I haven't posted or replied for a while.
For the next weeks my attention is rivited in doing what I can to avert a tragedy.
What is at stake? The right of gays to marry. The Justices to be selected in the coming years.The protection of the environment, Social Security, Medicare and Medicare-- and a couple dozen other things. That is where all my time and energy is going. The substance of my religion demands that I put these issues first. You may have other motives. This is mine. Several thousand a week read my column. Whether they make any difference I cannot judge. But I will do what I can. If you care to read what I write, here is my column for next week.
POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS IN THIS ELECTION WHICH WILL AFFECT OUR GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN. (10/24)
For a month I have been suggesting the kind of nation and world we want for our great-grandchildren. In the first two columns I suggested a sustainable environment, and a safe peaceful international community. The next column summarized responses to my original question. Then there surfaced the notion that a generative society is one in which there are communities of people who have each other’s backs.
These issues are not just polite matters of discussion. They reveal what a living community might envision as its fundamental goals. Here lie political implications critically important in the coming election. The questions can be clearly put. What kind of social order do we want in the United States, and how will the results of the election make a difference? Will the effect of global warning, which threatens the survival of the planet, be a major concern? Will we live in a less dangerous world, or will the reinstigation of a deadly nuclear arms race dominate both nations and their economies? Will universal health care become a more likely outcome? Will the current trickle-down economic philosophy yield to a more utilitarian perspective—what is the greatest good for the greatest number? Will we increasingly become safe-guarders of our brothers and our sisters?
The core issue is whether we are increasingly a society whose major focus is a persistent individualism in which the economic struggle to the top dwarfs all other social postures, or a social order in which we are all in this together as we seek the common good? Is American society destined to revert to no more than a collection of entrepreneurs who may occupy the same space as the rest of us, but are only committed to the self? Or are we a band of common partners protecting each other’s backs?
Perhaps we must dig through all the political rhetoric, the clever 30 second ads, the hundreds of millions poured into negative depictions, the stump speeches and debate performances to discover how our votes will influence the direction the nation will take.
When you sift through all the rhetoric, it is increasingly clear that if the Republican candidates do not use Ayn Rand’s point of view as a textbook, they and their party are committed to the substance of her philosophy. No better example can be found than Mitt Romney’s leadership of Bain Capital. These equity firms have one simple objective. It is not to create jobs. It is to find ways for the very rich to become even richer. It is also clear that tax cuts for the super rich are not geared to encourage small businessmen and women to hire more workers, but to facilitate the gushing up of America’s wealth. The pledge to do away with Obamacare is not based on a concern for the national deficit, but on a clear objection to anything approaching universal health insurance. The plan to turn Medicare into a voucher system is not to improve coverage, but to throw millions of people who will hit retirement in ten years to the wolves of the stock-market and the voracious appetites of the insurance industry. Gutting Medicaid, and seriously reducing funds for research and development are not proposed to save money, but to inhibit the government from moving the nation ahead. Telling students who need education loans to get them from their parents, is just cruel.
Those who hold that this election will decide the direction of the nation for decades to come are not just throwing out another political slogan. They are rather pointing to a crossroads in the nation’s journey.
While many have strong objections to some of Obama’s policies—the drone war for instance—giving in to the temptation to sit this one out is irresponsible. Not to vote is to vote without considering the alternative! All politics and politicians are flawed. But the best hope for America is the continuation of a society in which we have each other’s backs.
Charles Bayer
candwbayer@verizon.net
Sewew you when the election is over.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Romney, both in church and all week. Perhaps because an American iconic father figure of Christian Protestantism just made headlines meeting with Romney and endorsing him.
Maybe the OP thought all this Christian politicking in the last few months on behalf of Romney would be offset if he posted his support of Obama on the religious forum of the DU, in case any of the Christian faithful were wondering who to vote for.
So perfect.... 
