Today is D-Day for America, it is Election Day! Today, millions of American citizen get to vote, either for Mitt Romney or for Barack Obama. They are choosing the future direction of their country.
Even though I am really interested in politics, it was not my intention to blog about this year’s election. I saw that a lot of my colleagues blogged about it so I didn’t want to bore you out of your mind with it too. But while browsing through the www.nytimes.com I came across a great article and felt the need to share my view on the election with you, the world.
The article was written by Joseph E. Stiglitz. Joseph Stiglitz, a winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics and a former chief economist of the World Bank, is University Professor at Columbia University. I am going to relate to his article in this post but won’t stick to everything he said so if you are interested in the whole article check it out:http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/stiglitz-some-are-more-unequal-than-others/
Let me start with a quote from Mr. Stiglitz that probably describes this election the best: “This election has rightly been characterized as one that will deeply affect the future direction of the country: Americans are being given a choice with potentially large consequences. One arena in which there are profound differences that has not been adequately debated is the future course of inequality.”
Inequality has grown into a really big problem the USA has to deal with. Don’t get me wrong, inequality can be found everywhere around the world but lately it is maybe best shown in America due to the election and Mitt Romney, the republican candidate.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan (his candidate for vice president) were very explicit when it comes to inequality, in their opinion it should be talked about only behind closed doors. In the public they are trying to portray themselves as compassionate conservatives, a duo that cares for the well-being of every single citizen in their country when in reality it could not be further from the truth. What they want to do is maybe best shown in Ryan’s budget numbers. His budget proposal cuts down the programs that serve those at the bottom and enriches those at the top. Basically, the poor will become poorer and the rich richer. Another example of how Romney & Ryan are “promoting” inequality is the health care program and education. Every advanced European country has recognized the right of everyone to access health care and that was also central to President Obama’s health care reform. Instead of supporting the health care system, from which millions of Americans will benefit, Romney & Ryan criticized it without presenting the public their idea of how the health care system should look like. What we can read between the lines is that, in their opinion, health care should only be for the rich ones, just like college. I don’t even want to start with Romney’s speech where he said that those who don’t have enough money shouldn’t go to college that college should only be for the rich Americans. Does this guy know what that would mean for the American economy and its people?
Over time America has become the country with the least equality of opportunity. What happened to the American dream? The top 1% takes in about a fifth of the income, and controls more than a third of the wealth and the middle class is falling behind. Recession has made this whole process even worse; the wealth of a typical household is back to where it was in the 1990s. With his campaign Mitt Romney isn’t doing anything else but ruining the middle class. Many of the rich, like Romney himself, are avoiding taxes because of numerous loopholes that favor the rich, such as avoiding paying taxes by putting the money on various off-shore bank accounts around the world in for example Switzerland or on the Cayman Islands. Were the rich paying a fair share, would not only the middle class benefit from it but also the deficit of the USA would be smaller and the economy would grow.
I could go on about Romney and his “brilliant” ideas on how to govern the country during the next 4 years but then I would never end this post. His stance on abortion and women rights and his statements during the Europe tour are, in my opinion, just too much to handle for a normal person. What kind of idiot do you have to be to walk out of a building in London during the Olympic Games and state to the press that you just had a secret meeting with the MI6 chief!?
Let me just move onto Obama because talking about Romney doesn’t make sense anymore. Barack Obama may not have done as much as he should but we have to take in consideration the time he got elected and the inheritance of George W. Bush. He might have even underestimated the problems America was dealing with. When Obama became president of the USA it was the year 2009, the USA as well as the rest of the world, were dealing with the global economic crises (and still are) and that didn’t leave to much space for dealing with other problems. But with time passing by he got better and better in what he was doing. We must mention some of his achievements during these four years such as the Obama health care system, the withdrawal of American soldiers from Iraq, the fight against terrorism (locating and killing Osama bin Laden), and his education policies. Honestly said he could have done far more, had he not faced such strong opposition in Congress. But I personally think that he will be able to do more if he wins this election which I am strongly cheering for. Now the burden of re-electing will be taken of his back and he will be able to dedicate himself more to the economic growth and the well-being of all Americans. And at the end of the day he is not perfect, no one is but he did far more than his predecessors and he deserves another chance to show the world what he is really capable of. YES WE CAN and GOBAMA J
Now America, it is all up to you but remember your choice affects not only you but the rest of the world too. So who will you vote for?
Presidents are people too :)
P.S. Last week I was home and guess who visited Zagreb!? HILLARY CLINTON!! She was 20 meters away from me! I should have shouted “HILLARY!“ Maybe then we could have had a little chat on the election ;) I missed my chance, hopefully I will get another one :D
Hillary Clinton and the Croatian President Ivo Josipović
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