Oct. 28, 2012
Dr. E. Faye Williams
(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Many Americans have already gone to the polls. Others will go soon to make a collective decision that will determine the direction of this country for the next half-century or more. From where I sit, the choice could not be clearer.
President Barack Obama’s positions have been firmly rooted in fairness and opportunity. Middle-class and small business tax cuts, development of manufacturing jobs, huge investments in education, infrastructure, and employment re-training to prepare our workers for a new generation of jobs support his ideal of growth from the middle. The First Lady said it best, “When you walk through the door of opportunity, you leave it open for those who follow.”
Questions surrounding Romney’s own taxes highlight concerns that his only interest is to “redistribute” more money from the working-class to the wealthy. After all, he has said that 47 percent of Americans are unwilling to take personal responsibility-- undeserving of the benefits they receive. He’s told us how he “enjoys firing people,”how we should’ve “let Detroit go bankrupt,” and that “corporations are people.”
Health of Americans in general--women, specifically, has been an emphasis of the President’s first term. Obamacareanswers questions of public health that have been asked for over a century and achieves a goal presidents have tried to reach for over fifty years. President Obama created a comprehensive program that’ll increase delivery while lowering costs of care, and we women have greater control over our bodies.
Although his Massachusetts health plan is a near duplicate of Obamacare, Romney’s current prescription for the ill American is to go “to the emergency room.” He suggests protections for those with pre-existing conditions, but, when his veil of misrepresentations is lifted, we learn that unless people maintain uninterrupted insurance they are not eligible.
When President Obama came into office, he was faced with two unfinanced wars—one of which we entered under the deception of the Bush Administration’s lie of Weapons of Mass Destruction. The President has fulfilled his promise to end our involvement in the war in Iraq and has pledged to withdraw our forces from Afghanistan by 2014. Immediate withdrawal from any war is an unrealistic expectation, but the President has authored a plan of transition that’ll get us out of Afghanistan under the best possible circumstance. He has eliminated the threat of Osama Bin Laden and many of his supporters to the world.
For years, Romney sat on the sidelines and condemned the President for “telegraphing” our military withdrawals – first from Iraq and now from Afghanistan. He has simultaneously advocated greater and then lesser US military involvement in the Middle East, and has even suggested preemptive armed conflict with Iran. The war weary American spirit and shrinking treasury should fear this saber-rattling.
It’s obvious the Romney team has begun to understand the aversion of the uncommitted voter to his ultra-conservative views. In these few days before the election, Romney is engaging in, as President Obama said in the last debate, “airbrushing”history by moderating his previously stated positions. He’s trying to make himself more palatable by misrepresenting his philosophies of governance. In other words, he’s saying whatever he feels is necessary to win. I don’t believe the American people will accept the many Romney “U” turns.
Life’s experiences have generally shown me that most people place a great value on truth and consistency. We select friends and close associates on those qualities and the selection of our elected representatives usually follows suit. The reasons for Romney’s level of popularity, despite his many misrepresentations, suggests unfounded animus toward our President rather than an appreciation for Romney.
The choice that is so clear is that we can choose the radical uncertainty of a known prevaricator or we can continue our movement FORWARD.
(Dr. E. Faye Williams is Chair of the National Congress of Black Women. www.nationalcongressbw.org. 202/678-6788)