One Canadain's Perspective on the US Presidential Election of 2012
Now I don't normally talk about politics, especially those that aren't in my country, but today I feel I have to. Today I feel like a proud younger brother seeing my older sibling starting to reach their potential. Yes I am talking about the US elections yesterday.
Now I am not only proud that Obama was re-elected, but several other things that happened last night too. First the Senate will have at the last time I checked, will have 13 women serving in it which I hope will lead to more bipartisan cooperation in the next session as the previous congress pretty much did nothing or did more harm than good, legislatively speaking.
I am also proud to see that Wisconsin elected it's first openly gay Senator and first openly gay federal politician, but also their first woman in Senate elect Tammy Baldwin. This speaks well of the tolerance of the people that they realise gender and sexual orientation are not important when it comes to legislative responsibility.
Also welcome to Maryland, Maine, and Washington to the states that allow homosexual couples get married. Living in Canada I sometimes forget that my friends in the US don't have the same rights to be married as people here do. It does make me sad that only ten of fifty one states actually allow this, and that even if someone gets married in one of those ten states their marriage may not be recognised in their home state. It strikes me as not just regressive but stupid that people get angry about this topic. Marriage has changed more in the last 200 years than almost any other social aspect of our lives. Unlike some people I don't believe this will lead us to people marrying their pets, or Ice cream, it will lead to a better economy, (more jobs) and more tolerance as exposure leads to acceptance.
Finally perhaps one of the largest battles in the "War on Drugs" started as a result of a ballot initiative that passed in two states where it was on the ballot. The LEGALISATION of MARIJUANA! Now this is in contrivance of Federal drug laws however in will likely be involved in lengthly court battles however if Colorado and Washington manage to keep this on the books the recreational use and cultivation of cannabis could seriously reduce the prison population, the influence of Central, South American and Canadian drug cartels that ship and sell the drug illegally across America. Take this revenue stream away and their influence is reduced and hey anything that weakens drug lords can only be good for the governments south of the USA and makes the job easier for the police up here.
Perhaps the most important thing that came out of last nights election is that women get to retain possession of their reproductive rights. As a man and a Canadian it disturbed me BEYOND measure how prevalent RAPE was and that people equated these brutal acts with God and religion? What the hell? I'm sorry I may have turned away from the church in my teen years and not returned but the last time I checked God was benevolent Jesus loved everyone, wanted to help the poor and disadvantaged, and was generally a non violent protest kind of guy. So seeing Akin, and Mourdock fail to win in their respective races was satisfying.
While Republicans retain control of the House of Representatives, and so far Democrats have retained a majority in the Senate thus keeping the status quo in the Legislature I can only hope that they discover bipartisanship so that America can get things moving again. I think though perhaps my favourite part of this election was after Hurricane Sandy had ravaged the East Coast. Chris Christie, who was very anti Obama during the whole campaign had this to say to Fox News.
Let's hope that everyone elected or re-elected last night remembers that they are servants of the people, not the party and get the work done.
Now I normally close my blogs with random nerd humour that I find on the internet, however, this will be my the images that made me smile, cry, and laugh the most during the election cycle. Warning it's a large photo dump so continue to scroll at your own risk.
Now I don't normally talk about politics, especially those that aren't in my country, but today I feel I have to. Today I feel like a proud younger brother seeing my older sibling starting to reach their potential. Yes I am talking about the US elections yesterday.
Now I am not only proud that Obama was re-elected, but several other things that happened last night too. First the Senate will have at the last time I checked, will have 13 women serving in it which I hope will lead to more bipartisan cooperation in the next session as the previous congress pretty much did nothing or did more harm than good, legislatively speaking.
I am also proud to see that Wisconsin elected it's first openly gay Senator and first openly gay federal politician, but also their first woman in Senate elect Tammy Baldwin. This speaks well of the tolerance of the people that they realise gender and sexual orientation are not important when it comes to legislative responsibility.
Also welcome to Maryland, Maine, and Washington to the states that allow homosexual couples get married. Living in Canada I sometimes forget that my friends in the US don't have the same rights to be married as people here do. It does make me sad that only ten of fifty one states actually allow this, and that even if someone gets married in one of those ten states their marriage may not be recognised in their home state. It strikes me as not just regressive but stupid that people get angry about this topic. Marriage has changed more in the last 200 years than almost any other social aspect of our lives. Unlike some people I don't believe this will lead us to people marrying their pets, or Ice cream, it will lead to a better economy, (more jobs) and more tolerance as exposure leads to acceptance.
Finally perhaps one of the largest battles in the "War on Drugs" started as a result of a ballot initiative that passed in two states where it was on the ballot. The LEGALISATION of MARIJUANA! Now this is in contrivance of Federal drug laws however in will likely be involved in lengthly court battles however if Colorado and Washington manage to keep this on the books the recreational use and cultivation of cannabis could seriously reduce the prison population, the influence of Central, South American and Canadian drug cartels that ship and sell the drug illegally across America. Take this revenue stream away and their influence is reduced and hey anything that weakens drug lords can only be good for the governments south of the USA and makes the job easier for the police up here.
Perhaps the most important thing that came out of last nights election is that women get to retain possession of their reproductive rights. As a man and a Canadian it disturbed me BEYOND measure how prevalent RAPE was and that people equated these brutal acts with God and religion? What the hell? I'm sorry I may have turned away from the church in my teen years and not returned but the last time I checked God was benevolent Jesus loved everyone, wanted to help the poor and disadvantaged, and was generally a non violent protest kind of guy. So seeing Akin, and Mourdock fail to win in their respective races was satisfying.
While Republicans retain control of the House of Representatives, and so far Democrats have retained a majority in the Senate thus keeping the status quo in the Legislature I can only hope that they discover bipartisanship so that America can get things moving again. I think though perhaps my favourite part of this election was after Hurricane Sandy had ravaged the East Coast. Chris Christie, who was very anti Obama during the whole campaign had this to say to Fox News.
Let's hope that everyone elected or re-elected last night remembers that they are servants of the people, not the party and get the work done.
Now I normally close my blogs with random nerd humour that I find on the internet, however, this will be my the images that made me smile, cry, and laugh the most during the election cycle. Warning it's a large photo dump so continue to scroll at your own risk.
Thankyou lots sweet! Haha I love that top ten! I hate dates, I never get taken on them and those are the exact reasons why I'm glad of this. I'm far too chilled for formal scary nerve wracking impersonal dates hahaha
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