As the 2012 Presidential election approaches this November, I’ve found myself asking my conscience whether or not I can limit my blog presence to a pure conversation about writing, when I know the welfare of my own son hangs in the balance of this election.
I weighed my work as a writer and independent editor against my love for my son—
And my love for my son won.
America
So I’m posting this page for everyone who believes in equality for all Americans and the unbelievable importance of preserving our country from the neo-conservative radicals who have seized control of the leadership of our modern Republican Party.
Of course, these voters are finding it terribly difficult to sort the truth from the lies—especially when the liars control their own party, in which they sincerely believe, and are so polished and professional about lying.
As one commentator said after the first 2012 Presidential debate, “Who wants the most to win? Romney, I think.” Of course he does. Because he has the most to gain personally and financially from seizing control of one of the richest countries on earth.
Wanting to control a country and being good at it are two different things.
The United States—Bipartisan Unity
Although I’m a lifelong Democrat, many of these intelligent, caring middle-class Republican voters are my family and loved ones, people whose lives were drastically affected by the economic crash and the radical neo-con policies that caused it.
Middle-class blue-collar Americans took the economic crash right in the teeth. The crash deeply affected me and my husband as well, although in our tax bracket we pay taxes between two and three times as high as Romney’s. (This says more about Romney than it does about us.)
And we have all seen our country begin to recover from that economic crash under the Obama Administration, particularly in the blue-collar sector, although the damage was so extensive and had been building throughout so many years of neo-con leadership that it couldn’t possibly all be repaired in one short Presidential Administration, particularly in the face of hardline neo-con partisan obstructionism in Congress.
Much of what Obama has worked so very hard to accomplish has been defeated by neo-cons in Congress over the past four years for no other reason but this election: so they could claim, “He didn’t fix our mess.”
We’ve seen this moment coming for four years, haven’t we?
And who pays for that obstructionism?
Why, we Americans do, of course.
People, all of our extended families are made up of both Democrats and Republicans, both liberals and conservatives. . .those families we love. All of our cities, towns, neighborhoods, and communities are made up of both. . .those friends and neighbors we love.
No matter what our party affiliations, we in this country are all Americans—we’re all in this together.
Education
So I’ve found a blogger who has put together lists of both Obama’s and Romney’s political records with citations: Milt Shook.
And I thought you’d like to know that I’ve created a comment for online articles on the Presidential campaign below. Even though I’m always socked-in up to my eyeballs, working with editing clients and raising my wonderful teenager, I try to find a little time throughout the week to read recent articles and add Shook’s research to the comments.
If anyone would like to use this comment below on any online articles you find, please feel free to use it. I do believe in education as the source of all informed decisions.
This is not a partisan issue anymore.
It’s about the American people claiming our own: America.
PLEASE VOTE.
best,
Victoria
Thank you for the link to the video of the steelworkers, Jesus Maria Alvarez, who fled Communist Cuba with his family as a child forty years ago, to seek sanctuary in the freedom of democracy that we are so privileged to have here the United States.
“Don’t boo Romney. VOTE.”—President Barack Obama, Denver, October 4, 2012
“I believe in the American spirit,” President Barack Obama said. “A President must care about 100% of their people.”
Obama said that on film here:
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fNUQQBE8iE”
In America, “47% of the people believe they are victims,” Mitt Romney said. “That 47% believe they are entitled—entitled [emphasis Romney's]—to health care, food, and housing. These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. It’s not my job to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them to take responsibility for their lives.”
Hmmm.
The steelworkers in the video above pay income tax. They take responsibility for their lives. I’m guessing that you, reading this, pay income taxes and take responsibility for your lives. My husband and I pay 35% income tax. We sure as heck take responsibility for our lives!
Is Romney “relying on the government to take care of” him in sheltering him from paying his fair share of taxes? Is Romney “taking responsibility” by paying only a fraction of the taxes that those of us in the American middle-class pay?
