Where to Place My Vote in November. Romney or Obama?

I keep watching with interest the prognosticators and pundits who espouse that Obama is not a strong leader and that change to a Romney business environment may be a solution. I want someone to speak up who remembers the sequence of context better than me to present the time line scenario for the past four years. Here is my general assessment.

It is a compromise of principal and a cop out to white wash the last four years with a single stroke of bad president, bad results. Properly done, one must put into context each decision in order. Obama has had to walk on eggs throughout his entire presidency because he has been a president for the entire country, not just the Democrats. Voices inside the opposing party were saying "it is my way or no way".

A democracy is founded on negotiations. As disappointed as we may be, we cannot have our way all the time. Negotiations are affected (and sometimes blocked) by perception, by greed, by principle, and by ego.

• Mostly perceptions are partial at best and no one on either side wants to acknowledge that another can have a different but valid perception. If we want to refer to weakness in leadership, show me someone in Congress who is a good and strong leader. I submit that leader will acknowledge the perception of both sides and seek to attract the trust of all. I don’t see anyone in place or about to step up… for either party.
• Greed and ego are driving forces. Our voters, our population, our constituency, our representatives have moved more to a financial gain basis of government and not a humanity basis of government. I have never before seen in our country such anger over paying taxes to protect, care, and administer for the citizens. Our American dream has become amassing personal $Millions beyond what could be used or spent in a lifetime.
• Principles are compromised by a growing number of people. Cronyism and money has become the trump card. There are small minded individuals wielding so much money that they can compromise principles in almost anyone in position of power.
• Negotiation, the backbone of our democracy, is based on the assumption that both parties come to the table with a sincere interest in reaching a balanced compromise in the interest of both. Each is prepared to work to reach a resolution. For a party to a negotiation to take a pledge-to-God or whatever that pledge was and vow not to compromise is to become an obstruction to our Democracy. What would they do if they had the gavel of the President, the Senate, and the Congress?

An example is our health care. If there had been open and sincere negotiations by both parties, our so-called Obama Care would be different, vastly different. An acquaintance recently implied that was wasted time that should have been spent on the financial discussions for our country. I submit it was not.

At that time and in the context of the country, there were attempted discussions on our financial condition but those were as obstructed as those on health care.  Anger is not a suitable element of negotiation.

Another problem that is plaguing our country is that our political manipulators have discovered the use of lies (statements contrary to indisputable fact) to elevate emotion by saying what some people want to hear rather than what is true. The ability to manipulate people because of their inability to evaluate thought critically is rampantly growing and becoming a power of governing.

I read an article this week on the subject of Obama’s being the most hated president ever. I could not disagree. We are in a world that is and has been dominated by an inherent white privilege. As that dominance is threatened, there are those who organize to maintain that privilege. It is easy to label the target of hate as the guy with the black skin and focus on building that hate. The ease of doing this is to never mention the color black but yet make all roads lead to those of color. Use birth right, use culture, use race, an artful use of suggestive inference.

Would we elect a president who is openly gay? Would we elect a president who is openly Muslim? Would we elect a president who is a female? I submit that none of those characteristics should disqualify one but if the Democrats submitted a candidate, that would become the target to disqualify, no matter how good a president they would make. That is using prejudice to trump decency and intelligence.

• We are a petroleum based economy. The current administration is working to move us away from that economy driver and more into alternate energy sources. A republican administration would stop that.
• Health Care, if everyone paid a little into the program,  it could allow everyone to have a minimum of care. What is there to fear? A republican administration would end that.
• The brilliance of the human mind created nuclear power. In doing so, at the time, they convinced the world that there was no harm in mining uranium. Coincidentally, just in the interest of humanity, they gave the predominance of the jobs to the Navajos. The Navajo nation has been devastated by cancer, by death, by deformity, by a genocide on sections of their culture. It is now documented thousands of ways that the leavings from the uranium mining have irrevocably hurt crops, animals, water,  the earth, and a culture. It is still spreading. That same brilliance is undertaking FRACKING. That same level of mercenary is promoting this irreversible change on our planet. A republican administration would grow this decimation.
• We are all to blame for driving manufacturing to other countries. When I was young, the trade deficit was monitored. If we were importing too much, an import tax was put on the products to enable USA made competition. The dropping of that tax was bipartisan. We need to revisit that control to move more manufacturing back to the USA. A republican administration and congress would not do this because of their commitment to big business.

Suggesting that Romney is an unknown therefore a better vote than Obama is an incredibly inane statement for a learned man to make, yet I have heard it from some.  I suggest that you consider the fiber of Obama’s principles and intent. Factor in that this will be his last term. (That is MAJOR in the significance of Presidential decisions). Factor in that even though he arrived at the White House with minimum experience (But more than Romney now has in Washington), he NOW has the experience of office.

It is “We the People” who need to speak up, stand up, and support our candidate. It is “We the People” who should ask for specific statements of intent from our representatives and aspirants. AND, when they do not state specifics, we should ask again and continue until they do. THEN, we should hold them accountable for that statement.

Finally, Obama has been vetted. We know the ghosts he is serving. Romney has not been and will not be by election time. Yes, he is apparently against taxes. He has his money off shore to avoid them. Romney is politicking and cannot tell us what he plans to do, at least not so we can understand how he will do it.

Romney is a product of the Republican Party. That party has not exhibited good judgment in the last four years. That party has not shown good intent. That is not the “UNKNOWN” to whom I would want to give the keys to the White House.

If an Obama/Biden ticket is presented. That is our best choice. However, if an Obama/Clinton ticket is presented, we just may step up the tempo to returning to our desired level of life and unity in our wonderful country.