Month: May 2015

After Romney’s Disastrous Week the Only Surprise is America Not Unanimously Voting Obama (September 15, 2012)

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Yahoo! News published a story this week, a joint venture with Esquire magazine, that shared the results of a recent survey the two media outlets commissioned from pollster Gary Langer of Langer Research Associates. The poll queried 1,000 likely voters on a range of topics designed to draw distinctions between sitting President Barack Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney. Results will be doled out in the next several weeks leading up the general election, however the first question posed to respondents was pretty straight forward with a rather unsurprising denouement.

“If the election were held today who would you vote for?” The answer? Amongst likely voters, Obama leads by four percentage points, 50 to 46. However the gulf opens much wider when the field is narrowed to voters who are already registered. In that case, Romney trails the POTUS by 11 percent, 52 to 41.

As voter registration postmark deadlines vary from state to state (some states cutoff entries 30 days before the election, while others leave opportunity open until just a couple of days prior), examining the responses of registered balloters becomes more consequential with each passing day. And it would seem that Republican attempts to disenfranchise the young, poor and certain minority groups just aren’t doing enough to stem the tide of momentum working in the President’s favor.

But polls are simply hypotheticals and while this news is encouraging less than two months before the ballot boxes officially open, it remains stupefying that the gulf isn’t much larger. While reading the Yahoo! story, it isn’t unreasonable to wonder if there’s any group that misfit contender Romney hasn’t done his best to alienate.

If you’re unemployed or otherwise struggling to make ends meet, a huge proportion of modern American society, there are the wealthy Romney family’s offshore accounts, dodgy tax returns and pathetic attempts to identify with real world problems to turn you off. If you’re a female, have a look at Romney’s flipflop from a pro-choice moderate to a pro-life intolerant who aligns himself with a Vice-Presidential candidate that opposes abortion in all situations, including cases of rape and incest, as well as instances where an expectant mother’s health is imperiled.

While we’re on the subject of Paul Ryan, are you an elderly American on a fixed income? Well then his plan to convert Medicare into a voucher program that exposes you to the business practices of private insurance companies ought to send you fleeing toward Obama. Are you an immigrant? The GOP can’t deport you fast enough. Person of any color? We didn’t see many of you at the recent Republican National Convention. How about a current or upcoming college student? Team Romney is tired of giving you “handouts” in the way of affordable loans and other financial aid that could guide you toward a 21st century job opportunity. If you’re gay, rest assured that the right wing will never stand up for your right to wed and raise a family. And Mittens’ deplorable handling of the Libyan embassy tragedy yesterday should go a long way toward alienating foreign policy wonks.

In fact all things considered, it’s sort of tough to comprehend how the poll Yahoo!/Esquire numbers don’t skew much father left. 95 percent to five sounds about right if you generously allow that there might just be that many independently wealthy, hawkish white males left in the nation. If Republican leadership did not receive the message in 2008 that they are out of touch with mainstream America, and it’s clear that they didn’t, let this be the year when they finally take themselves out to the shed.

Obama’s Convention Speech: The Real Mission (September 6, 2012)

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“But, mostly, I wish he’d be for something. I wish he’d rise above the petty tactical considerations that have shrunk him over the past two years. I wish he’d finally define what he stands for. A liberal populist? A Clintonian moderate? At some point, you have to choose.”

The quote above was pulled from “independent” New York Times columnist David Brooks’ latest effort. In a piece of commentary entitled “The Elevator Speech,” Brooks’ waxes nostalgically for the Obama before 2010, whereafter stymied by a do-nothing, Republican-controlled House, the administration’s agenda slowed to a virtual standstill. However, Brooks fails to recognize that this state of affairs was the albatross around Obama’s neck, referring to the post-2010 period instead as one where the POTUS’ “purpose did not survive contact with reality.”

Though I find myself frequently frustrated after a reading of Brooks’ punditry, headed into the main events of this week’s Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC, I was incensed. The continual reference to the first Obama administration as somehow lame duck boggles the mind, and it isn’t only independents and conservatives who are guilty of painting the President’s record in such broad strokes. The Facebook fan page “Liberals Against Obama” currently has 577 “likes” with the tag line “Take back the progressive agenda.” Postings from the group include gems such as this: “Looks like the Republicans are doing their best to scare people into voting for Obama :(” I only wish I were editorializing the sad face emoticon.

It’s hard to understand how Obama’s first term could constitute failure, especially viewed through the eyes of his liberal base. While it’s true that the last two years have been punctuated by debacles such as the debt ceiling debate, which ultimately saw the country’s credit rating downgraded, the left-leaning electorate’s only concern ought to have been a leader who failed to recognize that Speaker of the House John Boehner never intended to show up at the bargaining table. Yet it’s impossible not to admire Obama for the good-faith effort and for ultimately revolting against a Tea Party “compromise” that would have savaged the social safety net while doing precious little to generate revenue.

