I know that the last thing most of us want to read about right now is politics. This year’s election has consumed the media for months now, and few states are hit harder with political ads than Ohio.
The outcome of this election will be largely decided by how Ohio votes, and specifically, the greater Columbus area. While Cleveland tends to vote Democrat and Cincinnati tends to vote Republican, Columbus and its surrounding suburbs is one of the hottest battlegrounds in politics. That’s why President Barack Obama has been visiting Ohio State, while Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has been (sort of) visiting Otterbein.
You know what I would rather do instead of watching the debates? Shave my face with a rusty butter knife while riding a mountain bike through a black diamond trail, all while being chased by a pack of rabies-infested badgers. Because at least the badgers have clear intentions, and the butter knife would still be marginally less painful than listening to the rhetorical jargon both candidates vomit all over this nation every four years.
But because it’s important — and also because I’m somewhat of a masochist — I allowed myself to be hurled on this year to bring readers the facts on our election, with a focus on how each candidate will affect college students.
As a country, we are facing a massive student debt problem that is in excess of $1 trillion, according to the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau. More than 37 million students and dropouts owe money.
Crippling student loan debt keeps many students from purchasing homes and limits job opportunities that aren’t local. While the Democratic Party has been pushing to reduce the cost of student loans, the Republican Party insists this is not possible unless public education funding is slashed. Keep this in mind as you read each candidate’s profile.
Mitt Romney
During the Republican Convention, Romney was often subdued and allowed his other incumbents to bury each other under vicious mudslinging. As the election nears, Romney has become a much more outspoken and confident figure. His father was the head of the American Motors Corporation, a multi-term governor in Michigan and a member of President Nixon’s Cabinet.
Mitt Romney’s net worth is estimated at more than $250 million, not counting offshore bank accounts. Romney’s former company, Bain Capital, was a consultation business that came into local businesses, eliminated jobs and outsourced many more.
He has been criticized for setting up shell companies in the Cayman Islands to reroute money through, avoiding American taxes and saving him money. His vast wealth and extremely privileged childhood have led to criticism about how well he can relate to the American people. When Romney visited Otterbein, he not only bussed in his own supporters, but he only allowed one small class of Otterbein students to visit and ask previously approved questions.
He drew fire for suggesting that students “borrow money from your parents” to pay for school and start a business. Recently, tapes were released where Romney says, “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what … who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That, that’s an entitlement.”
Unfortunately, this 47 percent includes us college students. Not all of us have a multimillionaire father who is also a governor and helps us pay for Harvard. And it is terrifying to think that a man could be elected who could ignore almost half of the entire country as being “entitled.”
At another point he said, “My job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” War veterans who depend on disability, poor families trying to find jobs, mentally and physically disabled victims — what exactly aren’t they taking responsibility for, the fact that they were born into different situations? This country is founded on principles of equality. Romney can’t pretend that half of the nation doesn’t exist or doesn’t matter because they don’t fit into his equation.
Barack Obama
Obama was born in Hawaii to a black father and white mother. His family was middle-class and he graduated from Harvard Law School magna cum laude. He came into office on messages of hope, change and massive expectations.
Inheriting a national debt of 85.2 percent of our gross domestic product, as well as a 9.3 percent unemployment rate, Obama had huge obstacles ahead of him. At the same time, the House soon became Republican-controlled, making it nearly impossible to pass laws. Obama’s strategy of appeasement with the Republican Party brought criticisms from all sides, as he sacrificed important measures of his Affordable Health Care Act to get it passed, but that ultimately weakened the program.
Despite drastic measures with his bailout plan, the employment rate has only increased to 7.8 percent and is showing few signs of improvement. Although Obama opposes the Republican strategy of slashing education funding to reduce student loans, he has
offered few solutions.
His liberal supporters have become discouraged at many of Obama’s broken promises, such as reducing the support of Guantanamo Bay, removing all forces from the Middle East, promoting environmental policies and promoting marijuana legalization and marriage equality.
The best situation if he is elected for a second term is that, now being unconcerned with re-election, he makes bold moves to fix the economy and debt his way, as well as improve the health-care system. The worst case is that we get four more years of indecisiveness and false promises.
