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- Jul 31, 2010
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We're coming up on the two year anniversary of Obama's election, and in that time, my life has changed a lot. But why I still support Obama can be explained not by the changes in my life, but the changes in the life of my girlfriend. Nobody I know has had such a dramatic change in their life, and I'd like to share a little bit of her story for some of you out there who still hope for better days ahead.
My girlfriend was working for a public school last year. She wasn't a teacher, she was doing administrative work. She was working for the high school that she had graduated from some years back. It wasn't an easy job and the hours were absolutely horrendous, but she stuck around because she loved the school and the people and the kids and she wanted to work her way up and become a part of that community. Over the summer, she got a job at a house cleaning company and quit right before the school year began. That's when it all went wrong.
The school laid her off because they didn't have the funding they needed. Then she got into a car accident and her car was totaled, but the insurance company refused to pay her a cent even though she wasn't even moving when the truck merged into the side of her car (it's a long story but I'll leave it at that). Then she filed for unemployment, but was denied because she had quit her job at the house cleaning company before she got laid off. So she decided to go back to college to get a better job in the future but was denied financial aid on a technicality.
Things have gotten a lot better since then, because both of us have been working really hard to get on track. It's easy to be angry with the system, but here's how I think about it (as it pertains to my girlfriend): the Republicans will keep cutting back on education and their plan will make sure that many other dedicated people wind up getting laid off, the Republicans will side with the insurance companies that do anything and everything to screw over honest people. The Republicans will whine and whine about the abuse of entitlements... when my girlfriend wasn't even eligible for unemployment when she desperately needed it! And politicians tell us to go back to school and work hard so we can have a better future, but won't make it financially possible for us to do that? Obama's not perfect by any means, and the Democrats haven't done a great job. But I still believe in the core message that Obama delivers and I still believe that things will get better.
I think it's a bunch of BS when conservatives say that liberals just want hand outs. Americans are hard working people, we'll do what we've got to do to get by. But we have to have an opportunity to take advantage of so that our hard work will get us somewhere. That's the difference between Obama and his opponents. If it were up to his opponents, our hard work would benefit somebody else, at least with Obama, our hard work will (eventually) benefit ourselves. So I'm not going to vote for Republicans, even though I don't like the Democrats. Because I don't like the cuts in education, I don't like siding with insurance companies and big pharm and defense contractors. I still support Obama.
My girlfriend was working for a public school last year. She wasn't a teacher, she was doing administrative work. She was working for the high school that she had graduated from some years back. It wasn't an easy job and the hours were absolutely horrendous, but she stuck around because she loved the school and the people and the kids and she wanted to work her way up and become a part of that community. Over the summer, she got a job at a house cleaning company and quit right before the school year began. That's when it all went wrong.
The school laid her off because they didn't have the funding they needed. Then she got into a car accident and her car was totaled, but the insurance company refused to pay her a cent even though she wasn't even moving when the truck merged into the side of her car (it's a long story but I'll leave it at that). Then she filed for unemployment, but was denied because she had quit her job at the house cleaning company before she got laid off. So she decided to go back to college to get a better job in the future but was denied financial aid on a technicality.
Things have gotten a lot better since then, because both of us have been working really hard to get on track. It's easy to be angry with the system, but here's how I think about it (as it pertains to my girlfriend): the Republicans will keep cutting back on education and their plan will make sure that many other dedicated people wind up getting laid off, the Republicans will side with the insurance companies that do anything and everything to screw over honest people. The Republicans will whine and whine about the abuse of entitlements... when my girlfriend wasn't even eligible for unemployment when she desperately needed it! And politicians tell us to go back to school and work hard so we can have a better future, but won't make it financially possible for us to do that? Obama's not perfect by any means, and the Democrats haven't done a great job. But I still believe in the core message that Obama delivers and I still believe that things will get better.
I think it's a bunch of BS when conservatives say that liberals just want hand outs. Americans are hard working people, we'll do what we've got to do to get by. But we have to have an opportunity to take advantage of so that our hard work will get us somewhere. That's the difference between Obama and his opponents. If it were up to his opponents, our hard work would benefit somebody else, at least with Obama, our hard work will (eventually) benefit ourselves. So I'm not going to vote for Republicans, even though I don't like the Democrats. Because I don't like the cuts in education, I don't like siding with insurance companies and big pharm and defense contractors. I still support Obama.