Al’s Loupe

A perfectly clear choice

By Alvaro F. Fernandez
alvaro@progresoweekly.com

The Obama presidency has let us down. He has not delivered on so many promises made during that wonderful grassroots march when he became the first African American U.S. president. Let’s look at the other option before us in November.

Note I say option, not options. There’s only one. The reality is that there’s zero chance of electing a third party candidate in this country. Not now or in the foreseeable future. So I compared a second Obama term with the Mitt Romney-Paul Ryan ticket.

And it scared the wits out of me. That’s if you believe in education, preserving our environment, and women’s rights, for example.

But let’s start with Cuba. Obama could have and should have done much more with the island. Opportunities were there. He shied away. But he did deliver on his travel promise – sort of. Elect Romney, though, and his closest advisers on Cuba become the Diaz-Balarts, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Marco Rubio and even David Rivera (that’s if he’s still out of jail, or in office). And don’t be surprised if we turn back the clock to the Bush era of travel to once ever three years – no exceptions.

Then there’s respect for women. Republicans jumped all over U.S. Rep. Todd Akin (R-Missouri) when he split rape into two classes – legitimate and… illegitimate? But if you look at the Party’s platform carefully you will note that Akin wasn’t far from where Republicans stand on the issue of legitimate rape. They simply refer to it differently. They define it as forcible. Is there any other?

Rape is a horrible act of violence. And I do not wish it on anyone. Let’s make that perfectly clear. But I’ve often wondered how these misogynistic idiots would react if the person being raped was a daughter, wife, or family member? Would they question them? Ask them if it was legitimate? “What do you mean dad?”

Then there’s abortion and the belief that a woman MUST have the rapist’s child, even if it endangers the life of the mother. It’s easy to see that neither Akin nor Ryan will ever be faced with that dilemma. But they’ll gladly legislate for those who run that risk. Of course, if you’re Akin you believe that “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to … shut that whole thing down.” In other words, a woman can’t get pregnant if the rape was “legitimate.”

And you want these guys leading the country?

An Obama loss in November necessarily turns the country further to the right. At a time when we are experiencing the most unequal distribution of wealth and income in our modern history, we will cater to the rich and assure them even greater tax breaks. In hopes, I suppose, of that crumb that might fall from the table to help the unfortunate.

And don’t dare cut from our military. In fact, let’s throw more wasteful dollars at them. And how to afford that? Simple, let’s cut education, slash Social Security and slowly but surely eliminate Medicare and Medicaid.

Of course, the Romneys and Ryans of this country don’t look at the facts. Or they don’t care to. A recent Harvard study shows that approximately 45,000 people die every year because they are not able to get to a doctor.

With Romney and Ryan, a lousy health care system should only become worse. That’s unless you’re rich or are 65 years old and in perfect health. And by perfect I mean not even a hint of mild hypertension.

Oh and they’ve promised to fix a Social Security system they claim is broken. It is one of the programs they blame for our insufferable deficit.

Liars! The fact is that Social Security has NOT contributed a penny to the deficit. It currently sits on a $2.7 trillion surplus. Without touching it Social Security can pay out every benefit owed for the next 21 years.

But Romney and Ryan insist that Social Security will run out of money. Not true. Especially if Obama adheres to his 2008 campaign promise to lift the cap on taxable income on millionaire, Social Security recipients from $110,000 (where it stands now) to $250,000. That simple move would create solvency for another 75 years.

Also, with Romney and Ryan say goodbye to college grants for our kids. And the alarming rise in poverty in this country over the past decade should spike even higher with these two.

The statistic that tells us that 22% of all of our children live in poverty – 40% of those in deep poverty – in the richest country on earth is shameful. Do you think Romney cares? Is he even aware? Remember his wife boasted during last week’s convention of toughing it out when they first got married, eating spaghetti and living in what has now been reported was a house that cost them $850,000 – back then…

So let’s agree that Obama has been somewhat of a disappointment. So much promise and, for some, little return. But look at our options.

There you have it. You can vote for Obama or you can opt for a change – and a return to a bolder, much tougher and nastier Bush-like presidency starting in January 2013.

The choice, I think, is perfectly clear.