The Choice: It’s an Easy and Obvious One (Part One)

The choice this election is an easy one.  It all boils down to whether you believe in the idea that 1) we are all in this together or b) you believe in every person for himself. If you believe we are all in this together, then you should support President Barack Obama.  If you believe in on-your-ownership, then the other side  has the guy for you, Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney is the candidate of on-your-ownership health care, Medicare, Social Security, student loans, home loans and more. He doesn’t support a minimum wage. He pretends he never got any help or legacy from his wealthy and famous father.  That itself is a lie, but his pretense otherwise feeds the mythology that Mitt is a self-made man. He isn’t.  

Over and over Mitt Romney has told us he doesn’t believe in community response. He doesn’t believe in FEMA (though now his campaign desperately pretends he does). He doesn’t believe in Homeland Security (only Department of “Defense,” which is to say euphemistically, war). Mitt Romney would abolish nearly all of the federal government except the department of war. And you can bet his sons will not serve in the wars he has planned.  They served in their church missions, after all.

Mitt doesn’t even believe in real charity. He and his wife keep talking about their “huge” donation to the Church of LDS. It turns out that the church doesn’t get all that much from Mitt’s various tax avoidance “charity.” But Mitt gets an income and tax deductions along with the money growing tax-deferred anyway.  

President Obama is not only the better choice for the 99%, he is the only one who gets that government is necessary to meet needs citizens alone cannot fill. The nation’s infrastructure depends upon a federal paradigm. But in Mittworld, highways, even those built with public money’s, would be sold off for a song to privateers who could charge whatever they want for us to drive down the highway. Mitt doesn’t even believe in (local) publicly employed police and fire departments. And he has publicly opposed any increase in their hire, via the stimulus. He said we don’t need any more of them! For him it’s everyone for himself and God help us all.

While Mitt Romney opposes more hiring of police and fire personnel, President Obama gets that the resources of our government are most importantly used when our fellow citizens are in crisis. It is the very essence of defense and homeland security. You and I were inspired this week when we saw President Obama and Chris Christie working together to solve storm-related problems. These two leaders understand what Mitt and his supporters do not, we are all in this together. If the Northeast is struggling, so too is America. If the South or Southwest suffers, so too does all of America. There is only the United States of America, not the on-your-ownership America. In Bush and Mittworld we have seen how that would play out.  And it would be a horrendous future for an America which will be much brighter if we realize we are one.  As the hymn goes, “We would be one.”