What comes next?

 Tomorrow Americans vote. Many of us, through early voting, absentee ballots or vote by mail, already have. It is an important right and should not be blocked by those who want only the 'worthy' to vote (which means voting their way) nor by laziness on the part of the voter. Be responsible and make a choice for the future of the country and yourself. Make your voice count with your vote!

When the election is over, the votes tallied, however it turns out, I will hope for the best as will most Americans. I think we are all sick of politics. It will, for me, lead to two different paths depending on who wins.

If Romney wins, I will be watching almost no news for awhile. I cannot stand the man; and it's not the issues that he's run on, which I disagree totally upon, it's his character. He's proven to be a liar (lie upon lie and 533 lies in 30 weeks most of which aren't about changing his mind but blatant, pathological lies), and I cannot stand liars. In my personal life if I find someone is a liar, I will not be a friend of theirs. How do you trust or count on anybody who routinely lies? What can you believe of their words? None-- even when they occasionally tell the truth.

The second reason I won't want to watch him take over the job as president or listen to the bitching from the left is that he's a hypocrite, and I really really cannot stand hypocrites. It kind of goes with lying, but it's not the same. The following is an example.

Romney has been instrumental in sending jobs overseas. The plant of Sensata, right now, has had its manufacturing equipment shipped to China, the workers (to keep working as long as possible) had to train their Chinese replacements. Those jobs will be totally gone from the United States. Bain Capital, the company Romney still has ownership in, is 51% owner of Sensata.

This kind of deal has happened over and over with Bain. It's how Romney made his fortune. Buy companies, successful ones often, keep them awhile. If they didn't send the jobs overseas for wages of $.50 an hour if that), they would bankrupt them to end benefits, pensions, and lower salaries here (most likely why Romney wanted the auto manufacturers to go bankrupt).

Here comes the hypocrisy-- wait for it!

On the campaign trail and in ads, he is trying to scare workers by saying Jeep is sending their jobs overseas and it's all Obama's fault. Romney would stop this evil practice of sending American jobs overseas.

The auto maker said it's not true. The facts say it's not true. Jeep is adding jobs in Ohio, but they are also starting a manufacturing plant in China.

If you are defending what Romney is now saying at the same time defending what Bain is doing, you are probably a rightie. If you cannot see Romney's total hypocrisy in what he's saying, you definitely are a rightie.

We are in a world economy and a lot of major corporations have manufacturing overseas. My son is frequently on a plane somewhere because of this. It's been going on a long while, and it's not all about lower wages (China probably is). Some of it relates to trading benefits.

Republicans have blocked any effort to make such corporations pay a tax penalty for those practices, but while Romney has and does profit from it, he would use it in the campaign. That is a special type of hypocrite-- not even subtle. Rather like that Republican Joe Walsh who would talk family values while he wasn't paying his overdue child support (for political gain, probably, he has since worked that out).  This kind of hypocrisy is counting on the voters they need to not care or be ignorant-- either way, they don't respect their own voters or anybody else.

Finally Romney is a conman. I have never liked conmen who try to sell me something that supposedly will give me a special deal, make me money, and all I have to do is trust them that they know how to make it work-- without the facts. I got fooled the last time by a conman when I was in my early 20s.

So if Romney wins, I plan to tune out politics and him until the midterms.

BUT if Obama wins, I cannot do that. I will have to pay attention and support his work, have his back (that does not mean writing much about it here as I have other plans for blogging) because I know that the Republicans will continue to do what they have been doing-- anything to damage this country with the hope of gaining power. I will need to sign petitions, continue to write letters and make sure I push Obama to do the things I believe are important. If the only voices Washington hears are of the tea party ilk, Obama won't be able to protect food stamps, education, SS, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.-- even if he wants to do so. It's up to us to make him want to do so. There are ways to move toward balancing the budget without hurting the weak.

Right after this election comes the issue of the budget where the right wing are going to try to blackmail Obama into making the Bush tax cuts permanent for our wealthiest citizens. They will hold America hostage. They might do the same thing with Romney, but there they have a willing partner, who they know will sign any bill they want. Grover Norquist said as much.

Photo at the top is Farm Boss and me from November 1. He has been an integral part of writing this blog as I have him read them all. He gives me ideas and although the words are always mine, a lot of the ideas come from pillow talk as often as what I read. 

Incidentally, this week we saw a really funny film that, while crude and taking what happens to a ridiculous level, did nail a lot of what's going on politically. In some of the scenes, I hate to admit, I laughed harder than I have in weeks. IF you can take 'raw language,' etc, if you laugh at Monty Python, give it a try-- 'The Campaign' starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis. It is up to date with what's been happening, makes fun of Americans, politics, while it raises some important issues regarding our system. The Motch brothers (played wonderfully by Dan Ackroyd and John Lithgow) are not even subtle take offs on the billionaire exploiters out there today.

The film made a strong point-- we need honorable people to run for office-- right and left. What will it take to get them?