My take on the election results (And your fair warning)

Pre-upfront disclaimer: This is a bit of a ramble. But it's my blog, dammit, I can post whatever I want! :)

Up front disclaimer: I am a lifelong Republican. However, as I've shared before, this has been a very hard year for me. I was undecided much longer than most people, it appears, but ultimately, I made the decision that I made for who would receive my vote for President based on everything except which party affiliation was in parentheses after the candidate's name. 

So perhaps that's why I'm so perplexed at the anger I'm seeing this morning from people over America's rejection of the following:
- A return to the policies that got us into economic trouble to begin with
- A return to the 1950s on women's rights
- A presidential candidate who proved, over and over again, that he was willing to say absolutely anything, true or false, consistent or not, in order to win this race
- A vice presidential candidate who did absolutely nothing to appeal to independents and moderates
- A campaign that allowed A LOT of nastiness towards the President, much of which was attempted in 2008 but was shot down by John McCain

Here's the thing. Yes, we are in a lot of debt right now, and we have a large deficit. 12 years ago, we had a pretty solid surplus. Then 9/11 happened. You absolutely never know how the future is going to look. But what I do know is that as worried as I was when Barack Obama was elected in 2008, most of that worry has not materialized. The military is doing OK. Yes, there is downsizing happening, but its appropriate. The sequestration thing would be a HUGE problem, absolutely. But while that may have been a suggestion from the President, the Republicans that want to blame it on him VOTED FOR IT. The President never thought it would actually happen - the whole point was to put something in front of the supercommittee that was so ridiculous, so unbelievable, that it would never, ever pass and they'd figure it out and come to a compromise. Obviously, that was not what happened. But to say that all of the blame goes on the President for that is disingenuous. Do I absolutely love Barack Obama? No. But in this case, for me, it came down to a known vs unknown situation. I could not determine what his policies would be, what he would do about certain issues, and what he would actually do to help the economy, besides just getting rid of everything Obama had done. That, and I don't think Obamacare will be the death of this country. Does it need work? Yes. But that does not mean complete repeal with nothing to replace the really good stuff that's in it.

This campaign was dirty and nasty. It was full of negativity, stretched truth, and massive amounts of spin on both sides. But from one side in particular, I just saw so many instances of blatant lying, making things up, refusing to acknowledge facts and math and other things, that I just couldn't bring myself to vote for the person that all of those things were representing. And yes, I understand that most of the ads came from PACs, but those PACs were never denounced by the Candidate they represented, so therefore its on him. On both sides. Either way, I'm glad its over so we can get back to our regular TV ads for junk food, fast food, and weight loss products.

However, now its time to move on. The election is over, and like it or not, Obama won. What I absolutely hope will happen is that everyone who let politics get in the way of their personal relationships will put it all behind them and move forward. I hope that the Republican Party will step back, reassess, and move away from the extreme place they've gone for the past 6 years, especially with regards to social issues. This country is primarily made up of people who are much closer to the center than either extreme. The Republicans seem to have forgotten this, and throughout this election cycle, I saw very little attempts from that side to reach out to the moderates that were feeling torn between social issues and economic/fiscal concerns, like me. (And let's not even talk about why social issues are even still coming up in PRESIDENTIAL campaigns in 2012...)

President Obama said in his victory speech that he heard the concerns of those who didn't vote for him, and that he's going to reach across the aisle. Let's hope that's the case. So far, I've seen a lot more respect for the other side from both sides than I expected to see. It started with Mitt Romney's very classy concession speech, and has continued through watching Fox News and reading Facebook and Twitter. Yes, there is still a lot of vitriol out there, but there's also a lot of this is what have, now let's work with it. THAT should be the message moving forward.

And... I'm officially sick of this election cycle.

I know, that's some sort of blasphemy for a politics wonk like me, but I seriously have had about enough. Both sides are making things up. Both sides are taking things out of context. Both sides are getting just a bit ridiculous. And then this dumba$$ from Missouri talking about women's bodies being able to "shut it down" and "put up defenses" against getting pregnant by a rapist if its a "legitimate rape" - seriously??? WTF??? Ugh....

The Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation recently conducted a poll of Independent voters, and an article published in today's paper explained it. It made a lot of sense to me. Most people who identify as Independent are much closer to one party or the other. I am generally much closer to Republican than Democrat, although not on social issues. But what tends to separate them from the parties is the complete distaste for the horribleness that is going on between the two parties right now. I knew I wasn't the only one sick of all the attack ads, sick of all of the words taken out of context solely for the purpose of making a political point. Most say that all they really want is a political system that works, with two parties who would cooperate with each other instead of confront each other. ME TOO. But it seems like neither party is listening, all they seem to be concerned about is firing up the base. Um, hey guys, newsflash: your base is going to vote for you no matter what. You really should be focusing on those of us that either haven't made up our minds yet or are leaning towards leaving the "President" section of the ballot blank this year.

In the last 1/3 or so of the article, they talk about a tiny portion of the population that truly is in the middle, and how most of them are just sick of the whole thing and a lot aren't even registered to vote. (I am, for the record.)  The poll shows that most of them favor Republicans on the economy (I tend to as well) and Democrats on social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage (as do I). But according to this and many other things I've read / heard recently, people like me make up, as my niece would say, an eensy weensy portion of the population. (She'd say eensy weensy, not the rest.) I thought there were more of us than that. I'm not sure if that should make me feel sad, or better.

Either way, I can't wait until November when all of this will finally stop. Of course, I'm not sure what all the pundits on TV will talk about. But then again, this election cycle started so early that maybe they'll just jump right in to 2016. Awesome...

My thoughts so far on The Reagan Diaries

I'm in the middle of reading The Reagan Diaries, a book that is exactly as it sounds: A (slightly) edited compilation of Ronald Reagan's personal diaries from his time as President. And let me tell you what, it's been quite enlightening. Here are a few of my favorite highlights, so far:

- He hated Mondays. Just like the rest of us :)
- He hated having to spend even one day away from Nancy. Every time he had to travel alone or she traveled without him, he commented how lonely it was without her, and how he couldn't wait to be back with her. I think we all hope for love like that.
- He really was as straight laced personally as we were led to believe. The harshest words he ever uses are hell and damn, I mean h--l and d--n. Yup, he didn't even spell them all the way out.
- The political BS that is going on in Congress today is exactly the same as what was going on then, except it appears as though the roles were reversed. Tip O'Neill and the Democrats were blocking debt ceiling raises and tax reform, instead of John Boehner and the Republicans.
- The same world leaders that were causing trouble in the mid-80s (minus the Soviet ones) are causing trouble today, or at least in the recent future. Mubarek, Assad, and Qaddafi are all over those diaries. Oh, and there was just as much confusion as to how to spell Qaddafi back then. Reagan even notes at one point that he usually uses the last version that he saw, so he spells it at least a dozen different ways himself.

A lot of people like to hold Reagan up as a standard bearer, but it seems as though many who do so could learn a thing or two by really looking back at not just Reagan the President or Reagan the Politician, but at Reagan the Man. He writes many times about making compromises with the Democrats to get at least closer to what he wanted, and how important it was to personally get to know and meet with even the biggest of his political adversaries. That seems to be the part that's lost these days.

It's not a light read, and the diary entries are just as he wrote them, so until you get the hang of it (it took me really until about late 1982-early 1983) it can be a little confusing. But I'm really enjoying it, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys politics but needs a break from current events in that arena.

Warning: This is a Political Post

I've been a little MIA this month, for a few reasons, and I apologize. Between heading out to visit my nieces (SUCH a great trip), working on a paper for school (only 2 classes left until I'm officially done with my Masters Degree!), and life in general, I just haven't been here much. On top of that, I've been pondering a couple of things that I want to talk about. I think I'm ready for one of them, but we may have multiple posts over the next few days. Let's just call it making up for lost time :)

(And here's the disclaimer: Don't read past here if you don't want to read about politics, because this is my politics post. I promise I will leave it to this post, for now.)

As anyone who's known me for any period of time may know, I'm kind of a politics junkie. I read a lot, and I pay attention, and I've found myself really changing my political views in the past few years. Well, more accurately, I think I've actually been forming my own views instead of just latching on to those of my family and the preponderance of people I surrounded myself with in the military. I very much find myself relating to people like Meghan McCain - I want to maintain my Republican-ness, but I'm finding it harder and harder to do.

