LIVING INTENTIONALLY

Just one woman’s opinion.  In answer to some of the responses, for me it’s not about labeling people, taking sides, or criticizing as those who know me realize. And there’s no mass generalizing of all Republican candidates. I have been a supporter of the well respected Ron Paul and the honesty of his platform for years and exclude him entirely from any comments made about the right. This is a matter of saving the country.

Here’s the crux of the matter as summarized perfectly on ‘Sunday Morning.’ It’s that the power of the televised spoken word and the influence of audience approval of those messages “have real impact on how we judge potential presidents.” Studies have show that “an audience coming to its feet in approval makes it more likely to think that the candidate must be right whether or not the candidate was speaking accurately or truthfully.”

As example of this, is the fictionalized Obama the right has made into their opponent. Notwithstanding that their depiction bears no resemblance to the actual man himself, my question is do the people take time to research the facts or just believe whatever is said? Are they thinking for themselves or letting other people think for them as we have before in this country?

Labeling Obama “the food stamp President” is a deliberate attempt to lead the people astray, ‘influence peddling’ as Romney calls it. This President took over a country already in a recession he didn’t cause so of course there are more people on food stamps. That’s like saying Roosevelt was the food stamp President.

As far as Obama bankrupting the country, the national debt was increased 5 trillion dollars to pay for Bush’s “phony war on terror” by getting us upside down with China and indebting our grandchildren. The $700 billion Wall Street bail out being attributed to Obama, was Paulson’s emergency plan under Bush’s administration too to save the banking system from total collapse due to the covert deregulation that took place under his watch. The national debt was insurmountable before Obama took office.

Obama’s has asked for 1.5 trillion in tax increases on “the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations.” He has attempted to come up with a plan to make sure the 57 million Americans have health care in the richest country in the world and prevent the insurance companies from inflating the cost of healthcare to a federal bankruptcy status. Comparing the costs of either option, a health care plan is less expensive than a run away uncontrolled highly lobbied insurance industry.

Notice both these plans work for the benefit of the American public not the welfare of the wealthy that currently run the country. It’s pretty courageous of him to go against the controlling faction and indicates he is a man of the people not big business.
 
There’s no point in going into every piece of false information propagated throughout his term so far. It’s politics at its worst filled with innuendos and outright falsehoods.

Politics [just] makes strange bedfellows. Within their own party they are so confrontational Gingrich said he wasn’t “going to spend the evening trying to chase Governor’s Romney’s misinformation” to Romney’s “I think you should recognize that having differences of opinions on issues does not justify labeling people with highly charged epithets.”

Added is the flip flopping of both these candidates. It’s difficult to place too much credence on what anyone says is their position which leaves us without a clue as to what direction they will take the country if they’re elected and that’s just scary. We already went there and did that and we’re still floundering as a nation from that devastating decision.

What is purported is that Gingrich’s two Super-Pak funders with close ties to Pakistan, Mr. and Mrs. Adelson, only agenda in lending millions to him is that they want Israel to declare war on Iran which would be catastrophic. 

I agree there are things we don’t like about the direction Obama’s headed but there’s more things to be afraid of with the right that thinks things are working fine just as they are, with the transfer of the wealth to the elite at the expense of the 99%.

I’m not saying that Obama hasn’t disappointed us and let us down. He’s staffed his White House with Wall Street and took their contributions. And I get it that’s the way the game is played with elections costing millions giving even more power to the wealthy. His theory may have been he can’t change anything if he doesn’t get elected. But it’s still shocking. That’s just totally antithetical to his platform.

I wasn’t assessing his Presidency in my comments the other day. I’ve blogged about it enough both lauding the strides he’s made and questioning the reason for those he has not made. He’s had his share of accomplishments and mistakes. I’m an independent who supported him for his ideals. It’s been hard to watch considering we all had such high hopes for a transformed Washington which was not going to happen with the Republican stone wall. He had the chance of a lifetime to try to straighten out the crisis in the health care system and regulate the insurance industry, and by not being hands on with the Health Care Bill, he allowed Congress to take control of it and taint it by putting in special interests. But he still got done what the Clinton’s failed to do having recognized the importance of health care reform in light of the slim chance of passing legislation to regulate the insurance conglomerates with their millions in lobbyist money guaranteeing that will never happen.

I’m not saying anything not in public knowledge. The Republicans are proud of stating they have their initiative to get Obama out and block his programs but this is just not the time to be bi-partisan. If both sides don’t put their agenda’s aside we’re not going to make any progress in restoring the country to the prestige, stability, and world leadership that was our hallmark. The Democrats are no less guilty of not representing the public but at least they are willing to even out the tax liability as Warren Buffett recommends. Traditionally they are not the party in bed with big business but they’re taking lobbyist money just the same. I don’t think we can afford to loose the money the 1% should be contributing to the coffers. Romney contributes millions to the Mormon Church but does everything he can not to pay taxes to the United States.

It irks me to hear the right continue to label Obama with attributes their own party is deeply entrenched in themselves as if it was his agenda instead of theirs. If they spread their condemnation of the source of America’s problems to Washington in general instead of pinning it on Obama, it would be more palatable.It doesn’t bother me when Obama is faulted for his own acts or lack of acting. It’s always off-putting when denial and projection are employed to further personal agendas at the expense of the country.

There are a lot of people who believe everything politicians say and vote accordingly exclusively within the confines of their party, evidence Geoge W. But by both sides denigrating each other to the nth degree, we’re left with no respect, no trust, and no choice for a leader in these critical times. But this has been the face of politics since the 1930’s. If politicians would come up with feasible working solutions to fix the complex issues facing us, instead of avoiding culpability, that would get them elected. No one wants to watch them throw mud at each other even within the same party. It’s degrading and discouraging to everyone.

The President inherited a country that brought us to the brink of the collapse of the world banking system. His problem was that he knew we were in the midst of a Wall Street disaster that could only lead to a major recession if not a depression, he knew our debt was the largest in history, he knew Washington was broken and he knew he wasn’t going to get cooperation from the incumbent’s party, and he still went into the fray thinking he could get done what he promised. That was unrealistic and that’s not a good trait in a leader.

He isn’t making all the right decisions but he’s making many of the ones that are important to the masses. The one thing that stands out to me is that Obama at least recognizes there is a middle class suffering that needs help with small businesses, jobs, and foreclosures; that people are going broke paying their medical expenses; that credit card companies are practicing usury; that our health care industry serves no one but insurance companies; that a country where there is one set of rules for the rich and another set for the average citizen can’t sustain itself; and that our Veteran’s Administration isn’t taking care of our young people who have given life, limb, and sanity to protect our country. He realizes that  recuperating the country’s reputation and trustworthiness throughout the world is the only way to assure everyone’s safety. Obama has restored International respect to the United States after the beating it took throughout the world in the previous incumbency.
 
These are the things that matter to me. His State of the Union Address indicates he has learned some hard lessons and is ready to do whatever it takes to effect the changes that must be made in this country if we are to recover from this financial crisis we are in and I am holding him and his dedication to change in constant prayer.

Contrary to Obama’s perspective, until very recently when the “middle class” word was used, it appeared the debaters didn’t seem aware of anyone’s problems other than their own problem of getting elected. If we elect someone who supports special interests and privileges for the wealthy over equity for the rest of the country, nothing will change and putting unregulated capitalism over democracy has already caused the most serious recession since the 1930’s and that spells our downfall. The 1% can’t destroy the largest segment of society without the collapse of socio-economic systems across the board….and from listening to them campaign, they don’t get that yet. They are the ones who are out of touch, not the President.