I ENDORSE...OBAMA!

I've been trying to write something meaningful or thought-provoking or persuasive about this election. But the voice in my head keeps screaming HOW ON EARTH CAN ROUGHLY HALF THE COUNTRY BE VOTING FOR MITT ROMNEY? WHO ARE THESE VOTERS AND WHY?

They can't claim to stand with Mitt on policies unless they're schizophrenic--he's dramatically flip-flopped on those and then lied about where he now stands on what. 

We do know that he wants to lower taxes on the top 2% earners, so I understand why the upper class support him. Like him, they're greedy. So that accounts for 2% of his base.

But then you subtract the whopping 47% of the country who Romney dissed as "victims" who don't take responsibility for their lives. That includes seniors who've paid income taxes their whole lives before retiring, veterans, military currently serving, students and those who only pay payroll and not income taxes. Surely almost half the nation wouldn't vote for someone who essentially labels them scum who can't pull their own weight.

There are some gays who vote GOP. But since Mitt doesn't support any advancement of any gay rights, I guess these gays have to be fairly hush hush about their self-hating position. It's certainly their privilege to sabotage their own people's rights in the name of personal greed, but it might be hard for them to get laid unless they keep their voting records to themselves. 

Of course, it isn't greedy to hunger for prosperity in a recession. And some may feel that Mitt, with his business acumen, will usher in a much-needed period of economic growth. This type of voter needs to realize that Mitt's policies are George W. Bush's policies which crashed our economy. So you can't fix the economy by returning to that failed set of tools. In fact, W is now so completely disgraced that he hasn't been seen on the campaign trail for Romney once! He's so radioactive that the republican party chooses to skip back past W's two terms and even his daddy's presidency to Ronald Reagan, the last popular GOP president. Romney even greases back his hair to invoke that senile old hack who tried to classify ketchup as a vegetable in schools to cut costs.

Are some voters thinking "MITT REAL RICH...HIM GONNA MAKE ME GIT RICH?" First off, Mitt was born rich. But he did succeed in business by advising companies to kill or outsource jobs. So he has a proven history of job creation--overseas.

Around two months ago, Mitt's campaign caved to the press corps' many demands for a detailed economic plan. So his campaign announced that they were working out specifics on specifics of his economic policies. He's been campaigning for president for 8 years and he waits a couple of months before the election to craft his plan for an ailing America in the area he's perceived as best in: business? 

But of course, Mitt does has and did have a plan. He just doesn't like talking about it. Check this out from the LA Times, 9/17:

"Romney and his advisors have frequently said in the past that the candidate would refrain from offering certain specifics to avoid giving his rivals ammunition. But Monday morning, after a weekend of leaked grievances among  his top advisors, top campaign officials told reporters that Romney would now begin offering new specifics about taxes and the economy."

Oh, so a "new" course was charted as of September 17th, 2012? And remember those leaks and grievances within his campaign? Even fellow republicans openly belly-ached on the news about how he was bungling his own campaign. And if he can't run a campaign efficiently, how the hell will he run a country? Where's your big, experienced CEO hero now?

He's not managing his $ very well. He's crying over the deficit while insanely asking for $2 trillion more in military spending than the Pentagon has even requested, and he's saber-rattling with Iran when most of the country is sick to death of war. But I guess it's easy to threaten and declare war when you're a member of the ruling class whose own 5 sons would never soil their hands in combat. Didn't we sorta found this nation on equality? Isn't that why we hopped on the Mayflower to get away from England and their outdated caste system?

Well, there was one other reason the Pilgrims came over. We wanted to introduce American Indians to guns, syphilis and small pox. Nope--there was one other motivation: religious freedom! Now, let's move away from the fact-based community over to the faith-based community. Evangelicals didn't readily embrace Mitt Romney since he's a mormon. The LDS church is viewed with suspicion by traditional fundamentalists because they frown on polygamy, magic underwear and the fact that the mormon god lives near a planet/star named Kolob. For once, I agree with evangelicals that mormons are extra-creepy. 

Faith-based Christian voters hate gay rights and abortion above all else, so Romney/Ryan banged the drum against both loudly enough to win over these "values" voters. But we all know that like Bush, Romney's god is money. Remember when W won his second term and abandoned his promises to fundamentalists once in office? And then Bush's personal spiritual advisor turned out to be the meth-snorting, hustler-buying pastor Ted Haggard--remember? The huge evangelical movement was so goofed and betrayed that they had to take a hiatus to regroup which they likened to Jesus's 40 days and 40 nights of fasting in the wilderness. So don't expect Romney to be any more loyal to value voters than Bush was. Both campaigns just knew that evangelical buttons are easy to push since they focus on two main issues.

But the faith-based community isn't going to let science or even facts stand in the way of their convictions. Neither are racists, who are driven by an inexplicable rage to get a president of mixed race out of office regardless of how nonsensical, still-developing and ever-changing his white opponent's platform is. Maybe we imagined that we weren't racists because we were willing to give a black guy a a chance when a Texas redneck had screwed things up so royally four years ago, but we got buyer's remorse when the quagmire of an economy didn't recover quickly enough so now the racism's creeping back in. 

I grew up in Tennessee, so while I disagree with racism, I comprehend it. I can even understand how evangelical and racist communities can even overlap. I actually heard, in the predominately baptist neighborhood I grew up in, that "I love God but I hate n#ggers." So much for "God is love" and "Red and yellow, black and white, we are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world." It's an irrational stance, but I've seen it in action all my life and I understand it and how deep-seated racism triumphs over facts or any other thought process which isn't neanderthal.

So this election really boils down to whether we are going to let racism, evangelicals and the mega-rich's deceptive ads triumph over common sense. I've been disappointed in many ways by Obama and I can't honestly campaign FOR him the way I did in the last election. But I can and must campaign AGAINST Romney/Ryan. Their ticket is that scummy and inept. Obama didn't get us back on track to the degree that any of us wanted him to, but it's foolish to impulsively run in the opposite direction of fear, the old ways like white supremacy and male supremacy over women's reproductive rights. As Michael Moore said while admitting Obama's shortcomings, this election is about a decision between evolution-deniers who believe that humans co-existed with dinosaurs and the rest of us. Hopefully, the "rest of us" outnumber Mitt's misguided followers tomorrow.