Yes, our system is corrupt.  Stinkingly corrupt.  Corporate money flows into both party’s veins like a junkie who has hit a good vein with some even better gear.  Big money hedges its bets, pouring cash into both parties, hoping that whoever prevails does their bidding.  And to a large extent they’ve been successful. Banks and Wall Street basically deep sixed the American economy, only to see both their supposed “industries” propped back up by federal dollars, with nary a cocksucker facing any real prosecution.  Money talks, and were I dictator of America–which I should be–all of those responsible would be up against the wall and shot.  I really believe that those responsible should be tried and done away with.  I actually support the death penalty in its purest form: I only oppose it in America because it’s only meted out to the poor.

“So how could you support Obama?” my ultra-left and libertarian friends moan.  He is just as bad as any Republican.  ”Both parties are just a puppet show to keep the peasants occupied while they suffer a massive, collective, assrape” After all, didn’t our hero, Bill Hicks, say something of the sort?  ’The puppet on the left and the puppet on the right…’

Sure.  This all sound neat and revolutionary. Such boiling-downs make me want to vote for Gary Johnson or set fire to a lot full of SUV’s… until you consider day to day affairs, and actually look at the REAL differences between the supposed same cats.

Yeah, we’re gettin’ no HUGE change tomorrow, or the next day, but real steps have been taken to improve our collective lot as Americans, and Barack HUSSEIN Obama has held up the torch, more often than not.

This is why I voted for him, TWICE.

 

1. GAY RIGHTS

I am not gay, but I have had the fortune to spend much of my life in the company of gay men.  I spent 20 years as a theater actor, and just MAYBE, as a result, came to know gays in a way that some other folks didn’t. It’s nothing special: I just happened to hang out with a lot of gay folks, got over my shit and got used to it. But I also saw, in the 80′s, how some–not all–had to hide their truth–at the same time their brothers were dying of AIDS.

Cut to now, when much of America is coming around: Just today Washington State (my home) and Maryland just approved GAY MARRIAGE as law, adding them to the list of: Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont have already followed suit.

This year Obama came out and threw the FULL WEIGHT OF THE PRESIDENCY behind gay marriage.

Romney and most of the GOP continually opposed it at every step.

This is a CIVIL RIGHTS issue, and those that fight it are on the wrong side of history.

So, I support Obama.

 

2. UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE

EVERY industrialized country in the world guarantees at least basic health care to its citizens, EXCEPT the USA.  Obama ran on expanding health care to all.  And he achieved it.

Okay, is the plan perfect?  No.  It puts billions into the industry who have been the biggest douchefucks all along.  It requires people to buy a product, which doesn’t sit well with any American.  Those of us on the left want government insurance: SINGLE PAYER PLAN.  The right wants nothing… no ideas… no solutions… just shameful market ‘solutions’ which are nothing of the sort.

No one is satisfied with Obamacare.  But it’s much better than NO CARE.  Insurance companies must insure dependents; they can no longer deny people for already being sick.

It’s a step in the right direction.  Health care is a RIGHT.  Not a privilege determined by lucky birth or a good job.  Obama is the first President since LBJ to pass such sweeping social reform.  The people who are already covered may be dragged kicking and screaming into the future, but 40 million Americans uninsured????

That’s some SHAMEFUL SHIT.

And Obama’s made the first real stride in fixing it.

Romney’s FIRST ACT as President was to abolish Obamacare.

They are exactly the same???

 

3. WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Again, a civil rights issue, that only one side remedies.

The Christian right is on the constant offensive against abortion.  I actually can understand that.  I was party to an abortion many years ago, and it haunts me.  I don’t like the practice.  Personally I think it’s a terrible thing to undertake…  The guilt still festers…  but I will never back a law banning the practice, as it’s a woman’s choice.  End of.  And we recently had a crop of fundies who talked about “legitimate rape” and rape being “God’s will” and other such religious nonsense.

Holy shit.  Thank God all of their political careers were aborted at the polls, late term as it was.

