Mitt Romney certainly tightened the race after the first debate and made the last few weeks quite interesting. However, the bottom line is we the American people realizing we could not afford to start all over, ultimately made the right decision, and re-elected President Obama. Obviously, there is a lot of work ahead and the only way this country, the United States, will be able to finish the job of restoring this country to greatness is if we first of all recognize that this country is in a dire situation; and although we certainly still need the necessary checks and balances of the two party system the politics of partisanship is crippling this country and we MUST learn to work together. Obama won the Electoral College quite handily, but barely eked out the popular vote which was 51 to 49 percent – our country is deeply divided and this has to change.
We recently witnessed how much more effective and efficiently things can get done when Governor Chris Christie (R) of NJ and pre – hurricane sandy staunch opponent of Obama, elected to put partisanship in his back pocket and embrace Obama’s administration’s effort to stabilize the ravaged state. It’s unfortunate and perhaps now a silver lining that it took a deadly disaster to open our eyes, disregard party affiliation and focus on policy that works, not whether one is a democrat or republican. The republican House of Representatives must heed Christie’s prudent actions and permit the president to finish his job and carry out his plan to make this nation prosperous and safe once again. The United States’ legislators have to get in that extreme state of voting for “whatever works legislation” and convince their constituents that this is the only path to recovery.
This is a laundry list of what we have on our collective plate:
Create jobs, jobs, and more jobs – the economy is on everyone’s mind and this is now our #1 priority.
This country is comprised of the most culturally diverse and eclectic population on the planet. What makes this nation unique and wonderful is we’re protected by the first amendment which enables each and every individual to practice any given religion, adopt any opinion and voice one’s opinion and even vehemently criticize anyone who attempts to impede this right. However, regardless of our differences we must work together as one. (As an incidental note, did you see the crowd supporting Romney when he gave his concession speech, a sea of white faces, and with Obama’s audience, what we saw was every race, creed, culture, etc. represented – it was a true microcosm of the nation in which we live).
To reiterate what I’ve written and what Obama said – Action not politics.
We must reduce the monumentally prodigious deficit of 16 trillion dollars.
We have to cut our dependence on foreign oil and continue to invest in alternative ways of energy. I know Romney continually brought up the fact that we spent 90 billion dollars on solar. Well, sorry Mr. Romney we can’t continue to extract fossil fuels, we have to stop being so selfish and start thinking about our grandchildren.
Tax the rich. We haven’t had such disparity between the haves and have nots and no middle class since the gilded age (1877 – 1893 due to industrial revolution – another blog).
Make sure Iran does not get nuclear weapons.
Syria and the Arab Spring is still crazy – we have to keep an attentive eye on this precarious situation.
We have to carefully and intelligently wind down the war in Afghanistan.
We have to ensure we keep pace and ultimately surpass China.
We all hate war, but we must somehow intelligently remain #1 militarily but at the same time cut out wasteful spending.
Immigration issues.
I personally love the arts and humanities and there is a place in our society for them (we need to cut here – big time. Do your artwork or writing after work, that’s what I do, why do you need federal funds? P.s. – just for now – another blog) but what we have to focus on and encourage our young people to get interested in is STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). The world caught up to us after so many years and one can have the greatest economic plan in the world, but if you don’t have STEM, it’s MEANINGLESS. Invest in Stem. Give federal grants to STEM. STEM creates jobs – period.
Well, WhaDaYaThink ? What do you think ? Mitt Romney was certainly very gracious when he gave his concession speech and basically echoed all of the issues I raised here about working together, but he spent almost a billion dollars on a losing cause. I’m sure he was crying and punching inanimate objects when he left the stage – if not, his investors certainly were.