what will your November 7 look like?

[martasfic]

The American election is just under two weeks from now. And it has me thinking: Say your candidate wins; how will this change your life on November 7 and the months to come? Or conversely, if the other guy wins, how will that change your life?

It’s one thing to say Romney will kill Obamacare or Obama will drive up the debt. And in the long term I think there are big effects at risk here. But when it comes to my individual life, I’m having a hard time working out what would change. So it may be worth dialing back the rhetoric a bit and thinking about it. How will the upcoming election change your life on November 7 and beyond?

ETA, because it’s truly LOL-worthy. Some clever internet person has taken the third presidential debate and put it to song. Somehow it never gets old.

Originally published at Faith Seeking Understanding. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[dreamflower]

It's fairly simple.

If Romney kills Obamacare, my husband and I will be in the soup. Right now we can't afford COBRA. It will be over 90 days before he is eligible for insurance at his new job (which we may not be able to afford when he IS eligible). We are not yet old enough for Medicare for 2 years and we make too much for Medicaid.

Both of us have HBP and diabetes. The DH has already had a couple of heart attacks in the past. I have a problem with edema in my leg. I have absolutely no faith in Romney's late debate-turnaround saying he'd "keep certain features" of Obamacare.

Furthermore, there are other less personal and pressing issues; I don't like the idea of what this country would become under Romney. I do not believe in his sudden championing of women ("binders full" of them), especially after knowing that when he was an elder in the Mormon church (before he was in the public eye and running for office) that he denied a couple the right to adopt within the church because the WIFE WORKED! Gender equality my eye!!

[engarian.livejournal.com]

Although national policy will change depending on who is elected to the Presidency and/or Congressional seats, most of us will be more immediately impacted by our local and state-wide elections.

But a vote is not only for the four years, but for the long future. I cannot, in good conscience, vote for someone who may put a person into life-long positions (such as Federal judges and Supreme Court Justices) who would abrogate individual and women's rights. I have no confidence that Romney would uphold those rights through his appointments, so must vote for Obama.

But my life will be more directly impacted by my congressional representatives and the amendments for marriage rights and the requirements for voter ID's than the presidential race.

Politics! I hate it in books and I hate it in real life. Anyone seeking the position shouldn't be elected. It's all too easy for the elected to become used to the position and the perks...

- Erulisse (one L)

Complex questions

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

To me, the question itself makes an assumption that I cannot share:

(1) I have a candidate. (I don't have a candidate, so I can't say what would happen if "my" candidate won, or how my life would change based on 'my' candidate's win.)

In general, I think electing either candidate will worsen the situation we are all suffering. They will worsen it faster for certain groups, and which of the traditional groups bear the brunt may depend on who's elected, but I think the majority of every non-elite group will do worse under either candidate; if you're poor under either candidate, you're screwed. They have no plan for dealing with the political-economic crisis other than to move money around laterally, maybe throw some pocket change here to one group, but take it back in other ways from other groups (or even the same group, just later in time or through another avenue).

So while I see my life changing somewhat, the direction of change is consistent for both candidates: worse.

Re: Complex questions

[marta-bee.livejournal.com]

I could have worded that more carefully; I was rushing out the door and had slept maybe an hour the night before. So I wasn't (and am not) thinking that clearly. I'd been seeing a lot of people talk about politics in a highly theoretical way, which is good, but I was interested to see ow people thought their lives would actually be changed. I was essentially trying to ask how electing Romney or Obama, whichever you preferred, would affect you personally, without assuming that everyone reading this was liberal.

I think you're right about the poor. to our shame, though, I'm not sure how much our support will fall off; it's practically nonexistent already. If it does fall off, I suspect it would fall off a lot more slowly under Obama than Romney, though it certainly won't grow the way it should. One of the marks in Obama's favor over Romney is that he supports the idea of taxation (which forces some --admittedly pitifully small-- income redistribution as a matter of justice rather than leaving it up to individual charity and giving the rich the implicit power to judge the poor's choices). It's not nearly enough, but I think under Romney it could be worse.

I ended up voting for Obama, but it was definitely as the lesser of two evils. I definitely hear you on not having a candidate. All through this election I've been hearing Treebeard's voice about no one being entirely on my side. It may be in a few weeks that I'll regret that vote for Obama. The one saving grace is it won't be the foible of my voting career, as I *blush* also voted for W. in 2000. *hangs head*

Re: Complex questions

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

I suppose that's the key difference between us, politically: I don't see him as a lesser of evils pick. I see him as "same evil, but screws you with a nicer smile".

I've certainly argued in the past that a Democrat was the lesser of two evils, and wondered whether a third party vote was just wasting my vote. But I've since come to the realization that (1) that assumes that my individual vote really counts for much anyway (not true, I didn't help set the agenda on which I am asked to vote); and (2) it assumes that one candidate is so much worse than the other that it would be unconscionable not to vote for his best-funded opponent. I just don't think that's the case.