Feeling stressed is natural today. It almost feels as if the media had deliberately set out to play with our emotions regarding the re-election of Obama as President of the United States. We must not bait those who have different views from our own – we must remember that as Liberals, we are models that others should base themselves upon.
We must remember the sage words of Thomas Jefferson, the principle writer of the Declaration of Independence, that “I have never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy as cause from withdrawing from a friend.”
If discussing the Obama Administration, we must gentle remind those who voted across the aisle that many of the voting points that FOX News had been advocating didn’t happen, but it will take some ammunition to do it.
Guns: Obama didn’t take away or even threaten gun ownership– in fact he expanded gun carry laws on Amtrak and in National Parks. According to the Washington Post, “I’m not going to take away your guns,” Obama promised in September 2008. However, he advocated closing the loophole that allows for gun purchases without background checks at gun shows and for reinstating the assault weapons ban.Obama kept his promises to gun owners but not to gun control advocates, who have been frustrated by the White House’s lack of interest. The president signed bills allowing guns in national parks and on Amtrak. He has not pushed for the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban — and Attorney General Eric Holder was reportedly chastised for suggesting he would. Nor has he moved towards closing the gun-show loophole.”
God: Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan has made much hay about the Democratic Platform’s lack of religious fervor. He is doubly wrong. The DNC Platform begins with this phrase “”Faith has always been a central part of the American story,” allowing more faiths to come under the American umbrella, while not ignoring the 19.6% of people polled by The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released on October 9th, 1202.
Isreal: Politico’s POTUS Blog reported on September 5th, 2012 that it was proper to include God and Jerusalem in the DNC Platform, asserting that Jerusalem be the proper capital of Israel. “President Obama ordered his staff to have the Democratic Party’s platform language changed to include God and affirm Jerusalem as the proper capital of Israel, a campaign source said Wednesday. Obama ordered his staff to make the change, the source said, and Democrats followed by restoring language on both on a floor vote.”
The Deficit: In the first debate, Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney claimed that President Obama had doubled the deficit. That’s just not true. According to the Christian Science Monitor on October 5th, “When President Obama took office in 2009 the deficit was already running at close to a record-setting pace. At the end of that fiscal year, it was $1.4 trillion. That’s “trillion” with a “T”. Ouch. Fiscal 2012 ended on Sept. 30. The final figures aren’t yet in, but at the moment the Congressional Budget Office projects the deficit will be … (drum roll) $1.1 trillion. So smaller. Not doubled at all.” There is more work to be done, but the GOP doubling claim is just hunkum.
The Founding Fathers started the USA as a Christian Nation: Not so. The Treaty of Tripoli, signed on November 4th, 1796, clearly stated “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen [Muslims],—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan [Muslim] nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.” This treaty was instigated by President George Washington, signed by President John Adams, and unanimously accepted by the U.S. Senate. “And I do hereby enjoin and require all persons bearing office civil or military within the United States, and all other citizens or inhabitants thereof, faithfully to observe and fulfill the said Treaty and every clause and article thereof.” The Treaty was then printed in the Philadelphia Gazette and two New York newspaper- there was little public objection at the time.
Regulation of businesses: Romney claimed in the second debate, that “the rate of regulations quadrupled under this president.” Again, not true. “Under Obama he most up-to-date figures show about 8.5 percent fewer regulations in Obama’s first 46 months than in the same time frame for Bush. That tally comes from the Office of Management and Budget.” Romney got his figures from the Heritage Foundation, a far Right think tank founded by Jerry Falwell.
Cutting taxes on the wealthy lowers unemployment: Not according to a recent study conducted over six decades of American economic history it doesn’t. “Cutting taxes for the wealthy does not generate faster economic growth, according to a new report. But those cuts may widen the income gap between the rich and the rest, according to a new report. A study from the Congressional Research Service — the non-partisan research office for Congress — shows that ‘there is little evidence over the past 65 years that tax cuts for the highest earners are associated with savings, investment or productivity growth.’ In fact, the study found that higher tax rates for the wealthy are statistically associated with higher levels of growth,” reported CNBC’s Robert Frank.
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