Barack Obama stands with the women of American.  He does not want to overturn Roe v Wade.  He believes women should receive equal pay for equal work and back it up with legislation (Lilly Ledbetter Act, 2009).

Romney said he would actively work to overturn Roe v Wade.  He said time and time again that he would “abolish Planned Parenthood”.

The same?

 

4. SUPPORT FOR THE ARTS

The Obama administration has continued funding for the arts through the NEA and PBS.  Romney clearly stated that, in some sort of silly attempt to balance the budget without a single defense cut, he would save money by completely defunding “Sesame Street”, which is of no surprise, since the show has been viewed as some sort of socialist primer by the right since its inception in the late 60′s.

Who knows, maybe they’re right?  I’m a European-style socialist, and I grew up watching Sesame Street, though it’s New York-centric neighborhood focus always made it a bit alien to me.  After all: There weren’t any Puerto Ricans in Nisqually Valley.

The GOP wants to divorce arts of any public funding.  I can get behind that, since as an artist, I’ve witnessed tons of lame, cumbaya-art get the lion’s share.  But a lot of good artists have managed to be given the time to focus on some good shit with government funding.  And even if they are assholes, Big Bird isn’t, nor will he (she?) ever will be.

 

5. UP FROM HIS BOOTSRAPS

Barack Obama was born in Hawaii to a strange family with no money, and became the President of the United States of America through circumstance and brilliance.  So did Bill Clinton.  And Harry Truman. And Abe Lincoln

They both were working class.  They know the gig.

Romney was born rich and got richer.  His dad was a Governor.

The rich already have a leg up.  I’ll take the guy who actually worked his way up.

 

6. ELECTING AND THE RE-ELECTING A BLACK PRESIDENT MEANS SOMETHING

Ours is nation of a terrible racist past. We were damned in the world for it.  Yet, we overcame, and have elected a black man President not once, but TWICE.

This is a point of pride for me.  Every time I get European or other America-haters I just point to our highest office and say: “Would this be possible in your country?”

 

7. LESS INTERVENTIONIST FOREIGN POLICY

And it is just that: Yes we had jets bombing Libya, but there were no troops.  Obama has ended the Iraq War, and he’s doing his best in Afghanistan, but we clearly need to get out.  But I guarantee no new wars on his watch, unless WE, as the USA, are attacked.  He’s not going to hit Iran; he’s not going to threaten North Korea.

Yes, he’s not going to immediately going to get us out of foreign entanglements, Ron Paul Style, but he’s not going to invent new ones, either.

 

8. SCIENCE PREVAILS

Both Romney and Ryan are climate change deniers, along with over half of the GOP base, despite the OVERFUCKINGWHELMING evidence.  Much of the GOP also denies evolution.

Obama does not.

I’ll just stop there.

 

9. WORLD ESTEEM

I’m an expat. As a result I have to shoulder the reputation of American wherever I go.  Most Americans don’t own passports.  And when posed with question, the conservatives just say: “Who cares what the rest of the world thinks?”

Well… I do… So do my friends.  I could link the world poll but it’s of no use.  Over 80 percent of the OCD country’s citizens prefer Obama.  And trust me: They don’t just PREFER Obama. They love him.

Obama has been the best thing to happen to the USA’s image since we defeated Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.  He has done SO MUCH to repair our image abroad.  I am aware that many of my American friends don’t know, or don’t care.

But I do.

 

 

Okay, so he signed the NDAA, a CLEARLY unconstitutional document that shall be struck down, in time.  Some of my friends gave him the finger there.  That was it.  But I am more practical.

Several Presidents have signed extra-constitutional measures during wartime.  Our best, arguably:

Lincoln, FDR, and now Obama.

Damn him for it, fair enough.  But give him credit for the other.

 

Take me to town.  Call me a dick.

But Barack Hussein Obama has been more of a force of good than bad, for America.

 

I gladly voted for him twice.

 

They are NOT the same.  Fuck your puppet show.  Just ask your gay friends…