August 5, 2012
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This presidential election
Socrates_cafe has asked the question :
What is the real difference between the views of the present candidates in the upcoming U.S. presidential election?
It seems to me that the main difference is on the focus of the candidates. Romney seems to be focused on two goals: First: he is willing to say almost anything that he thinks will get him elected and tends to ignore any apparent changes in his viewpoints - this is the "etch-a-sketch" component of his campaign. His admirers tend to forgive and forget, but still this aspect makes them uncomfortable and is a serious campaign problem. Second: He does not do well with crowds and tends to focus on his considerable success as a businessman as evidence that he can solve the present US economic problems, which he tends to claim are the result of Obama's mismanagement. He seems to be more concerned with the well-being of the upper class as the driving force for economic growth and success.Obama shares Romney's driving desire to win the election, but his viewpoint seems to be somewhat more focused on the impact of the present economic problems on the lower classes - as you would expect, given the nature of Democratic Party membership. He seems to see the solution to the present economic downturn as being the growth of middle and lower class spending, which he tends to think may be stimulated and encouraged through government-funded programs such as infrastructure repair and rebuilding. He seems to want to reduce government military spending. He apparently thinks business growth is more likely to be the result of increased middle class demand than upper class investment. He has some historic justification for this opinion; investment tends to follow demand, rather than stimulate it. He is willing to increase taxes to provide stimulus and end the deficit spending that has plagued the federal Government for decades - Romney apparently isn't.In my opinion, Obama's views are more likely to succeed - both in the election and in solving our economic problems. Romney's business success has always depended on outside backing - at Bain Capital he demanded that Bain, not Romney finance the initial projects. At the 2008 Olympics, he managed to persuade the government to contribute an additional $20 M toward the faltering program. Romney also faces the problem of explaining his income tax situation - which has apparently taken full advantage of a number of special entitlements available only to the very rich - not a popular political stance.
Comments (7)
I totally agree with what you've said, but I think there's an important point that neither candidate is addressing, possibly because it would not be popular. We don't live in a U.S. economy anymore. We live in a world economy. We cannot completely solve our economic problems until the world economy stabilizes. I would like to see more efforts being made to look at the situation from a world perspective.
We also need to quit yapping about bringing jobs back to the U.S. and take a good look at what kinds of jobs should exist in our country at this stage of our development. Perhaps manufacturing is more appropriate to emerging countries. It may help them bring their people out of poverty and successfully join the world economy. We may need to be focusing on something else.
In this country, an "education gap" exists between the training of the workforce and the needs of employers. There are very few jobs that provide a living wage that do not require some type of credential beyond a high school diploma, yet many students are still ending their educations at or before high school graduation. The education gap is continuing to widen. There are 1,000,000 jobs in this country that cannot be filled because the workforce is not trained for them. The unemployment rate could be lowered by 1% if the workforce was trained for the jobs that exist. Politicians do not talk about that, though. The Republicans do not want to put money into education. The Democrats support increasing the education budget, but their voice is rather quiet on the topic.
It's a very complex situation!
@Nance1 - Thanks for the comment Nance.
You are, of course, correct about the movement toward a World Economy. The Europeans, whose economic wealth has been based on exploytation of the rest of the world for centuries, is finding that out with a vengance.
Fortunately our economic base has never been much dependant on either the mercantile system or sales to foreign parts - but now that is changing and we are in a pretty good position to move into the new world order - but the political idea of "Exceptionalism" makes that difficult - many Americans are not willing to play by or abide by international rules -which is probably why neither candidate wants to talk about "World Economy"
The education gap is built in to every culture and is one of the primary causes of Culture Change That's a rather technical and complicated idea I've discussed on Socrates_Cafe from time to time, as you may remember.
Dear Dick,
Thought I'd drop by and leave an "infrequent" comment. LOL.
Seriously, I know I began a comment to this post a while back. I'm having lots of computer problems (I think I've narrowed it down to the video card, now, even after re-installing the whole operating system.) Possibly the open window closed during a crash. (I wonder if puter excuses have trumped "the dog ate my homework" regarding school assignments these days.)
I think both candidates have similarities. I campaigned for Clinton, but voted for Obama four years ago and I'm going to vote for him again. I'm not following Romney's campaign too much.
I had a lot of respect for John McCain and if not for his questionable choice for VP would have cast my vote for him. I wrote a lot more about the election in 2008 than I have this year. I remember tuning into debates in 2008 thinking that perhaps the candidates would get off their stump speeches and talking points, but but they never did. I'm figuring the same thing will happen this election.
Romney is a Republican. Even if he were to attempt to raise taxes in office, he'd never state that during a campaign. Taxes are a bad word to Republicans.
It always amazes me that candidates always make "promises" which they possibly might never be able to keep if and when they do get into office.
Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool
@baldmike2004 - Thanks for the infrequent comment, Mike
My computers for the last few years have all been Mac 17"laptops - big screen and almost crash-proof; but now Apple has decided to stop making them - a 15 incher will be their largest laptop - and theyve changed to op system again - lots of my cherished programs will no longer run on the newer Macs. I suppose Apple, like every other business has its eye on the bottom line - and with Steve Jobs no longer with us, it will probably go the way of all the rest.
My wife was a McCain admirer and we're shocked at how he has changed his viewpoints so as to toe the radical party line. Romey is unlikely to ever propose raising taxes.
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