The presidential race is heating up and the two major party candidates are known: Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Romney is doing his best to shore up his Republican credentials, something that requires him to minimize his only actual government experience. But with nearly a trillion dollars in backing from the wealthiest billionaires in the country, he looks pretty Republican to me.
Obama, on the other hand, is struggling to recoup what corporate support he enjoyed just four years ago. In 2008, five Wall Street banks contributed a combined $3.5 million to the Obama campaign. $2.2 million came from just three tech companies (Google, Microsoft and IBM). This year, the banks are backing Romney more than ten to one over Obama. Even with unlimited campaign donations under Citizens United, Obama's corporate support is way down.
That in itself should be sufficient evidence that he's been pursuing liberal policies. But what are those liberal policies? The policies that stand out to me are the following:
Foreign Policy: Continued fighting in Iraq (until recently) and Afghanistan. Increased drone assassinations in the airspace of sovereign nations.
Civil Rights Policy: Guantanamo is still open and military tribunals continue, at the same snails pace they did under Bush. Government intrusions into citizen privacy have increased, with a recent report that cellphone companies reported 1.3 million government requests for records in 2011. The Patriot Act still stands. We've added nudie machines at airports. There's a proposal to use drones for domestic spying.
Economic Policy: Continuation of the Bush tax cuts. Reductions in social spending, even in a recession. Even the 2009 economic stimulus was half tax cuts and only half spending. Auto industry bailouts.
Immigration Policy: Accelerated deportations of illegal immigrants, the highest rate in U.S. history.
Energy and Environmental Policy: Increased off-shore drilling. Increased oil and natural gas drilling in wilderness areas. Oil exports eclipsed oil imports for the first time and rose to number one among all American products exported abroad. One positive note--increased CAFE (fuel economy) standards for automobiles.
Educational Policy: Waivers for the most dire and impractical of NCLB consequences, but they still rest on two conservative pillars: weakening teachers' unions and continuing high stakes testing.
Health Care Policy: The Affordable Care Act is almost verbatim the plan endorsed by the conservative Heritage Foundation five years ago. It does nothing to reduce the power of giant health insurance companies. While it includes many improvements for American consumers, it enshrines in place the insurance companies' monopoly on health care.
The whitehouse.gov website lauds many of the President's achievements but most tinker around the edges. Other than some international agreements, what substantively are we doing about climate change? What are we doing about corporate influence in government? What are we doing about privatization of the military? About protecting civil rights?
I support President Obama over his rival, partly because those bent on buying government do not. But make no mistake. This is no socialist. Hell, is he even a liberal?
That in itself should be sufficient evidence that he's been pursuing liberal policies. But what are those liberal policies? The policies that stand out to me are the following:
Foreign Policy: Continued fighting in Iraq (until recently) and Afghanistan. Increased drone assassinations in the airspace of sovereign nations.
Economic Policy: Continuation of the Bush tax cuts. Reductions in social spending, even in a recession. Even the 2009 economic stimulus was half tax cuts and only half spending. Auto industry bailouts.
Immigration Policy: Accelerated deportations of illegal immigrants, the highest rate in U.S. history.
Energy and Environmental Policy: Increased off-shore drilling. Increased oil and natural gas drilling in wilderness areas. Oil exports eclipsed oil imports for the first time and rose to number one among all American products exported abroad. One positive note--increased CAFE (fuel economy) standards for automobiles.
Health Care Policy: The Affordable Care Act is almost verbatim the plan endorsed by the conservative Heritage Foundation five years ago. It does nothing to reduce the power of giant health insurance companies. While it includes many improvements for American consumers, it enshrines in place the insurance companies' monopoly on health care.
The whitehouse.gov website lauds many of the President's achievements but most tinker around the edges. Other than some international agreements, what substantively are we doing about climate change? What are we doing about corporate influence in government? What are we doing about privatization of the military? About protecting civil rights?
I support President Obama over his rival, partly because those bent on buying government do not. But make no mistake. This is no socialist. Hell, is he even a liberal?
See also: The Case for Obama
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