Mitt, calling me once again! (Picture is just for reference.)
Tonight I got another crazy call from Mitt Romney. I decided one of my brothers must be playing a joke on me. I cannot remember how many times I have been called by Mitt in the last two months but, it has been enough for me to feel like he has me on speed dial. I did my usual hang up after he screamed how the first thing he would do is repeal Obamacare.
I frankly am not interested in what the Republicans have to say about healthcare as I am a woman and I had a sister who died an early death probably because she didn’t have health insurance. What the Republicans offer women just in the area of health insurance is rather pathetic let alone in any other area. By my understanding, they don’t want to cover much of anything that has to do with a woman’s vagina, let alone “say” that word! All across the country the right wing Republicans have declared war on women. They don’t like it being called a “war”. They just think they know what we should do with our bodies better than we know ourselves. It’s like they are the “daddy” and daddy knows what’s best for “his” little girl. Unfortunately, daddy is living in the Stone Age and his daughter has grown up in the 21st Century! Young women today had better start paying attention or they may end up with a daddy like Mitt who is willing to spend untold money for a prancing horse but unwilling to let his little girl take care of her own vagina.
You may think I find all of this humorous as I am laughing, but I really think this is serious business. Women today are basically screwed when it comes to politics. We have very little true representation as there are not enough women involved in writing the laws of our land. The laws are still basically written by a steady stream of old white guys that don’t really care much for women and women’s rights. They give us lip service when it’s near election time. The Democrats try to appear to be on the side of women but hey fall far short representing my gender in any real meaningful way. The only thing they really have going for them is the Supreme Court. I cannot imagine another Thomas or Scalia selected for the Supreme Court but it could happen with Romney. I don’t care much for President Obama but I am happy that he chose two women to be on the Supreme Court. We now have better representation on the Supreme Court than we do in Washington D.C.
As far as the “Affordable Care Act” goes, I think time will tell how it is going to work. I, for one, think we should let the dust settle and let the law blossom into what it is supposed to be. Most of us don’t know all of the details in the law as it stands right now but people probably didn’t know how Social Security, Medicare, or any other program would work until they were enacted either. Most of it isn’t going to kick in until 2014, so I say let’s see what happens.
The Republicans have spent far too much time strutting like Peacocks trying to get us to notice them. However, while they have been strutting around trying to get us to fall in love with them, they forgot to do the business of the people. They work far too hard trying to get rid of President Obama rather than working to push our country forward. I am tired of the constant tension that is created by a party that wants to sit on their hands while the whole world crumbles around them. They remind me of the old picture of “monkey see, monkey do”. Instead of acting like true leaders, they watch each other and follow lock step whatever the first monkey does. I guess that might be Grover Norquist because he seems to be holding all the cards on the tax situation or maybe it’s the Tea Party. I don’t know why they have chosen to sit out and become the do nothing Congress that we all have witnessed. I just wish some of them had the conviction to break from the pack and become true leaders and visionaries for the American people. They wait until the last possible moment to pass anything like the current job and student loan bills. They show their faux outrage at Attorney General Holder. I guess thinking that this is what the American people want. However, they are so out of touch with what we want that they can’t think straight.
Most of the people I know want to make a good living, take care of their families, be stress fee at work or at home from bills and the possible loss of their job. Most of the people I know wouldn’t think of telling another person how to take care of their reproductive health or dog them on their church affiliation. Most of the people I know don’t want to be hassled by the government in any form but definitely want health care to be available and affordable. Most of the people I know, when they really think about it, don’t want to be sitting next to people that are ill at school or anywhere else that cannot get the health care they need because it is unavailable to them. They don’t want their children exposed to diseases that were supposed to be eradicated just because parents cannot afford to get their children vaccinated.
I have to come back to what I think the main topic should be and it is the economy. If you teach a child to swim he can probably save his own life. The same can be said for people in many ways. Most people want to work and take care of themselves. The goal should be job creation. If we get people working again they will take care of themselves. It takes money to make money and to get this economy moving money is going to have to be spent. Austerity measures aren’t going to do our country a bit of good. We must be willing as a government to do whatever it takes to get this economy moving. We all know there are bridges and roads that need to be built and repaired. There are schools that need to be updated. There are inventors, innovators, and creative young people sitting in classrooms waiting for the future to come. What are we going to leave them? Some pot holed roads and broken bridges? Some school debt that follows them into old age? Will they have memories of abusive politicians that cannot appear to be civil to each other? We have choices to make. I want my students to dream about a future that doesn’t include broken dreams, ineffective government, and a life time of debt.