Its not that I don't agree with the party on anything. I agree that the deficit is a problem and the current policies are not working. I don't think that raising taxes on the upper class is the right answer, but I also don't think they should get breaks. I'm all for closing loopholes. I have no problem with the capital gains tax rate being lower than the regular income tax rate. I think the continued spending by the current administration is unsustainable, and needs to stop. I think this President uses the words I and me and a little too much for my liking. I love the military, and I take the national security of this country seriously, and I think that the threats of severe cuts to the defense budget would be a huge mistake, especially without true reform of our policies.

However, that's about where it ends for me. I have a very hard time with a party that touts its desire for smaller federal government yet wants the federal government to regulate our social lives. I have a hard time with a party that consistently talks about the importance of every single human life, yet doesn't want to ensure that programs are in place to care for the child that was born to a mother (or parents) who can't care for it. (And yes, I agree that the federal government is not the place for those programs, but I also think that until the infrastructure has been set up for local/state/church/whoever to take care of them, they need to continue in their current state.) I can't get behind a party that continues to say nothing about the birthers, and who refuses to do the research into all of the good Planned Parenthood does before denouncing the whole organization. Or who think its perfectly OK for myriad tax loopholes to keep the extremely rich from paying any income taxes - I see paying their fair share not as raising rates on those folks, but as actually getting them to pay the rates that are currently set for their brackets.

The rhetoric, the blind allegiance to party instead of issues, the continued practice of making things up for the sound bite, often intentionally, because the sound bite will inevitably get more attention than the correction/apology that comes after the damage is done... This is happening on both sides, and frankly, I'm sick of it.

I'm far from happy with the current President, don't get me wrong. But really, was Mitt Romney the best the Republican party could come up with? I read something the other day that said only a very small percentage of probable voters was really and truly undecided at this point. I really do think I fit in that small percentage. I really do feel like I'm part of that truly independent group, that moderate group that apparently can't put up a viable candidate because it takes being extreme on either side to win a primary. So I, and many others like me, find myself in a position where I can't get even mildly excited for this presidential election, because neither choice seems like a very good one. I really do hope for the day that moderation returns to favor, but I wonder what it will take. Will it take huge defeats in this election year? I'm not even sure that those will happen, and if they do, they won't be landslides. This is likely to be a very close election. This country is divided almost right down the middle. Its people like me that will probably make the decision one way or another. Unfortunately, and I'm sure I'm not the only one, I'm having a hard enough time making that call that just staying home on election day is looking like a much less painful idea. But I know that's not the right answer either.

To wrap this up, I don't like being confused! Hopefully between now and election day, something will click that will make the decision for me. I hope its something easy like the Republican VP pick, but somehow I don't think that will be the case.

And... end political rant. :)

The State of the Union

Yes, I watched the State of the Union last night, because I am a politics nerd. I'll get that out of the way right up front. I get a kick out of the whole affair, especially now that I'm back in DC.

My first thought was that it was so different seeing Boehner behind the President as compared to Pelosi last year. Where she looked like she was swooning over him the whole time, he looked as though he was trying very hard to look like he cared the whole time. Or like something very large was stuck in his rear end. Either one.

I thought the speech was pretty decent, until the President spoke these words:

"The competition for jobs is real. But this shouldn’t discourage us. It should challenge us."

My first response: How about you go looking for a job for a while, with nothing but $300 in unemployment every week to live on (until it runs out), and come back and let us know how that goes.

Other things I liked: his direct, dead on talk to House Republicans about Health Care reform. I think this might one of the only times I've ever heard the President admit that something he put together and championed could use improvement. I hope that Republicans will take this as an opportunity to work together and fix things, instead of an opportunity to say I told you so and create more vitriol. 

Also, the part where he said that if a bill shows up on his desk with lots of earmarks, he'll veto it. This one, I think, is opening up a can of worms, in that it could be used against him later, but I do agree that the earmark thing has gotten out of control. I just don't want to see people adding earmarks to bills, getting them on there because others think the legislation is too important to risk not getting it passed, and then have the President either go back on his word and allow an earmark, or stick to it and not pass an important piece of legislation solely because there's an earmark.

I also liked the mixing of the parties - I feel like that kept the mood of the room a little more civilized. I also felt as though he did a good job of addressing moderates on both sides of the line, as well as independents. Too much of politics these days focuses on the extremes at either end.

