If you're a woman, this is why you should vote Democrat

On November 6, 2012, you are going to cast your vote. It's your vote; it's your decision. But I ask you, is your decision an informed decision? Is your vote the right one? The United States is in a bit of a pickle right now, an economic pickle, and the Republicans would have you believe they have the right answer. The Democrats have had the last four years to get things turned around and Mitt Romney is telling you Obama has failed. Has Obama failed? Has everyone forgotten that the financial crisis of 2009 which happened under the watch of the last Republican president was the worst economic calamity to have befallen the U.S. since the great crash of 1929? Can anybody including Obama be expected to get everything fixed up neat and tidy in just four years? It has taken decades for the U.S. to dig itself into the deepest hole it has ever seen. Is it going to take just four years to get out?

The Republican Party is trying to scare you. They are trying to scare everybody. The apocalypse is upon us and if we don't vote for them, next stop Hell, fire and damnation. However, the most Conservative elements of the American political landscape including the Tea Party have completely hijacked the GOP. While you listen to their message of economic recovery, they are slipping onto the ballot a number of policies and political views which would turn back the clock to an era of a patriarchal society in which women were second class citizens; they were merely chattel. Think I am exaggerating? Women only got the right to vote in the 1920s; that is less than one hundred years ago. Pay equity? In your dreams. The right to make your own choices about your own body? You're kidding, right?

I took the time to download the PDF files of both The 2012 Republican Platform and The 2012 Democratic Platform. These are the official papers detailing the plans of both parties if they get into office. They are not radically different, they are more like night and day. If the Democrats say white, the Republicans say black. Yes, it is just that different.

"This election is not simply a choice between two candidates or two political parties, but between two fundamentally different paths for our country and our families." (page 1, the 2012 Democratic Platform)

Admittedly if the Republicans took power, they may not be able to implement everything they say they intend to as the opposition will probably vote against them. Nevertheless the platform paper spells out their intent.

Anti-abortion and anti-sex
My argument in this hotly contested debate is rather simple. An abortion represents an unwanted pregnancy. If every pregnancy was a "wanted pregnancy", there would be no abortions. It's just as plain and as simple as that. But to have no "unwanted pregnancies", we must have sex education and birth control. We must have sex education and lots of it, from an early age right up to teenagers but not just stopping with teenagers, educating adults too. To drive a car, you have to study the rules, practise, and then pass a test. Only once you are licensed are you allowed to drive. Imagine, anybody can have sex. Is it any wonder we have so many "traffic accidents"?

The Republican Party is clearly against abortion. But what is truly baffling, they are also against sex education and birth control believing that the only way and I emphasize "the only way" of dealing with this entire issue is abstinence. The glitch? Abstinence doesn't work. The states which push abstinence only sex education have the highest rates of unwanted pregnancies. Why? People who are ignorant about sex do not fully understand the risks and hence think they will "get away with it". Wrong! Promoting abstinence only is like saying that if we all drove safely, we wouldn't need safety belts because we wouldn't have accidents. Any of you want to drive around in your car while not wearing a safety belt? Go ahead but you're not going to catch me running such a risk. Oh, and one more thing. The chances of you succeeding in getting anybody to abstain is just about nil. Why? Think about it. No matter what you say, you are not going to get me to abstain from driving my car. And you are not going to get me to abstain from having sex. Get real. I don't care how much Bible thumping you do, it ain't happenin'.

FYI: Do you like Planned Parenthood? Sex education? Birth control? Abortion counseling? Well, those Republicans have every intention of defunding Planned Parenthood. Yep, you can kiss that service good-bye.

Health Care
The United States is the only advanced industrialised nation in the entire freakin' world which does not offer its citizens universal health care. What? Canada can do this. England can do this. France, Norway, the list goes on but you're telling me you can't? The United States can't do this? Fifty million people have no health insurance because they can't afford it. Every year 18,000 people die unnecessarily because they have no health insurance and they miss out on needed treatment or they get treatment too late. Just today alone, 49 people have died. 343 will die this week. And you tell me you can't do this?

But the Republican boogeyman says that this will bankrupt the nation. Horse manure. The United States is paying more per capita in health care costs than any of the above mentioned countries and yes you still don't have universal care. What? Isn't it about time you rethought what the heck you're doing? But there's the more important idea.

