A month ago, Barack Obama was re-elected President of the United States, Nov. 6. He needed 270 electoral votes to win, and as the incumbent and Democratic candidate, he won 303 with 50 percent of the popular vote. Republican Mitt Romney won 206 electoral votes with 48 percent of the popular vote while Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green candidate Jill Stein won 1 percent and .3 percent, respectively.
This election has sent a message to the Republican Party that their positions on social policy like abortion, contraceptives and gay marriage are becoming out of date with the American people. If the Republican Party were to move more to the left on social issues, and even took a moderate stance on social issues, and left it up to the separate states to decide, the party would become more popular with the independents, undecided voters, and moderate Democrats.
Until Republicans listen to what minorities and women want in a candidate it will be a while until they can win. Voters in Maine and Maryland voted to legalize gay marriage in their state and voters in Washington State and Colorado voted to legalize marijuana. The nation as a whole is getting more socially accepting, and the Republicans are getting less socially accepted.
With that being said, the American people are not generally happy with how the President is handling his job either. You cannot deny the fact that Obama is a big spender, and that is why most people who voted for Romney or Gary Johnson voted how they voted. If the President wants to get the country out of debt or at least move in the right direction, he needs to work with a Republican-controlled Congress and cut spending to get thing done.
If the Republicans and Democrats in Washington D.C. cannot set a budget by Jan. 2, the nation will go over the fiscal cliff and will be sent into another recession. For the past two years it has been extremely hard for Republicans in Congress to compromise with Democrats and the President. We elected the same people to office this time around, so it is in the air on whether or not they will be able to get a budget done in less than three months.
When talking about how to stop the country from going over the fiscal cliff Obama made clear he would raise taxes on the wealthy, a campaign promise he says most Americans agree with. The reason Obama wants to raise taxes on the wealthy is to pay for programs like education, law enforcement, welfare, social security and Medicare. Obama needs to realize that he is working with a Republican-controlled Congress that does not support raising taxes on the wealthy and wants to cut spending to social programs.
This is a prime example of the arrogance that is going on in Washington. It is not only Democrats that don’t want to compromise, but it is Republicans as well. If they really want to get something done they will have to learn to compromise, and give in to what the other party wants. It may go against the Democrats’ views to not raise taxes on the wealthy and to cut spending without taxing, but if they don’t want to go over the fiscal cliff, they will have to give in to what the Republicans want. And the same goes with Republicans.
