The view from Brooklyn

GOP candidate Michele Bachmann has been getting a lot of attention from the press since she announced her decision to run for President in the 2012 election.  As Obama’s approval ratings continue to drop, GOP candidates like Bachmann are able to make more of a connection with the dissatisfied voters.  Even with her absurd rants on slavery, homosexuality, and religion, Bachmann has taken the national GOP lead.  The results from the July 19th PPP Republican Poll speak to her strong and continuous surge of momentum, showing that among GOP voters, she has more supporters than Cain, Pawlenty, Gingrich and most importantly; Mitt Romney.  She leads the poll by only 1%, but considering the fact that Romney has lead the GOP polls since just after 2009, that 1% has become monumental.  

She is the only Republican candidate that signed “The Marriage Vow”, a binding pledge that asks the candidate to uphold certain (extreme) political ideals, to secure the financial support from  The Family Leader (an Iowa-based conservative organization).  Without signing the pledge, “The Marriage Vow” explicitly states that “no U.S. Presidential primary candidate…will, in his or her public capacity, benefit from any substantial form of aid, support, endorsement…from any of us without first affirming this Marriage Vow.”  This is the most blunt form of pork-barreling I have ever known, and the fact that she is now leading in the polls, is disheartening to say the least.

With primaries right around the corner, the last thing Obama supporters need is an outspoken, conservatively-conservative GOP candidate who’s gaining strength by the minute.  This type of behavior is anything but new to the American citizens.  This flooding of attention mirrors that of former 2008 Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.  Much like Bachmann, Palin stepped onto the National political stage and gained attention from her pretty-face, her small-town traditionalist ideals, and wildly unpredictable mouth.

The 2008 election became somewhat of a circus show.  After Bush stepped down as Commander in Chief, the American people needed a candidate that could breathe life into the American Presidency, that stood for hope and a fresh start.  Obama was that candidate.  The history of American politics has always followed such a pattern; as long as there are polarized parties in American Democracy,  the inevitable political pendulum will swing. 

It seems, these days, the more outrageous the candidate — the more press and attention they receive.  Americans are becoming all too familiar with these political characters that are surfacing.  People like Palin and Bachmann are becoming a big presence in American politics.  The more we hear about them, the more de-sensitized we become to this kind of outrageous polarization.  We are approaching the days of extremists, and the fear soon becomes that the middle-of-the-road politicians will be pushed to the way-side.  As the pendulum swing become more and more rigorous, so will the political polarization in this country.  Politics will become ‘one-or-the-other’, apples or oranges, black or white.  No mixing, no blending, no meeting of the parties.  As we limit ourselves politically, we start to break down the very foundation upon which this country was built.

What extremist parties fail to see, is that by eliminating the middle-ground of politics, our bi-cameral system of Democracy becomes more and more obsolete.  Traditionalist parties like The Tea Party constantly preach ‘the word of our founding fathers’ and want the American people to view our constitution as the anchor of our Nation.  However, if they themselves really dove into the Constitution, they would find that the founding fathers wanted to make it hard for any one political party to rule the State.  Had the founding fathers wanted only extreme and demanding politics to rule, they would not have laid the foundation for such an intricate system of checks-and-balances, making it nearly impossible to pass a law or a bill without it being the will of both parties.

   My only plea to the American voters is this: Do not let your disappointment sway your vote.  Do not let your party-loyalty alone decide who will serve as our next President.  Take a look at the candidates, look beyond what they did (or what they plan to do) as President, and see them for who they are, and what that would mean to this country with them as Head of State.  Obama is not the perfect President by any means. He, like all others that have come before him, has made mistakes.  However, if it comes down to Bachmann v. Obama in 2012, I’ll be voting for Obama, not because I am a Democrat and not because he can do no wrong.  I’ll be voting for him for his level-headedness, for the fact that no one (not even the extremist parties, ie. The Tea Party) can disagree with the fact that he has, and will continue to look to both sides of the political spectrum for advice and opinion.  He has never gone into a situation and based his decision solely on how he feels.  He looks to other members of his party as well as those of the opposing party.   There is something to be said about a person who admits they do not know it all, that they not only welcome, but depend opposing opinions to make the most sound and reasonable decision.

That’s the person I want to lead my country, not an extremist that is not only politically, but legally bound to think and act a certain way.  Each vote for Obama, or any other non-extremist candidate (be he Democratic or not) , is a vote that takes the power out of polarization. It takes power away from those who merely look to the needs of the party, and puts power back into the hands of those who look to the needs of the people.  We, as a Nation, do not all agree on every issue, but we, as a Nation, can all agree that the more power a party has, the less power the people have.

Sources:

The Marriage Vow:  http://www.thefamilyleader.com/the-marriage-vow 

PPP Poll: http://saintpetersblog.com/2011/07/ppp-poll-michele-bachman-leads-nationally-among-republicans/