I received quite a number of comments about my post "Obama and Gay Marriage" on Monday. Instead of answering on that post, I thought I would do another post responding to the comments. First of all, thank you to all who left comments, I always enjoy hearing your opinions. Second, similar to what Fan of Casey said about living in a solid blue state, where no matter how he votes, his state will vote Democrat, I live in a solid red state, and no matter who I vote for, the Republican candidate will win in my state. However, that doesn't mean that I will like it or follow the trend.
Queer Heaven, I agree with you that if Romney wins, we will most likely lose some of our gains in gay rights. Will, I'm not for sure he will reinstate DADT or that a gay marriage amendment will ever be viable, but he most likely will issue an executive order denying LGBT families from having full visitation rights in hospitals, which would reverse one of Obama's most important executive orders.
Coop, I also did not vote for Obama in 2008, and I also can't say that I was impressed with Obama's recent support of gay marriage because I think it was too little too late. He should have come out in support of gay marriage when he had a Democratically controlled Congress, when he had a chance or repeal DOMA.
As for the Anonymous commenter, I think your response is what is most wrong with American politics. Your preference that politicians act like "politicians" is not how I want my politicians to act. I want my politicians to be sincere when they make a statement, and not state whatever they believe will get them another vote. We need (and excuse the oxymoron) some honest politicians, not mere pundits who change directions with the wind like weathervane.
"." I tend to vote for Democrats also because they hold my beliefs more so than Republicans, but to be honest, I think both political parties are moving further away from the middle and is being controlled more and more by the extremes in the party. I am very much a moderate on most issues, and it is sad to me when someone like Romney is considered a moderate because he leans to the right for his base support. We desperately need someone in this country who will look out for the middle class and for the moderate voters. Elections are getting too extreme and the center is not represented anymore.
Jay, in many ways we are very much alike politically, though I do tend to think there should be more control of guns, though to a certain extent gun rights are important. I have a few guns that are family heirlooms, and I will never let anyone take them from me. However, like you, I am a bit of a mixed bag, which is why I consider myself a moderate.
Drew, I think that Romney is pandering to the right, but I'm not sure how moderate he can actually become if elected. He will still want to be elected again and he can do a lot of damage in four years. Presidents tend to become moderate only after winning a second term. Romney is a Mormon, which makes it ever more likely that he will stay far to the right. Mormons are nice people personally, but I do not agree with their political beliefs.
Fan of Casey, you are absolutely right that Obama promised the world, and he is seen as less than a success because he could not deliver. That's why I would like to see a politician who is a realist. If you had a candidate that was as good of a speaker as Reagan or Obama who could point out the real problems and how he wants to go about fixing them, then we might have a candidate that we could follow.
Uncutplus, the only possible hope for the economy is for someone to give us realistic hope. FDR gave confidence to America, but it was Keynesian economics and WWII that brought us out of the Depression. I don't know what the solution will be this time, but we have to have confidence first, or we will never pull ourselves out of it. I don't see either candidates supplying that confidence.
Uncutplus, Drew, and Fan of Casey, As I said before, I think what we need to do is more than get the Republicans out of Congress, we need to get a healthy number of Democrats out as well. We need to get people in Congress who will work with each other. Right now, the atmosphere is so bipartisan that very little gets done. I feel that neither the Democrats or the Republicans represent the majority of the people anymore, but we do not have a viable choice otherwise and we vote for the lesser of the two evils.
2 comments:
You are 100% COORECT! We need statesmen, not politicans. Workers, not fighters. No politicans!!!
Where is someone like Churchill? A leader of the people.
Our republic is following the lead of so many other nations of the past.....a generation of growth to begin with, followed by over consumption and bloated living..with a dose of corruption thrown in...and then destruction to be read of in the history books. A great and easy to read book: The Story of Spain, Mark Williams, Santana Books
Joe: I wish your hopes would be realized for all of us, but like I commented earlier, the problem is us the voters. There just are not enough moderates out there to moderate the behavior of both extremes. Campaigning is so often about offering grand ideas and telling people what they want to hear -- governing is a lot harder when people don't compromise. And when they don't compromise we get gridlock and few things get done.
Like you, I do wish politicians would be more consistent with their supposed values and not play games for ideology. For example, I hate it when people insist the greatest threat is the deficit yet won't be open to all potential solutions -- they say no new taxes, you can't cut defense spending, they oppose entitlement spending but insist that corporate welfare be excluded. Instead everything should be on the table because every part of the budget contributes to the deficit.
I think it's time to get rid of professional politicians -- lets have some reasonable term limits and bring in new blood because the existing ones just cannot get the job done.
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