On Tuesday night, Barack Obama (unsurprisingly), won the
election against Mitt Romney. Unlike most Republicans, I slowly breathed a sigh of relief because I realized that although the candidate I wanted didn't win, that the country would most likely stay in the same exact position as it was in before. While it certainly isn't perfect, Obama managed to keep the country afloat (alas, not moving forward) and not let us all implode. I took comfort in the fact that on Wednesday morning, I woke up to the election results and everything was exactly the same. We had elected the incumbent President, the Senate was still
controlled by the Democrats and the House was still controlled by the
Republicans. While Obama ran under a campaign slogan of
“Forward," it appears that this round of elections set the government up to
be at a complete standstill.
There is not much that Obama could have done in his campaign
to change how the election for Congress turned out. But it seems that if one
has any hope of trying to move forward, that something has to actually change.
After all, you can’t keep trying the same thing over and over and expect to get
a different answer. Now that the election is over, what can Barack Obama do to
make this divided government move “forward”?
The biggest problem with the election was not who actually
won, but the fact that absolutely nothing changed. Yes, we will see some new
faces in Congress. We will even see some new faces on Obama’s cabinet. Overall,
however, the government is only as strong as its weakest link. And its “weakest
link” is the divided Congress.
President Obama can argue for as much change as he wants,
but there are only a limited amount of changes he can actually make without the
consent of the House and Senate. One change he can make, though, is the way he
works to bring these two polarized groups together. Obama needs to make working
“across the aisle” one of his top priorities during his next term if he hopes
to make an actual step forward.
What Obama needs to do is to bring the two parties together, and not
in the ideological way he tried in the beginning of his first term. By creating
a formal plan (see my previous post on how to change the Presidency) to help
the country move forward by enlisting the help of both parties will actually
allow him to accomplish what he wants. He will need a solid Congress to back
him up. Without his leadership in making the government more bipartisan, there
is no way that this country will ever be able to move “forward.”
I understand what you're saying that our country didn't change much on election night because the president will remain the same and both houses of the legislature hold basically the same configurations. However, I think it's important to distinguish between what Romney would have done for this country in comparison to what Obama has/will do. Obama does continue to move us forward, helping to pass laws that will create progress for our nation. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay act makes an important stride towards equalizing men and women in the workplace, the Affordable Care Act will, in the long run, help to create a more fair healthcare climate for all and a healthier American public, his support of gay marriage lead to the Democratic National Committee adoption the stance as an official party platform, etc. etc. Mitt Romney would have taken our country backwards, with efforts to make abortion illegal and his overall (seemingly) poor treatment of women. But then again, we don't really know what he would have done because no concrete plans were ever discussed or released (shady....). The moral of the story is that Obama does indeed stand for forward progress for America, especially in comparison to the decades of regression that Romney would have instilled.
ReplyDeleteI liked this article because when so many were posting statuses about the death of America or wanting to move to another country I was annoyed. Regardless of who is president, we should respect that we have one of the best working democracies, we are able to exercise the franchise and we ultimately live in America---the land of the free. I think that as American's we can fight to the bitter end for our candidate, but we also must respect our president. At the end of the day whoever wins the election is in fact the President of our great country and there should be some level of respect that comes along with that, regardless of how we feel about his polities. I think its just as bad for people to say what Romney would have done to our country or how he would have set us back. At the end of the day when you look at the economy, social problems and governments of other countries, I would not want to live any other place. I have faith that America will move forward regardless, however if Donald Trump ever decides to come again--- then I'm packing up my bags and moving somewhere tropical.
ReplyDeleteYour outlook is refreshing, given that you feel that even though President Obama has remained in office and his campaign was "Forward," he will have to change something for that to happen. But more than anything I agree that a divided Congress will have to come to some compromise, because it is ultimately them that can make more change at this point. I bothers me that sometimes both political parties won't even allow the other side to present their ideas, simply because they "think" it will be bad an "totally" against their ideology. At the very least, I would like to see less filibustering going on this time.
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