No matter which candidate is elected, everyone will be affected differently. Men, women, young adults, senior citizens; how you vote determines your future. Freshman honors student Fiona Grant addressed how she would personally be affected if either candidate were chosen. She plans on voting for President Obama.
“Obama is probably the first president in my lifetime”, says Grant. “My parents are very politically aware and I grew up watching the debates, staying up to watch the election results and things like that and I actually canvased for Obama when I was 13.”
“I feel like I was positively affected by his first term, so I feel like some of the positive effects will continue in his second term.”
She then explained which positions were really her deciding factors in terms of her decision.
(Jenay Smith / Features Editor)
“I’m really happy with the Affordable Healthcare Act. I really don’t want Romney elected because he has promised multiple times to repel what they call ‘Obamacare.’ That is one of my big reasons I like Obama.”
There are many components to the Act, better known as “Obamacare.” It will allow children to stay on their parents’ health insurance until age 26; it will also provide healthcare to those who cannot afford it, as well as small businesses. For those who already have insurance plans, nothing will need to change, and those insurance companies won’t be able to drop individuals if they become sick.
“Another reason is I come from a lower middle class family, and I’ve been doing some research on incomes under Democratic versus Republican candidates,” Grant said. “And I was really interested to find that average real income growth for middle income people has been three times greater under Democratic presidents and ten times greater for working poor families. As a person who grew up with not a lot of money, I recognize that as being really important, that Democratic presidents stand up for what I need.”
Grant continued by saying that she also has friends who are undocumented and who will definitely be affected if Governor Romney is elected based on his stance on illegal immigration. Romney said that if elected president, he would end the program that offers hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants two-year reprieves from deportation, which the Obama administration began in August.
Also, having friends who are gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual, she sees that the strides made by Obama in the gay community are substantial and doesn’t want to see their rights taken away under Romney. Obama is the first sitting president to endorse his support for same-sex marriage. The Obama administration’s Department of Justice has stopped defending the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as a legal union between a man and a woman.
In addition to these issues, one of Grant’s largest concerns is the environmental issue of climate change.
“I’ve done a lot of work related to climate change,” Grant says. “And Romney does not see it as an important issue, and I’m not even sure if he believes in it. Although Obama hasn’t done as much as I’d hope he would do, I know for sure that Romney would move backwards from that.”
One of the issues Grant was most enthusiastic about was the work she planned to do after she graduated and if she thought she would have a job upon graduation.
“I want to work for National Public Radio, which is, not completely, but is sponsored by the government, and Romney is for taking that sponsorship away. So that is a big thing for me. I would like to work for NPR and I know that it would be directly effected by Romney taking office”
Romney often mentions PBS and NPR as examples of “subsidies” he will eliminate to reduce the deficit. The House Republican budget, advocated by his running mate Paul Ryan, also calls for stripping federal funding for public broadcasting.
It’s evident that almost no one can agree completely with either candidate and this is also true for Fiona. She expressed her respect for Romney’s compassion. She explained how impressed she was with his genuine charity work and assistance. Despite these beliefs, she has a clear choice in the Obama campaign.
“I just strongly believe that [Romney] represents the wealthy in America and he represents a lot of corporate interests, so I feel like he’s not representing me, and that he won’t provide what I need,” Grant said. “I would like to say that I’m not ecstatic with Obama, but I would really, really prefer Obama.”