A healthy nation is more productive. A healthy population is better off. Healthy people can work, make a living, and can be independent contributing members of society. If freedom is a right, shouldn't health be a right? If you're sick, believe me, you are not "free". If you want to make sure your children have the best opportunity of getting ahead in life and of succeeding, you need to ensure they are healthy. I'm not saying Obamacare is perfect (it has been watered down somewhat because Republicans demanded it to be changed), but it is a step in the right direction. You need to demand your rights: the right to be free and the right to be healthy.

Socialism, Wealth Redistribution
Since when did chipping in for the collective good become socialism? Since when did helping my neighbour become wealth redistribution? What the hey? We are all citizens of the same country. United we stand, divided we fall. While each of us has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, there is the question of all of us helping one another so that together we are greater than the sum of the parts. America: "I" didn't build it; "we" built it.

Homosexuality
Elton John has married his long-time partner and they have adopted a boy. He's produced some wonderful music and in general, seems like a nice man. The Republicans would treat him as a second class citizen by not just denying him the right to marry, but by potentially outlawing his behaviour, not allowing him to adopt, and treating him as a sick person with a psychological problem that needs to be cured. Am I exaggerating?

In 1952, when the American Psychiatric Association published its first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, homosexuality was included as a disorder.
...
In recognition of the scientific evidence, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the DSM in 1973, stating that "homosexuality per se implies no impairment in judgment, stability, reliability, or general social or vocational capabilities." (Wikipedia: Homosexuality: Psychology)

Where's the truth?

As reported by the University of Southern California, a study of children raised by gay parents showed differences in their behaviour from those raised by heterosexual parents. For example, boys raised by lesbians appear to be less aggressive and more nurturing than boys raised in heterosexual families. While the aggressiveness of males may be attributed in part to the genes of the species, is aggressiveness also a learned behaviour? A study showing that lesbian parents have less aggressive boys would seem to point out that if Junior's a tough guy, he may have gotten that way from imitating dear old Dad.

When the Republicans say they are against same-sex marriage, how close are they to saying homosexuality is evil? Think I'm exaggerating? Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, and Newt Gingrich are but a few names who have at one time or another espoused such ideas. I am concerned about the economy. I am concerned about war and famine. I am concerned about the future with globalization, global warming, and the ravages of diseases like AIDS and cancer. Whether Elton John is homosexual and marries his partner is not exactly at the top of my list of priorities. Heck, it's not even on my list.


Published on Oct 10, 2012 by TheAgendaProject
My Country, My Choice
28 women ask America's politicians: "If you don't trust me with my body, why should I trust you with my country?"

Final Word
I have written a number of articles about the American political scene and the 2012 election. I do not believe in any way that the Democrats are perfect. The United States faces some really really big problems which will require some tough decisions and a lot of effort and sacrifice. The light at the end of the tunnel is not necessarily around the corner and this is going to take years to correct. On the other hand, the Republicans have contributed a lot to the current crisis, do not understand how they contributed to the current crisis, and consequently do not have in any way a plan to right the wrongs. But more importantly, instead of moving the country forward, they want to take the country back to a by-gone era of their forefathers when women were stay at home baby makers and didn't have any rights, homosexuality didn't exist, and a man was a man and he carried a gun to prove it. Wait. They still want to carry a gun! Oh my God!!!

You are a woman. You have the right to choose for yourself. It's your body. You have the right to choose sex education, birth control, and even abortion (but let's hope the first two choices minimize the third choice). I repeat: it's your body. It's your right. If you vote Republican, you are voting to give up those rights. If you vote Republican because you are scared about the economy, I assure you the experts are both critical and baffled by the Republican's plans or lack of plans for addressing this problem. In other words, voting Republican will not solve the economic problems but make them worse.

It's your country. It's your body. It's your right. Vote Democrat. Don't give up what you've fought so hard to get.

"If you don't trust me with my body, why should I trust you with my country?"


References

Check out the site map under the category Politics for all my articles on American politics and the 2012 Election.

My Country, My Choice
There were 156,964,212 women in the country as of 2010, compared to 151,781,326 men.

The PCTC Blog
What has Obama Done? Here Are 200 Accomplishments! With Citations!

