First, Do No Harm

Guest post by Calandreya

I know this will offend some people and I'm sorry about that but I don't actually care what either candidate gives as a plan for their future leadership.  The plans fail.  They seldom, if ever, accomplish even a fifth of what is planned.  Obama, as just one example, intended to do a lot more than actually got done and, truthfully, it's a miracle he's even done as much as he has.  I am not voting for Obama's plan. 

I'm voting for Obama because I trust him to do his best to prevent further harm.  That's all.  It's very sad that this is all I can expect from a candidate but that's where we are, and I suppose it's better than having two candidates that would make things worse.  If he succeeds in marginally making things better, as he has done the past four years, then great.  I don't expect it.

I mentioned in a previous post that Democratic interruptions of a long term trickle down process might be responsible for derailing the plan.  Well, I think Republican interruptions will derail the process of recovery, long or short term.  They've already proven they'll put politics over people, money over ethics, and all of this worries me.  If we don't get some serious changes to our political process, we're doomed as a nation - primarily removal of the hidden money.

We are taking some huge strides backwards and have been for a long while.  We're not even getting one step forward to every two back anymore.  Maybe most people are unaware, in their day to day lives, of how politics affects them in very real dollars and cents.  I think a lot of them are just too busy trying to keep their heads above water - and that some politicians want that ignorance working for them.

There are no consequences for lying in politics.  Any normal person caught lying on a resume would be immediately fired no matter how great they were as an employee, but we can't expect that of our country's leadership.  Average Joe often has to take a drug test to work a nearly meaningless job but we don't ask our Congress - public employees - or our presidential candidates to prove they're not on something mind altering.  I think we should begin holding them to the standards expected of regular citizens, at the minimum.  If we want fair laws applied to us, maybe we have to make them see the unfairness of what they're imposing on us, men and women.

I won't see it in my lifetime but I can dream, too.