A couple of things I didn't like: There were some specifics lacking - lots of big ideas, but no real HOWs. Granted, this probably wasn't the place for them. But still.

Also, I was a little lost near the end of the speech. I felt like he drifted a bit, and while it seemed like he was trying to make the point that we have things we need to fix, he kinda went into "look how much better other countries are than us right now" territory.

All in all, not terrible. But I'd still love a report back on how the job situation should be a challenge instead of discouraging. What? Not gonna happen? I thought not.

My thoughts on Tucson

So I've pretty much been sucking at blogging since the end of Reverb10/ New Year's.

I admit it. Without a prompt about what to write, sometimes I just can't think of anything. Other times, I think of things to write but am just too lazy to put the ideas down in words.  Or I get distracted by work or school or life in general.

Yes, I understand the above are a bunch of excuses, so ignore them all.

This whole business in Tucson has been weighing on me since it happened.  I generally try very hard to do my own research and educate myself about political issues in this country, and I firmly believe that the two parties have moved so far to the extremes of their sides that the general public is being left with nothing to identify with.  Do I think Sarah Palin is an idiot for using crosshairs in her graphics? Absolutely. Do I think that there are plenty of Democrats who have consistently used violent words as well? For sure.

There was absolutely ZERO justification for immediately associating this deranged, disturbed gunman with a political movement of any sort. ESPECIALLY not BEFORE the assertion that he was just a messed up kid.  Why wasn't that the first thing anyone said? Why do we immediately try to blame it on politicians instead of first saying man, this guy must be a seriously messed up individual to open fire on a crowd at a political speech in a grocery store parking lot at 10 o'clock on a Saturday morning?

THAT is the problem. Everything is used against the other side, no matter the legitimacy or the ethics (or lack thereof) involved.  The parties are so desperate to make themselves look better, and what better way than to make the other guy look criminal? Politics in the US are in a sad state right now. What will it take to make it better? The prospects kinda scare me.

But here's the other thing about Tucson that bothers me. Things like this happen ALL THE TIME.  Gun violence and mass shootings are nothing new.  I may be a cynic for saying this, but I have to think that while this still would have made the news, but if it had not been for the fact that a Congressional Representative was involved, it would not have warranted the President or the constant news coverage. Why are flags at half staff for this, but not for the soldiers dying daily overseas? Why not for every child that gets murdered? It doesn't really help with the whole "DC is in a bubble and only cares about its own" idea that I know is out there.

And there are people who want to truly fight reinstating the ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines? Really? And Arizona doesn't think that they should regulate who gets to concealed carry? And nobody thinks any gun control legislation will come out of this event? I'm all about 2nd Amendment rights, but there's a middle ground here, one that makes sense. I wish, for once, Congress would dispel with the politics and actually DO THEIR JOBS, which are to look out for the well being of their constituents.

OK, I'm all done ranting about all this now (and sorry if it doesn't all make sense, but I don't go back and edit posts like this. It's kinda the point, right?). What a damn mess this was. I truly do feel for those who lost loved ones, and wish those recovering, including Rep Giffords, the absolute best. Let's learn from this and make something good come out of it. Please.

Thirty Days of Truth Day 19

Day 19: What do you think of religion? Or what do you think of politics?
I think I'm gonna go with politics on this one, especially after my long-winded rant yesterday.

I think politics in this country has the potential to be amazing. However, I think that because the two parties seem to have moved so far to the extreme on their respective sides, politics is no longer relevant to a large majority of Americans. I heard too many times in recent years that people either didn't vote because they didn't like any of the candidates, or voted for someone not because they agreed with their stance on the issues or liked them as a candidate but because they disagreed with them less or disliked them less. That's just sad to me, and I don't think this is what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they set up our political system so many years ago.

I think part of why this happens is just lack of education on our political process and how things work. Voter turnout is always significantly lower in primaries than it is general elections. Why is this? I'd bargain that a big part of it is just that people don't understand the process. Why have certain groups been able to consistently and successfully promulgate a message filled with disinformation and fear? Because people don't do their own research and educate themselves. And if people keep believing them, and their method is letting their candidates win, why should they stop?

I don't know the answers, obviously. But I wish someone did and could make it happen!!