The Race for President 2012

How do I see the Denver, Colorado debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama? To sum it up, when a dog begins to bark, sometimes you just got to let him bark. Romney took to the fence and barked his head off, so much that viewers actually witnessed him turning pale at times like his neck tie was too tight, and then turning red like he was going to have a heart attack any minute. I like what Herb Cohen explains in his book, Negotiate This! when it comes to those types of people who see others who start out in a negotiation/conversation/discussion/debate being nice as a weakness. Those

’rat for tat’… operators…are [more] likely to behold your decency as a weakness and lick their chops. This minority tends to observe a soft style and easygoing attitude as a bull notices a red cape. What usually happens with these dog-eat-dog types that they charge, trying to wrap things up quickly. Often they become hostile and confrontational and use all sorts of tactical ploys…But…the countermeasures for any adversarial gambit are to slow down and not to react the way they expect you to…Flow [instead of] fight or freeze…(88-89).

Obama flowed. His message was consistent with what he had said from the very beginning, and because his message is simple regular people can recite it: tax the wealthiest at a higher rate, penalize American companies for taking their companies overseas, continue with Obamacare, invest in education, continue with coal industry [for we know we will still need coal to fuel electric plants], but invest in environmentally safe energy such as, wind and solar power.

Romney on the other hand, didn’t stop talking. He ate up air time and taking turns when it wasn’t even his turn to speak. He began and had the last word in 85% of the questions. I do believe he was trying to get Obama riled up.

Romney talks about states taking over Nat’l Health Care. Tennessee tried that, and many were cut from the roles when the state could no longer afford the health care costs. The reason health care costs over exceeded Tennessee’s ability to cover the non-insured were two-fold: 1) cuts in federal monies to the state to cover the cost, and 2) there was no mandate requiring all Tennesseans to carry health insurance.

Massachusetts, on the other hand, did implement a state-wide insurance program that required all state residents to buy health insurance. Two state public options were given in addition to the multiple private insurance company options. Ninety-eight percent of the residents were insured, which made for a successful implementation of government-mandated health insurance.

So why is Romney against Obamacare? Is he being wrangled by the Republican party’s agenda?

Another federal program on the republican chopping block is food stamps. When it comes to feeding the poor, shouldn’t states be held accountable by the federal government to make sure the poor are getting their fair share of food? And how are the states going to fund such an extensive program? Nuns on a bus traveled across 9 states and met on the steps of Congress to protest Paul Ryan’s cuts to programs that would leave those marginalized hungry, cold, and homeless. The lead nun said that every church across the nation would have to raise $50,000 extra each year just to accommodate the poor, and that amount was unrealistic.

The Republican party wants to privatize social security and defund Medicaid and Medicare, which will become state-governed programs, so there will be 50 different social security options and 50 different health insurance options as a citizen moves from one state to the next. Consistency will be null and void, and who is to say that accountability will be checked?

Selfishness and individualism are consistent themes with the Republican agenda, so Americans should get the hint that they will be left out in the dark not knowing if they will have adequate health insurance coverage since each state will separately negotiate for public options. And how easy is it going to move from one state to the next with such differences in health coverage and social security options? Programs such as these and many more will be shattered, and from the shards, we should wonder if the United States will continue to be a union or will each state be its own separate country? The choice is ours, will we give our country to the dogs or will we pull away from the fence by taxing the 1% and building products “Made in the U.S.A.,” by which, will keep a strong union that takes care of its citizens?