2. Republicans have obstructed efforts to get our country out of the tremendous ditch they left us in by voting no on and sometimes filibustering many Democratic proposals, some of which they previously supported and sometimes even co-sponsored. Hence, it is not surprising that a recent poll showed that 49% of Americans believe that Republican Congress members are purposely sabotaging the U.S. economy in order to defeat Obama and other Democrats, while only 40% disagree. Should we reward a Republican Party that is willing to sabotage our economy for its political gain. 3. Republicans support continued tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and highly profitable corporations, while basic social services that middle class and poor people depend on are being cut and teachers, police officers, fire fighters, and others are losing their jobs. During the 2010 lame duck session, every Republican Senator signed a statement indicating that they would not support any legislation unless tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans were continued.Every Republican candidate during the primaries, including Romney, stated that they would not support tax increases even if there were ten dollars of cuts that they supported for every dollar of tax increases.
4. Almost every Republican is in denial about the tremendous dangers from climate change, in spite of a very strong consensus in over a thousand peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals and dire warnings by scientific academies all over the world that climate change is a major threat, largely caused by human activities, and the many wake-up calls we have been receiving in terms of severe, sometimes record-breaking, storms, tornadoes, floods, heat waves, droughts, and wildfires, Anyone who thinks that climate change is a hoax promoted by liberals should visit the website of the “Republicans for Environmental Protection” (www.rep.org), recently renamed ConservAmerica. This conservative group only endorsed four percent of Republicans in the 2010 U.S. midterm elections, because so many Republicans are in denial about climate change and other environmental threats. They are not endorsing Romney for president because he has backed away from his previous concern abut climate change as have most Republicans. So far they have only endorsed Scott Brown for a Senate seat in Massachussetts.
Paul Ryan is a climate denier and has a miserable record on the environment. Please check out
http://truth-out.org/news/item/10855-meet-paul-ryan-climate-denier-conspiracy-theorist-koch-acolyte
6. Obama’s election is essential in order to prevent the U.S. Supreme Court from becoming even more conservative. There are now three justices who are in the mid-seventies, including Ruth Beder Ginsberg, who is not in good health. So, it is likely that the next president will have one or more Supreme Court picks. If a Republican president makes them, it would mean a very conservative Supreme Court for decades. The current Supreme court has struck a blow against democracy by permitting groups to spend unlimited amounts of money to support candidates.
7. Republicans are, in effect, waging a war against women. They have opposed legislation that would provide women with equal pay for equal work. Their platform opposes abortion in all cases, even if rape or incest is involved or the life of the mother is threatened. Paul Ryan and almost all Republicans have supported and in many cases co-sponsored legislation that would ban abortion in all cases and even contraception.
8. While far more needs to be done, Democrats have enacted policies that have turned the economy away from the possible depression that the Bush administration left the U.S. on the brink of. More net private-sector jobs have been created already during the Obama administration than during the entire eight years of the Bush presidency. While 800,000 jobs were being lost when Obama entered office, there now has been positive job growth in 31 consecutive months, and almost 5 million new jobs have been created during that period. The Obama administration has also had success in foreign policy, including ending the war in Iraq, killing Osama bin Laden, weakening al Qaeda. By contrast, Romney has made several gaffes in his statements about foreign policy. While Democratic policies have not always lived up to our hopes, largely due to Republican obstructionism, a return to Republican rule would be a nightmare.
9. Obama has taken many positive actions for Israel including: rejecting the Goldstone report that criticized Israeli actions in the war in Gaza; asking Congress to approve a $205 million package to help Israel build a new anti-missile defense system; successfully advocating for Israel’s admission into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; giving a speech in the heart of the Arab world, in which he told his listeners that they need to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state; stating to the UN General Assembly clearly and unequivocally that “Israel is a sovereign state and the historic homeland of the Jewish people” and “It should be clear to all that efforts to chip away at Israel’s legitimacy will only be met by the unshakable opposition of the US.”
Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have stated many times that the U.S. has been extremely cooperative in meeting Israel’s security needs. Another example of Obama’s strong support for Israel is his very positive response to a frantic, middle-of-the-night call from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that helped free six Israelis who were trapped in the Israeli embassy in Cairo that was under attack by militant Egyptians. After they were freed, Netanyahu said: "I would like to express my gratitude to the President of the United States, Barack Obama. I asked for his help. This was a decisive and fateful moment. He said, “I will do everything I can.” And so he did. He used every considerable means and influence of the United States to help us. We owe him a special measure of gratitude. This attests to the strong alliance between Israel and the United States."
On September 22, 2011, Prime Minister Netanyahu heaped additional praise on President Obama for his talk at the United Nations, in which Obama expressed opposition to U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state, and indicated that he would veto a resolution supporting that recognition in the U.N. Security Council. Netanyahu indicated that Obama deserved a “badge of honor” for that talk.
10. President Obama has had a very positive relationship with Jews: his initial chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was Jewish and the son of Israelis; his present chief of staff Jack Lew is an Orthodox Jew; one of his key advisers David Axlerod, is Jewish, and he is also a key strategist for Obama’s reelection campaign; Obama nominated a Jew, Elana Kagan, as a Supreme Court Justice (even though that left the 9-member Court with three Jews and no Protestant members; he is the first president to have Passover Seders in the White House; Obama refused to send US representatives to Durban conferences, since they have espoused antisemitism; and Obama and his cabinet members have frequently stressed their solidarity with Jews and with Israel
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I cheered when Obama got elected four years ago. Since then I have been very disapointed, so much so that I would hesitate to support him. But then every time my support wains, Romney and co re-enthuse my support for Obama.
ReplyDeleteThe Romney ticket is just so scary in so many ways.
But that is not why I am here. Off to find your book. (Although not of your faith I feel the same about mine, it has been hijacked)
Regards
Tony
Well, Tony, as Biden said a while back, don't compare him with the Almighty, compare him with the alternative. The economy was in such a mess in 2008 that I don't think anybody could have found an instant cure. But we ARE slowly recovering.
ReplyDeleteWhat really bothers me about Romney most is the "Romnesia," the inconsistency and sometimes outright lies. He does not seem to get it that we can go back and look at video and transcripts to see what actually WAS said at the time. For example, Romney did NOT REQUEST the "binders full of women," this was a project of a coalitioh of women's groups called MassGAP that was ALREADY collecting resumes before the election, to present to WHOMEVER was elected governor. So it wasn't this big affirmative action search Romney made it out to be. But even if it was, why didn't Romney KNOW any women who were qualified?
And there are a lot of other examples, such as claiming it took the President 10 days to call the Libya embassy attack "terrorism" when Obama said it the day after -- even the moderaotr tried to tell him that Obama had sad it then, but Romney talked right over her. And as for the video protests, that was happening ALSO in Egypt and elsewhere, so there were two things happening at once in the Arab world simultaneously. It is not a matter of "coverup," it just took a while to sort everything out, as it often does n a crisis.
I could go on and on, but at least Obama is consistent. And his policies regarding caring for that 47% (of which I am part, although I am NOT a victim and I DO take responsibility for my life!) are much more in line with Jewish values -- as you will read in Richard's book.
Well-said Richard. I made my own list of Top 10 Reasons, most of the them overlapping with yours but a few additional points - see here:
ReplyDeletehttp://pursuingjustice.blogspot.com