If you wanted an organized post... this ain't it. But the election did wake me from a kid-imposed reverie, so how do you do, long lost readers!
The guy I voted for didn't win. No surprise there though - he was just trying to get 5% of the vote. He racked up about 348,000 votes with $1 million while it took the other two major candidates over $6 billion to get elected. Neither candidate's campaign money would have bought much, though, so we enter into another deadlocked government in which everyone's voice is heard but nothing gets done.
To wit: There's been so much focus on the economy, and right now the only economy I would care to focus on is my own right now. I think every generation goes through this - some precipice they feel the country is standing on, looking over an abyss of unknown, wondering where the future and elected politicians will take them. Every era has a defining moment, and yet the sun still rises. We've still got thousands of people living in Third World country conditions in NY and NJ after Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy and now Winter Storm Athena is setting her wintry sights on the NE seaboard.
Bush-era tax cuts are set to expire this year, and there's no indication now that they will be renewed. For folks who have shored up their monetary resources to ensure a comfortable retirement (i.e. not depend so much on government resources at end of life), this is now a serious problem. And with the baby boomers entering retirement age and flooding Medicare and Social Security, I see only one thing (and this I am very graphic about): The stuck pig is about to be bled dry. And this doesn't even include other social programs that have yet to fully come to fruition.
We're in the midst of another cultural revolution right now, which is an exciting time for many people. The youth vote turnout is high, states are decriminalizing pot and gay marriage, the discussions about equal pay for men and women have finally been taking hold, and the racial demographic of our landscape is changing rapidly. It's also a discouraging time for others, as discussions about women's rights and contraception are still forefront on the men of Capitol Hill.
Speaking of culture, I want to point out that American culture has always been tied to racial diversity, even if over the last generation it seems that white folks are just white folks. The Germans, Polish and Italians in my grandparents' day are today's Latinos, Middle Easterners and Chinese. Maybe it's a matter of labeling. But not every immigrant in this country is looking for a handout - in fact, there are many more who came here from socialist countries and found the United States to be a wide-open land of opportunity, one that was not tied down to a militaristic or socialist stronghold, where even the worst days in poverty on U.S. soil didn't come close to comparing to life in their home territory.
So what does this have to do with the Presidential election? I think there are a few things to point out:
- Obama may have won, but by a very small margin. If there's any hope for the Democrats to retain Presidential power post 2016, his policies must be sold better to the American public. They are still incredibly polarizing; as we move through the months toward each deadline in Obamacare, the stakes will simply be higher.
- Note to elected officials: Public assistance cannot be sold, voted on or based on race, skin color or age anymore. All demographics in varying degree are now demanding it.
- It is bad when men try to talk about women's rights. At all.
- Duuuuuuuuuuuuude. More tax income!
- The financial preparations my husband and I must make for us and our children are now more solidly tied to public policy than ever before.
This last point is what sticks in my mind while we move forward and hope that our three elected branches of government might work together on compromise. And it's not just asking Republicans to stop filibustering and play nice with Obama's ideas - that is not compromise. It means Obama and Democrats taking a step back from the left, Republicans taking a step back from the right, and stopping the pendulum from swinging so hard.
Perhaps the scariest precipice of all? Living free. I think a friend of mine said it best - when it comes to social justice, there's a difference between giving a leg up and being the legs.