Is that what it’s “not his job” to worry about us?
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all are created equal, endowed with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”—the US Constitution
Did Romney really dismiss in contempt all of us Americans who pay taxes more than twice as high as his, as well as the basic tenant of our US Constitution, when he thought he was speaking secretly to potential billionaire donors behind closed doors, claiming it’s “not his job” to care about almost half the people whose President he hopes to become?
Could Romney do such a thing to the American people?
Romney’s handlers claim debates are no place for “fact-checking” and that Romney will not be limited by “fact-checkers.”
A Presidential candidate who doesn’t want to be fact-checked?
What could that possibly mean. . .other than lying?
Apparently, Romney’s handlers claim it means they disagree with “facts” because they like “empirical data.” However, “empirical data” are “facts.” A “fact,” according to the OED, is “a thing that is known or proved to be true,” and “data” is “a collection of facts,” while “empirical” simply means anything at all “verifiable by observation or experience.”
Empirical data = [observed or experienced] facts = the truth
This is a particularly meaningless red herring designed to fool Republican voters into believing there is a difference between two identical terms and confuse them about why the facts, when checked, don’t match what Romney says.
This is also why President Obama doesn’t object to being fact-checked.
By mid-October, 2012, the Obama campaign had broken all previous records for number of individual donations with 10,000,000 donations from Americans of all walks of life. That’s ten million Americans not only voting for Obama, but investing their hard-earned money in a future lead by him. (And we all know exactly how hard-earned that money is these days.)
Please—read, follow up citations to their sources, educate yourself.
Don’t be bought by simple-minded television ads paid for by billionaires who hope to gain financially by your loss.
Make an informed decision about what’s best for you and for America.
MILLLICENT G. DILLON, the world's expert on authors Jane and Paul Bowles, has won five O. Henry Awards and been nominated for the PEN/Faulkner. I worked with Dillon on her memoir, The Absolute Elsewhere, in which she describes in luminous prose her private meeting with Albert Einstein to discuss the ethics of the atomic bomb.
LUCIA ORTH is the author of the debut novel, Baby Jesus Pawn Shop, which received critical acclaim from Publisher’s Weekly, NPR, Booklist, Library Journal and Small Press Reviews. I have edited a number of essays and articles for Orth.
SCOTT WARRENDER is a professional musician and Annie Award-nominated lyricist specializing in musical theater. I work with Warrender regularly on his short stories and debut novel, Putaway.
STUART WAKEFIELD is the #1 Kindle Best Selling author of Body of Water, the first novel in his Orcadian Trilogy. Body of Water was 1 of 10 books long-listed for the Polari First Book Prize. I edited his second novel, Memory of Water and look forward to editing the final novel of his Orcadian Trilogy, Spirit of Water.
ANIA VESENNY is a recipient of the Evelyn Sullivan Gilbertson Award for Emerging Artist in Literature and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. I edited Vesenny's debut novel, Swearing in Russian at the Northern Lights.
TERISA GREEN is widely considered the foremost American authority on tattooing through her tattoo books published by Simon & Schuster, which have sold over 45,000 copies. Under the name M. TERRY GREEN, she writes her techno-shaman sci-fi/fantasy series. I am working with her to develop a new speculative fiction series.
CHRIS RYAN drew acclaim from the New Yorker for the hook to his novel Heliophobia. He is the author of poetry collection The Bible of Animal Feet from Farfalla Press. I edited Ryan’s debut novel The Ishmael Blade and worked with him to develop Heliophobia and his work-in-progress Pogue.
JUDY LEE DUNN is an award-winning marketing blogger. I am working with her to develop and edit her memoir of reconciling her liberal activism with her emotional difficulty accepting the lesbianism of her beloved daughter, Tonight Show comedienne Kellye Rowland.
In addition, I work with dozens of aspiring writers in their apprenticeship to this literary art and craft.
