major plank of his platform. There is just not much to support in the Romney platform, only the disappointment with Obama's four years. Something is seriously wrong when the vote for one candidate is primarily out of disdain for the other.

Meanwhile, we have right wing media demagogues such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Fox News, et. al., who have been constantly attacking from the right. Obama's a socialist; he's not a citizen; he's after our guns; he's after our money; he wants to kill grandma; he wants to murder your special needs child; bla bla bla. (Not going to dignify these claims with hyperlinks.)  These attacks are not limited to the fringe airwaves, but have made it into the mainstream Republican Party platform also. Was the Kansas AG not just weighing whether to have Obama on the ballot the other week based on his citizenship? Did Mitch McConnell not say that the Republicans' number one priority would be to see to it that Obama only has one term? Have the Republicans made any real efforts at true bipartisanship--beyond demanding that Obama and democrats give way to their agenda? Did they not drive the nation to the brink of debt default and break our credit rating, only because securing 90% of their agenda in the "compromise" package was not enough?  Do these same Republicans not now have the brass to blame Obama for the impending fiscal cliff that they created through absolute refusal of compromise?  Have the Republicans in Senate not used the filibuster in unprecedented ways these last four years? Something has gone seriously wrong.

And the attacks from the Right Wing do not stop there. They have constantly attacked issues of women's equality and issues of women's health, often demonizing and marginalizing the vulnerable in the process.  Todd Akin's claims about "legitimate rape", for example, may have met the GOP's official scorn, but his remarks are far from isolated, and were in fact echoed in the platform the Republican Party put out that week.  Republicans have made homophobia a selling point in their platform. Railing against the repeal of Don't Ask/Don't Tell, portraying equal rights as "special rights".  I am not gay myself, but having friends who are, such attacks seem deeply personal.  I am most certainly a Christian, and I take deep offense in the implication that one narrow interpretation of these two issues, relatively peripheral by any Biblical standard, should serve as a litmus test.

Something has gone seriously wrong when Ryan's budget plan--which would slash taxes in a manner to overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy, while gutting budgets for social programs, for health programs, and for education, even as it calls for defense spending increases to more than swallow those cuts--seems to meet such wild embrace among conservatives.

The plan, which is about all we have seen in Romney's budget--though if Romney has abandoned it, continues to embrace it, or what is not clear--is immoral. It demands that the poor and middle class pay for the luxuries of the already wealthy through lost benefits. This is brazen wealth redistribution.  Combine this with Romney's now famous comments about 47% of the population that he made behind closed doors to wealthy donors, or Ryan's comments about 40%, and we see a pattern that should be absolutely troubling.

This is not what Obama is saying about Romney or the Republicans. This is not what Democrats are saying about Romney or the Republicans. This is what Romney/Ryan and the Republicans are touting as their platform, what they are saying about themselves.  I am genuinely troubled by the divisive direction of the Republican party has chosen, and for the life of me cannot comprehend why so many people do not seem to see it, or worse, actively encourage it.

So, how am I supposed to respond to all of this? As much as I wish I could let it slide. I wish I could maintain optimism that maybe Romney/Ryan will not be as bad as their rhetoric. Yet eight years of Bush makes me think that such optimism would only be foolishness: Two wars on credit.  Economic disaster.  Attempted editorial interference with NPR, PBS, and other public media agencies that were simply doing their jobs of reporting.  My way or the highway "bipartisanship" from Bush, which made one's embrace of the GOP platform the litmus test of one's patriotism.  Does this make me part of the problem of polarization, or has one side simply made itself so objectionable that it is not fit for consideration?

To be sure, I am not 100% satisfied with Obama. I am uncomfortable with his frequent usage of predator drones, and though I would hesitate to make Anwar al-Awlaki a poster child, I do not like the notion that the administration can order the death of an American without due process.

I wish Obama would have made a stronger effort to get Cap and Trade passed. Our environment is at the brink and beyond, and it seems that this should have been a greater priority.  At the same time, I am very much in support of the strides Obama made toward greater energy efficiency and toward renewable energy in the stimulus packages and through grant priorities.  Like any new field of technology, some initiatives and investments have met with greater success than others, and only steady investment, even through failures, will achieve eventual progress. 

I wish Obama would have made comprehensive immigration reform a higher priority in his agenda. The kind so many had hoped for. The kind that would treat immigrants with dignity and respect, without splitting families.  The kind that would extend opportunity to children of immigrants, who in many cases were brought here and raised from when they were young, and who know no other homeland.  To be sure, Obama has made several attempts to get the DREAM act passed, and has since issued an executive order form of the legislation, but this is only a start.

I wish Obamacare--a term of attack and demonization from the Right, by the way, but which Obama has managed to successfully reclaim and re-frame--would have included a public option.  Obama cannot be faulted for lack of bipartisan concessions here; the healthcare legislation was weaker for it.  I wish it would have gone even further.  Though I believe Obama brought this as far as politically possible, and its importance as a start toward something greater is not to be underestimated.

In the end, I am satisfied that Obama has made efforts to work in all of these directions, including immigration and the environment and that he has, for the most part, kept the needs of the middle class in his sights during his Presidency.  Even as Obama has fallen short, his goals have been worth striving for.