The PCTC Blog - Sep 14/2012
Here's What Obamacare Does. Remember, GOP Wants to Take This Away!

my blog: The 2012 Republican Platform: Are ya scared yet?
Scribd.Com has The 2012 Republican Platform and it's downloadable as an Adobe PDF. I have printed it out and read the entire document. The New York Times commented on a draft of this document in an editorial by saying, "The Republican Party has moved so far to the right that the extreme is now the mainstream." Has the GOP lost its way or has it lost its mind?

my blog: The 2012 Democratic Platform: yes you still can
The official web site of the Democrats (Democrats.Org) offers The 2012 Democratic Platform as a downloadable PDF. I have printed and read the entire document. My first impression? Nothing is perfect and I'm sure pundits, armchair generals, and of course the Republicans will be jumping all over this looking for any and all flaws but I'm walking away with a warm and fuzzy. That would contrast sharply, no that would be diametrically opposed to the cold and prickly I felt after reading the GOP's policy paper.

my blog: I've been on food stamps and welfare, did anyone help me out? No.
On Wednesday, September 19, 2012, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was dissecting Mitt Romney's 47% gaffe pointing out how Mr. Romney was misrepresenting the number and insulting a lot of hard working, albeit not well-off people, including veterans and the elderly. He ended the segment by showing the following clip of the actor Craig T. Nelson being interviewed on the Glenn Beck Show on May 28, 2009. Craig T. Nelson on Government Aid: "I've been on food stamps and welfare, did anyone help me out? No."

my blog: Mitt Romney, Lung Cancer, and Common Knowledge
In the 1950s, or the 1960s if you prefer to think of the television series Mad Men, we collectively thought smoking was okay. Today we do not. What we refer to as "common knowledge" has changed. Oh I think if we dug hard enough, we'd realise that today's common knowledge has always around. After all, why have insurance companies always made smokers pay higher premiums? But it has taken a major shift in society and what we call common knowledge to change our collective thinking so that now the norm is to not smoke.

my blog: Romney caught on video: 47% of Americans are Losers
Just how much out of touch are the Republicans? Watching this video of a rich guy, a multimillionaire rich guy estimated to be worth $230 million (The Atlantic) giving his take on the state of the union is jaw-droppingly unbelievable. ... The Republicans... have demonstrated over and over again not just a total lack of understanding about what's going on, but a callous disregard for anyone who is not of their camp or who is not as financially well-off as them.

my blog: Dear Republicans: You ought to be ashamed of yourselves
You believe homosexuality is an abomination based on your interpretation of the Bible, the supposed official word of God. Homosexuals are vilified, ostracized, and in some cases murdered. Yes, murdered. Any chance you might be wrong? Any chance you or your minister might have made a mistake in deciphering just what God may have meant?

my blog: The Right isn't wrong, they're nuts
Is the Earth flat yes or no? Did God create the world six thousand years ago yes or no? Was the collapse of the twin towers of World Trade Center caused by a controlled demolition yes or no? The debates rage on with little possibility at arriving at a mutually acceptable explanation.

my blog: Rape? No problem! Women must have an orgasm to get pregnant.
During an interview, Representative Akin was questioned about his no-exceptions view on abortion. When asked in the case of rape whether a woman who became pregnant should have the option of abortion he replied:

"Well you know, people always want to try to make that as one of those things, well how do you, how do you slice this particularly tough sort of ethical question. First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child."

my blog: Guns: as American as apple pie
You, America, and maybe not all Americans but some, want the right to carry a weapon into Walmart when you buy milk. I can't help thinking that there is a far greater issue at stake here. I'm not talking about your individual freedom to do whatever the hell you want; I am talking about why you want to have a weapon in Walmart in the first place. Seriously. Are you walking around all the time worried, no scared about God only knows what? A terrorist attack? A crazed psycho mass murderer? The evil federal government bashing down the gates of your Waco compound?

my blog: Obamacare: Congratulations on doing the right thing, America!
Obamacare is not perfect. But it is a step is the right direction. Socialism? Is helping your neighbour socialism? Is helping your country socialism? Is spending more on uncompensated charity care than on insuring people not very astute? Is spending more than any other country on health care but only ranking 72nd in the WHO's health assessment ranking something anybody would not want to turn around? Would you let 18,000 people die unnecessarily each year because they have no health insurance? You have a right to be free. You have the right to work, succeed, and travel. Shouldn't you have the right to be healthy?

2012-10-13

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