It’s tough to disagree with the impression that this week’s convention is a high-profile opportunity to reset the tone for Obama’s second term, as well as a chance to lay out a specific agenda that promises to address continuing social ills like the disintegration of the middle class. But compare this to last week’s Republican celebration which was light on specifics, high on crazy (Clint Eastwood) and factual gymnastics (the Paul Ryan speech) and created a partisan vacuum where the chosen Presidential candidate could not tout his greatest political accomplishments, seeing as they now sit too far to the left.

It is expected that the President will share his vision for job creation and revitalizing opportunities for the bottom 99 percent, while addressing other issues like immigration reform, climate change and a host of other challenges facing the country. But Obama’s address is also a ripe opportunity to do the one thing he has failed to do over the partisan screaming of the last few years: tout his MAJOR accomplishments. Interrupting the country’s financial free fall, rescuing the struggling auto industry, revamping the broken health care system in the face of dire opposition, advancing equality for GLBT citizens marked by the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” taking out public enemy #1 Osama bin Laden while displaying deft foreign policy skills in many other challenging situations and ending a pointless, costly war in the process. If this record represents failure, then sign me up for four more years of it.

GOP Convention: Tuesday Night Drinking Games (August 28, 2012)

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Whether anyone is ready for it or not, the Republican National Convention is in full swing. Though it is likely to be one of the dullest affairs in recent memory, hurricane warnings and the mutiny threats of Ron Paul supporters aside, conservative media outlets certainly can’t be accused of understatement. This morning’s online edition of The Washington Post did its level best to drum up the kind of hype typically reserved for community sporting events like the Super Bowl or the recently-concluded Summer Olympics. The paper’s TV section published a piece entitled, “Today in RNC TV: Where to watch the Republican National Convention.”

Can you picture it? Viewing parties at restaurants, bars and taverns across the nation! Drinking games! Take a shot every time a speaker calls President Obama a socialist! Do a keg stand for each each personality present who represents an assault on women’s rights! Can you imagine the drunkenness? Ah yes, these parties would outdo Prince Harry’s recent bout of Vegas revelry, and the naughty monarch and Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan boast roughly the same percentage of body fat.

Barring any last-minute interference from Tropical Storm Isaac, The Post reports that “At least 13 networks are covering the Republican National Convention in Tampa this week. Tuesday night, primetime events include a speech from Ann Romney, and Gov. Chris Christie with the keynote address.” Tampa, land of lot lizards and strip clubs, does seem like a fitting locale for the revelry. After all the city is nearly 63 percent Caucasian, Florida at large contains a disproportionate number of senior citizens and the State boasts an absence of individual income tax liability. If only there wasn’t that pesky business to avoid about Ryan’s plan to demolish Medicare as we know it, the site of the convention would be a mutual admiration society unparalleled.

While the GOP establishment celebrates its whitewashed, wealthy male homogeny, Ron Paul loyalists did threaten to make things interesting for a moment. However a last minute bargain deprived excited liberals and centrists from an anticipated burst of schadenfreude, the still-inevitable showdown between the Tea Party crackpots who have hijacked the conservative movement and the dwindling number of rational party members fighting for survival. Instead, ABC News reported “a compromise on Republican Party rules will likely prevent a convention floor fight on Tuesday. Republican National Committeeman James Bopp…explained the impetus for the proposed change, in the first place, as fear that Ron Paul supporters bound to Mitt Romney would break party rules and instead vote for Paul.”

Some events are just too delicious a prospect to actually occur. Imagine the embarrassment. Pundits and writers have been saying for years now that Mittens is the candidate so divisive and boring that even his own party is conflicted. Conventions are supposed to be about unity, no matter how forced. Too see this illusion crumble to pieces on national television…well it was a nice idea.

Instead we’ll be treated to inspiring words from ultimate Stepford wife Ann Romney, she of the tearful tithes, and Chris Christie, the popular Governor of New Jersey, considered a rising star of the Republican party. Supposedly the poster boy for responsible fiscal austerity, which may influence the content of his remarks, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman had a go at Christie’s pretension yesterday when he observed, “The Governor was willing to cancel the desperately needed project to build another rail tunnel linking the state to Manhattan, but has invested state funds in a megamall in the Meadowlands and a casino in Atlantic City.”

It may be wise to plan ahead and take the day off of work tomorrow (provided that eight years of the Bush regime left you with a job) if you plan to indulge in the Convention drinking game that I favor: a sip for every hypocritical utterance. Cheers!

Paul Ryan: Walking the Party Line Against Women (August 14, 2012)

Becky SarwateLeave a comment

By now we’ve all had a few days to absorb Mitt Romney’s latest head scratching campaign move: the selection of Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan as his Vice-Presidential running mate. It’s certainly a step that will unite the far right Republican base, a voting bloc that never would have pulled a lever for President Obama anyway yet has still struggled to summon proper enthusiasm for its presumptive nominee.

Folks, Mittens has taken to pandering to fish in a barrel. Somewhere in there lies good news for Team Obama/Biden. I watched top Democratic strategist David Axelrod discuss the opposition’s pick on last Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press” and he could barely contain his glee. It’s hard to imagine a choice more alienating to the middle class than the old right wing social engineer himself. Were I Romney I might have gone Rubio or Jindal to at least try to appear palatable to minorities, or perhaps cozied up with a female GOP leader of the non-crazy variety (possibly an oxymoron), but hey! I suppose if you have enough problems shoring up those who are supposed to be reflexively in your corner, you don’t have much time to consider the bigger picture. Game on!

