Election Day – Choices

Tomorrow many Americans will get up and at some point head out to the polls to cast their vote for President of the United States. It is an awesome responsibility that sadly a lot of citizens will not engage in.

Some won’t because they feel disenchanted by the whole system, where their vote doesn’t matter because they live outside the “important” county. Those of us who live in Illinois understand that feeling very well. In the last election here for Governor, Pat Quinn was labeled as the “Governor of Chicago” because he managed to win only 3 of the states 102 counties. However, he only needed one, Cook County to actually win.

I wrote about this before in “The election and YOUR vote.”

Others don’t vote due to a sense of apathy. They are sick and tired of all the “politics” and the never ending stream of ads. They honestly hate both parties but believe in their hearts that voting for an independent is just a waste of time because of the financial juggernaut that is the republican and democratic parties.

The worst is the last category, and that is our military. Many of them won’t because ballots have not gotten to them. That is something we as Americans should be angry about. The very people that we send into harms way to protect us are denied this basic right because of what? Laziness? Ineptitude? Where is the outcry? Where is the Department of Justice? They always seem so eager to get involved in alleged voter suppression nonsense. Oops, no apparently I think they don’t do that anymore.

When you go into the polling place tomorrow you need to be honest with yourself. It’s no longer about party but about where we as a nation are heading.

I can’t take four more years of this direction. Everywhere I hear talking heads, pundits and political spin masters twisting and contorting issues and sounds bites to the point I feel like I am at the circus watching a dozen clowns unload out of a mini-car. Here is what matters to me:

• Unemployment remains incredibly high. The numbers don’t add up to a “recovery.”
• We are at 16 Trillion + in debt and no realistic plan for paying it down.
• Welfare has increased
• Health care was rammed down our throats, even though the majority of citizens rejected it.
• Budgets passed in Congress die in the Senate because of a partisan divide.
• Taxes increase along, with costs, and yet our personal wealth continues to decline.
• The government spends our money on alternative fuels that continue to fail, all while continuing to restrict production of fossil fuels.
• The administration that promised transparency from the beginning has been darker than the previous ones.
• Almost two months after the attack on our consulate, we still have no answers. I fear it will end up like Fast and Furious, relegated to the back pages and no answers will ever be given.
• The president blasts the wealthy, but every time I see him he is surrounding himself with celebrities, comedians and the wealthy.
• The president has said he will explore a new assault weapons ban in his 2^nd term.

I am more than willing to debate anyone on the points I have made.

These are only some of the reasons that I cannot vote for the president’s re-election. I believe the direction he wants to continue down is a fool’s folly. It has not and will not work and we have to be willing to admit when we have made a mistake. The president’s ego will not allow him to do that.

Four years ago I issued a warning Campaign Promises – Politics As Usual but it seems everyone was too enamored to care.

Before you pull that lever and cast your vote be honest with yourself: “Are you better off now then you were four years ago?”