One Canadian's Unsolicited Opinion

[arianna]

The US election tomorrow will decide the fate of more than the US in terms of economy and international affairs. In many respects, the rest of us, especially those of us here in Canada, are hostage to a process we cannot influence because when the US economy tanks, so does ours. So, on the off-chance my views will influence still undecided voters or even Republicans who are heartily sick of being dictated to by the very far right Tea Party, here's how I see it:

I think it would be utterly ridiculous to choose Romney over Obama. The Republican policies CAUSED the problems we're barely crawling out of economically and Romney wants to reinstitute them, including deregulating the banking industry which terrifies me. Romney has no clue about international affairs and in terms of taxes, he clearly cares only about the rich. He did NOT deliver on his promises of jobs or lowering taxes, etc when Governor of Mass., he backs idiots who deny evolution, climate change and think rape is somehow in God's plan, and he's reversed his position/lied too many times to count -- not to mention that he'll cut programs which support middle class and the poor, sick, unemployed etc etc in favour of supporting his rich cronies.

Obama, on the other hand, has made great progress in turning the economy around after the worst economic crash since the Great Depression. He has created a ton of jobs, saved the auto industry, saved a lot of people from losing their homes, has a solid plan for medicare, has introduced health care policies that will actually benefit people and protect them from ruthless insurance companies only interested in profit. Plus, Obama is extremely effective and respected internationally and, oh, yeah, he also ended Bin Laden's reign of terror.

How ANYONE could vote for Romney is a total mystery to me. How women could vote Republican this year in particular, given their evident contempt for women's rights, is totally beyond my understanding.

Comments

[polly-b.livejournal.com]

Far as I'm concerned, you're 'preaching to the choir' as we say down in the South. I feel the same way for the same reasons you've listed; nor do I understand how any thinking woman could vote Republican.

I saw a Facebook meme that said 'Women voting Republican are like roaches voting for RAID' which, although an ugly way to put it, is pretty danged accurate, IMO.

[kaleecat]

Absolutely agree with everything you've said.

[patk.livejournal.com]

Even here, at the other side of the big pond, is all that known what you write about Romney and the (current) Republican party - so I can truly not understand how any citizen of the US with even half of a functional brain (well, aside from those who would clearly benefit from Romneys way of thinking) can even consider voting for him.

The Republican party fought Obama's plans and actions on every step of the way, no matter what it meant for the country. Remember the desaster about raising the debt ceiling in 2011? Obama wasn't the first president who had to do that (and will most likely not be the last) but he sure was the first who had to face a Congress that was willing to let the US slide into insolvency just to damage the president and his party.

Wow - there's a political party that was willing to do real damage to their own country (and the world economy, given how big the influence of the US economy is) just to make the president fail. And it's considered eligible? Even some of the Republican politicans found that not quite the right thing to do.

Imagine what Obama would have been able to do if both parties would have worked *together* on solving the problems of the USA. It's a wonder he got as far as he did given the financial power and influence his opponents have.

Also: stating that a pregnancy resulting from rape must somehow be part of god's plan - I can't help but think that this kind of view puts the person saying it awfully close to being likeminded with fundamentalist Islamists and other fundamentalist religious fanatics. "It's God's will!" You can justify *everything* with this statement. Didn't we already have the one or other desaster coming from that proposition? Haven't we not learned to be careful with (arrogantly) claiming to know what "God's will" actually is?

I really fear for the rest of the world if this kind of politicans win the elections in the most influental country of the western hemisphere.

[suemc.livejournal.com]

I was talking to someone else about this, the other day, and saying we must be missing some vital piece of information, because how anyone could vote for Romney is totally beyond me. Certainly when he has visited the UK he has not made a good impression, including saying he didn't thing we were capable of putting on a good Olympics and then having to back track very fast. So fingers crossed enough people vote Obama today.