scrawls.

scrawls

still cheaper than therapy*

4.9.08

Okay.

Obama will pass the Fair Pay Act and the Employment NonDiscrimination Act, to make sure that my daughter and my female friends and my gay and trans friends and, well, me, we can work and can get paid like men do. He will help ex-offenders reintegrate into society and expand prison-to-work programs, and will listen to things that prove drug rehab programs work better than prison terms for drug offenses; these programs have been PROVEN to reduce recidivism, and fewer people in our prisons would be a really good thing, especially for minorities. He wants to help people vote and get involved in democracy which is a good thing immediately and if you need help explaining that one, when we live in a place where everybody is supposed to get a vote, then you're beyond my powers of reason. He will end the stop-loss program (good for military families, and good for the military in general, as people will be more likely to enlist if they don't get stuck in the hot place for years and years) and will not build unproven missile defense systems (and spend money we don't have and piss off the rest of the world by doing so, when the stupid thing DOESNT WORK ANYWAY); he wants to return to being a leader among *allies* instead of the detested straw man GWB has made himself (and you thought Democrats hated him? do you think *I* am angry? Democrats have a mild distaste for the man compared to what i hear out here). He has a plan to help autistic spectrum persons that makes me cry i want it so much. He wants to give tax cuts to working families instead of the uber-rich (and i bet his idea of a working family is not somebody with a five million dollar revenue stream).

I am not even halfway done.

He has introduced legislation to reward companies that give good jobs with good benefits to Americans and wants to end tax breaks and other perks on companies that send jobs away (do you need help seeing why this is a good thing?). He wants to ensure that much much more of our energy comes from renewable sources, creating jobs and stimulating the economy in the process - and energy independence is good in the long term, and jobs are good in the short term and the long term. He wants to double federal funding for basic science research (which will basically put it back where it was seven years ago, and which i have something of a personal interest in as i don't know if i could find a job in the states right now, and i'd kind of like to go home at some point in the future. Want liz home? Vote Obama). He wants to protect workers' rights by protecting the freedom to organize and raising the minimum wage (and indexing it to inflation) and expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act which will really help a lot of people trying to balance family and work - not everyone even gets sick days. He wants to expand afterschool programs and make quality child care more affordable and available (i can't even explain how big and immediate a problem this is for parents), he wants to make math and science education an actual priority instead of somethign to be stigmatized and cut, he wants to recruit and retain and reward teachers, and he really wants to be sure that every child has health insurance (as opposed to making sure that every baby is born, and then letting it go). He wants to ensure that everybody, everybody, has health insurance ("by the end of his first term in office"). He supports stem cell research (and if you don't know anybody that could help, you aren't paying attention), supports Roe v Wade (important, because it IS under attack), and has introduced legislation to expand complete sex ed and access to contraceptives and prevent unwanted pregnancies (and, therefore, prevent abortions too, which let's face it nobody wants). He favors a phased withdrawal from and political solution to Iraq, and wants to strengthen Veterans Affairs and expand it to include all veterans (which i didn't even realize it didn't, and that is sickening). He believes that passing laws such as No Child Left Behind that mandates states to spend money without providing the money for them is a pretty bad idea, so he wants to provide the money. He will require polluters to pay for Superfund cleanups. He wants to safeguard and improve public transportation (because you are lucky enough to have a good job and an apartment you can afford in a decent enough neighborhood with a safe and functional subway, but not everyone is so lucky). He wants to triple the size of AmeriCorps and expand the Peace Corps (which will help everyone in the whole world). He wants to build a safety net for family farms and favors immediate country of origin labeling (which i've seen, here, and i think it's really cool). He has ideas about fighting poverty and ending the inner-city violence cycle that could really work and have been implemented and are working in the small scale already. He has a detailed plan to end our addiction to Middle Eastern and Venezuelan oil in ten years (TEN years!) and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 80%. He wants to build a million plug-in cars, in American factories with American workers, and put them on the road for American drivers to save money at the pump. He wants to avoid a war with Iran. He favors a two-state solution in Israel (fucking Finally!!) and has a plan to help Palestinian families, not Hamas and Hezbollah. He wants to work towards the elimination of nuclear weapons, worldwide. He will stop the Darfur genocide and fight poverty in Africa by doubling our foreign assistance investment.

And this is how he will pay for it: He wants to restore fiscal discipline (i say restore, because the debt has increased by 50% under GWB) and institute pay-as-you-go spending and cut pork and end tax haven abuse and tax cuts for the very rich. He has voted over and over and over again for pay-as-you-go spending.

And, above and beyond every platform plank i can find to agree with, he engages people who have not been engaged in politics. He makes people realize that their votes and their voices count. We are supposed to be part of a democracy, here - if people don't vote, if they feel like they can't affect their own government, the government whose only purpose is to help them and that was put in place for them, the terrorists haven't won, but the founding fathers sure have lost. I believe in democracy (or, well, republicness, but whatevs). And if more people are voting because Barack Obama inspires them, because he *does* bring hope, then that is a very good thing.

In short: I LOVE HIM, CAN HE PLEASE BE PRESIDENT.

There are places he's not perfect: i'd like it if he explicitly favored nuclear energy, if he said he liked gay marriage, if he promised he'd sign Kyoto. but he is so, so far ahead of the opposition. so ...

here, after everything else, now, is the part where i talk down the other guy: you want the compromise position? Where have the Republicans compromised recently? Is that the part where we destroy the environment in the name of maybe getting ten cent cheaper gas in twenty years? Is that the part where we ignore what most of America thinks about choice and outlaw abortion in every case? Is that the part where we don't have health care for huge numbers of people, including really depressing numbers of sick children? Is the status quo really the way you want things to be, with people dying far from home for a war nobody wants any more, people out of work who want to be working, more people going to food pantries and soup kitchens than have happened in a long, long time, and just because your personal life is going well, it's all okay? It's not okay. it's NOT OKAY.

Labels: politics

scrawled @ 08:26