Proud Minnesotan

The day after election day. You're either really happy, or extremely disappointed. Not only I am very pleased, I'm also exceptionally proud.

Minnesota denied the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. And three other states won similar ballots affording the right for gays to marry. I cannot put my excitement into words. I really believed with all my heart that it would fall, regardless of how bad I wished the opposite was true.

On top of that, most of the candidates I voted for won, included Obama! Now, we live in an extremely conservative area, so of course my facebook page lit up with people threatening to move to Canada. Or give up on the whole democratic system. Or simply stating their disappointment with the outcome. Oh well, that's their right. But I have a hard time believing that anyone voting for Romney/Ryan was actually informed on the issues. And no, "I heard it on Fox News" doesn't count. I really wish people would educate themselves before they through a tantrum like a two year old. Please. Have some respect!

My friend posted this, and it speaks true to almost every reason why I supported Obama:

"When President Obama says he is looking out for the middle-class, I believe him. When he says he is pro-education, I believe him. When he says he wants to push innovation and invest in energy of the future, I think that’s two of the best things we can be doing right now. I believe President Obama helped prevent us from falling into a second Great Depression. And I believe the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) will prove to be one of the best programs ever enacted for citizens of the United States.

Though Fox News and the hard-right propaganda machine routinely suggests otherwise, President Obama saw through a load of successes in his first term. Some of the biggest: He ended the Iraq war. He established an Afghanistan exit plan. He rescued the auto industry. He passed healthcare reform. He passed Wall Street reform. He ended “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” He signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act for women. He passed the credit card bill of rights. He shifted focus and funds back to infrastructure. He handled the BP Gulf spill exceptionally. He handled the East Coast Hurricane Sandy situation exceptionally. He helped overthrown Muammar Gaddafi. HE GOT OSAMA BIN LADEN. All this despite obstructionist Republican leaders who refused to work with the President and deemed it their “Number One Priority to deny President Obama a second term.” The gridlock in Washington is not President Obama’s doing; it is the result of a non-compromising, stubborn Republican party.

The winner of this presidential election will likely appoint one or two Supreme Court justices. I don’t want to see another hard-right justice appointed like those who ruled that “corporations are people” or who would vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

The Great Recession was almost The Great Depression II. We hit rock bottom in 2008--the final year of George W. Bush’s presidency. Those were the conditions when Barack Obama took office. In no way do I believe the same brand of policy that got us into that mess--“trickle-down” economics (tax cuts for the wealthy)--is what will get us out of it. The Great Recession ended in mid-2009, and the economy has been growing--albeit slowly--since. How can anyone believe we were supposed to make a full recovery from that in just three years? It took 11 years from the start of The Great Depression for the economy to truly recover, and companies weren’t shipping jobs overseas in droves back then.

President Obama has not been perfect. I feel he walked into the presidency with a false sense of non-partisan unity, and Washington slapped him in the face for it. He naively predicted an economic recovery during his first term. But I’ve seen a man who has learned from his mistakes and exercised a healthy balance of caution and aggressiveness when it comes to highly tenuous situations. His successes far outweigh his failures, and I believe he deserves a second term to see through our economic recovery and push forward progressive policies that benefit not only the present but the future of our country."

And there you have it.

So can we be friends again? Am I safe to un-block you from my news feeds? As I've learned, probably not. I cannot separate one's political beliefs from their personalities. Well, that's not really the issue. I should say I cannot separate one's ignorance or unwillingless to research the issues from their personalities. And I don't want to be your friend and have to see your rants every four (or two, depending on how the mid-term elections are going) years. I don't want to be friends with people that think woman should not have a right to choose what to do with their own bodies, or that they are not entitled to fair pay. Or that we should deny certain people basic civil rights like marriage. Or that the rich shouldn't have to pay taxes while the poor are starving to death. Or that companies like Chesapeeke Energy can pollute our groundwater without any ramifications. That is not okay. No one should be okay with any of that. We need to take care of each other, not go after each other's throats.

but that's just me.

sorry, not sorry!

-b.