Speaking of females, 2012 witnessed a Spring Awakening of sorts for the half of the electorate who came to realize anew that the “compassionate conservatives” amongst them don’t appear to have a lot of respect for individual liberty when it comes to reproductive decision-making. But Ryan is a relatively young, new breed of Republican right? He’s only 42 years old and the father of an adolescent daughter. Surely he doesn’t want the government placing his child’s rights in a secondary class? That would stand in direct opposition to the principles of a Tea Party darling.

Ahem…

Per Democracy Now, in a post dated August 13, 2012: “Ryan opposes abortion in all situations, including cases of rape and incest, and opposes abortion in cases that endanger an expectant mother’s health. Planned Parenthood has also criticized his endorsement of a so-called ‘Personhood Amendment,’ which supports defining a fertilized egg as a human being. Ryan was a co-sponsor of the Sanctity of Human Life Act, which even the conservative state of Mississippi rejected last November, and is in favor of defunding Planned Parenthood.”

But ok, women are about more than just the question of whether or not to procreate. We care about jobs, equal pay, a stable and thriving economy and oh, oops…

What’s that you say votesmart.org? Representative Ryan voted against equal pay for women, the enforcement of hate crime legislation and adjustments to employment discrimination law a total of six times during his tenure in the House? Well that is um, concerning.

In short, Ryan is for tax cuts, deregulation, cynical deficit hawking that starves the social safety net while fattening the pockets of big business and the one percent. Corporate entities are to be treated with more esteem and consideration than the bodies and minds of female Americans and even Romney doesn’t appear to want to associate himself with Ryan’s plans to reinvent Medicare as a voucher program that exposes seniors to the whims of the private sector.

Why was he selected for the ticket again? If I didn’t know better I would think Romney really wanted to lose.

Revenge: It’s What Female Voters Have in Store for the GOP (August 7, 2012)

Becky SarwateLeave a comment

Data published late last year by the Pew Research Center indicated that the marriage rate amongst U.S. adults stands at an all-time low. “In 1960, 72% of all adults ages 18 and older were married; today just 51% are.” And within the 49% that remain unattached, more than half of the unmarried Americans are women. For every 100 single women, there are 88 bachelors available.

What does this mean beyond a favorable dating pool imbalance for the nation’s single men? Well for the tone tone-deaf Republican party one implication is that when the polls open this November to elect the next President of the United States, there will be an awful lot of single women casting votes. The party continues to cater to its target base of wealthy, older white men at its own peril.

The New York Times highlighted the predicament facing Republican candidates this morning in an article published as part of the paper’s “Campaign 2012″ series. Viewing the female vote through the prism of the country’s weak fiscal performance, the piece by writer Shaila Dewan entitled, “Weak Economy Puts Spotlight on Votes of Single Women,” argues “Single women are one of the country’s fastest-growing demographic groups — there are 1.8 million more now than just two years ago. They make up a quarter of the voting-age population nationally, and even more in several swing states, including Nevada.”

The article presents examples of women, small-business owners and urban singles among others, who feel a conflict between government regulation and intrusion but have suffered personally in an anemic job market with soaring health care costs. This brand of savvy singleton is not so quick to swallow the GOP party directive of laying blame for the nation’s troubles at the feet of Obama. Remembering the unpaid for Bush tax cuts, the deregulation of Wall Street and bristling at the very recent assault on women’s reproductive health does not require the lengthy-tenured cognizance of an elephant. As one woman quoted in Dewan’s piece claims, “I am definitely a swing vote…I have no idea.”

It is more than proper, it is fact common sense, to wonder how Republicans view a path to victory that excludes single women, not to mention the Hispanic vote they have also devoted ample time to alienating. For every crazy like Palin or Bachmann who puts a pretty face on outdated feminist doubletalk, there are literally millions of women struggling to keep a roof over their head and food on the table while GOP standard bearers presume to tell them what they might be able to do with their bodies. Meanwhile, as the title of the Times article suggests, they have bigger fish to fry. As one of those single female voters in abundance, I can tell you we are tired of not being taken seriously.

Keep patting us on the head, calling us sluts and shuffling us aside as statistics like this go ignored: “While the jobless rate for married women has stayed relatively low, at 5.6 percent compared with 2.6 percent before the recession, the rate for unmarried women has risen to 11 percent, from a prerecession level of 6 percent.”

There are more single women than single men in the country yet our ability to provide for ourselves is reflected in an unemployment rate that exceeds the national average. Those of us who do have jobs can expect to earn less than our male counterparts while fending off presumptuous debates regarding our reproductive health. It’s enough to drive a madwoman to the attic.

But we’ll have our revenge at the ballot box this Fall. And we’ll enjoy the spectacle of the GOP’s mystified Wednesday morning quarterbacking when it’s all over. It’s sort of like ignoring half the chess pieces on the board then wondering how you found yourself checkmated.