I'd like to ramble on about excuses in the political realm. One of
my relatives does not believe that voting does any good because the
system is corrupt. When a friend of mine tried to offer reasons that
Republican reforms did not pass----that there was a filibuster, or there
were not enough Republicans in Congress, or what not----my relative
replied, "You know, I've spent a long time listening to your excuses."
There
came a time when I was sick of listening to Republican excuses. It
seemed to me that the only time when the problems of the American health
care system were on the table as a topic of national political
discussion was when the Democrats had power. While I thought that
Republicans had good ideas about how to reform health care, they did not
appear (at least to me) to fight for those ideas when they were in
power. Something else that irked me about Republicans was how they
blabbed on about fiscal responsibility when it came to programs that
helped the poor, yet they themselves were not fiscally responsible when
they were in power----when it came to such things as war. And, when I
read in Alan Michael Collinge's The Student Loan Scandal that
Republicans essentially abandoned the principles of economic competition
and fiscal responsibility in order to support the student loan industry
(and Collinge and this article
contend that the student loan industry has benefited John Boehner), I
began to question that the Republican Party truly had my interests at
heart.
But my Republican friends were quick to give me their
excuses. "Even if the Republicans didn't solve the health care
problems, we can't live in the past. We have to stop Obamacare, which
is a threat right now." "The Republicans may have done bad things in
the past, but now they are different."
On the other side of the
spectrum, many people get tired of hearing President Barack Obama's
excuses for the economy not being overly strong. There's only so much
mileage that President Obama can get from blaming the economy on
President George W. Bush. In the eyes of many, there comes a point
where the economy becomes President Obama's economy!
The
thing about political excuses is that they're usually an attempt to
convince other people to support a party or candidate. Personally, I
don't plan to do that. I cannot make another person buy into my
excuses. Another person cannot make me buy into his or her excuses.
It's up to each of us to determine for ourselves which party or
candidate (if any) is worth supporting, and what issues are important to
us. And if one concludes that the political system is so
hopelessly corrupt that there's no point to voting, that's his or her
right, as long as it's realized that others believe that voting may make
some different. Excuses are often an attempt to coerce other people, but there are a lot of people who cannot be coerced, nor should they be.
I'm
not going to make excuses for President Obama, but I will share with
you why I will vote for him, and whether you're convinced is up to you.
President Obama has fought for health care reform that (in my opinion,
despite some of its defects) makes things better. Moreover, I don't
believe that the path to economic growth is to give tax cuts to the
wealthy, who already have record profits, which have not trickled down
to create a booming number of jobs for the American people.
You may have a different perspective.
You may feel that President Obama's policies are discouraging activity
within the business sector by creating uncertainty. You may believe
that Obamacare is a big government policy that increases government
spending and regulations, which make things worse. That's your judgment call. People are entitled to their own opinion. My
goal is not to pressure everyone to see things my way. Rather, as I
said, I'll share what I think, and people can make their own decisions.
I hope I didn't sound condescending in this post, as if I think that people need my
permission to believe a certain way. I feel certain things, and words
are not always adequate as I attempt to express how I feel.