Obama and the new era of smallness

It is Monday, the day before the US election and I am feeling a little taste of bitterness in my mouth. It is coming from the knowledge that I have no choice in this election. I am one of those voters that Obama machine has figured out to be solidly locked and delivered. Oh boy, they are right! I will end up voting for Obama on Tuesday but with a heavy heart. This contrasts with 2008 when I was knocking on doors, volunteering my time on the phone banks and donating as much money as I could. 2008 was the time for hope and change, whereas on 2012 my vote is about fear of the policies that the Republicans are trying to foist on the nation. It is a terrible shame to exercise my fundamental voting rights based on fear and small ball game as opposed to big ideas, hope for the future and belief that better days for my country is ahead of it and not behind. But, reality intervenes, oops!

Why am I so fearful of the Republicans? From an economic and business point of view, Romney and his crew offer some interesting options to a Garmentwallah like me. But, the package that these economic ideas are put in is toxic and in my view — fatal. What are the specifics in this GOP package that make me queasy?

I am afraid that a Romney win will start a war in the Middle East. He is fully aligned with the right wing of the Israeli politics. These are the people who go around saying things like, "Palestinians are a made up people" and "Iran is a threat to humanity and the world should attack them now to prevent them from getting nuclear weapons". Never mind that most experts think that Iran is years away from a serviceable nuclear weapon. The jingoistic war mongering by the likes of New Gingrich and the Evangelical base of the Republican Party is a real and immediate threat to humanity, not the stupid mullahs in Tehran.

I am afraid that Romney and his gang of "American mullahs" will try to push women back to the 1920s. It is quite amazing that in 2012 the America we are talking about is restricting birth control and access to reproductive healthcare to a dark cave. If these guys actually get to power they say they will cut-off funding for Planned Parenthood, a singular healthcare institution for women of all ages, colour and income group. When I first came to America all my female friends at the university were going to Planned Parenthood for their birth control and other healthcare needs. These guys would like to see women barefoot and constantly pregnant. Did someone say Salafi?

The other push these ultra conservatives crave for is to undo the "equal pay for equal work" doctrine. The Lilly Ledbetter Act that Obama signed during the first heady days of 2009 enshrines the principle that if a person does same or similar work the wages will be same regardless of their gender. In the US, women have been constantly paid 76 cents on the dollar for the same work that men do. The Lilly Ledbetter Act prohibits such discrimination. The Republicans would want to get rid of such laws and allow the employers to pay more to someone just because that person is a man. They frame this as a matter of choice and want to invoke Bible and say that Man is the family breadwinner whereas the women are to stay at home preferably barefoot and pregnant.

I am afraid that Romney and his gang will push back the very modest banking reform act that goes by the catchy moniker, Dodd-Frank. What this rather benign piece of legislation does is increase the cash reserve requirements for the banks, bring out the derivatives (the instruments of mass financial destruction) onto a transparent trading platform and forces the really large banks to design a living will which will allow the regulators to dismantle the banks if they get into trouble like they did in 2008. Of course the banks and their lobbyists along with the political pressure from the GOP have virtually stopped the implementation of the reforms laid out in the Banking Reform Act. The foot dragging in terms of Dodd-Frank implementation by the Federal Reserve, the SEC and various other alphabet soup organisations has been a marvel to watch. The prayers from the banks are that if the Romney gang comes in then Dodd-Frank will be kaput and they can go back to making money by gambling in a casino environment of derivatives trading, swaps and other dark arts. Even the guy, Sandy Weil, who was the architect of the modern banking of behemoth and the junking of the iconic Glass-Stiegel Act that was implemented after the Great Depression. The Glass-Stiegel Act did one simple thing. It said banks cannot use depositor's funds for any invest banking activity. Well Sandy Weil and his buddy Robert Rubin (US Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton) conspired with the banking giants to sunset Glass-Stiegel with an express purpose of creating the behemoth we now know as Citigroup. In the waning days of his Presidency Bill Clinton deregulated the banks and the jungle was now open for a frenzied feeding session which culminated in the 2008 Great Recession around the globe.

So, why am I so disappointed with Obama, my erstwhile hero?

Where do I begin?

First is an intangible feeling of being abandoned by the man's ambition. He has not been able to connect with people outside the campaign mode. The people that brought him to the White House were left at the door without much fanfare. He compromised on the $760 million stimulus package and allowed almost $400 million of the stimulus to be given in tax cuts. Yes, I got $8 cut in my bi-weekly pay cheque. That is worth two cups of coffee. The money would have had much more stimulative effect if it was spent on infrastructure and direct spending. But the man wanted to please the Republicans because the policy team was filled with folks with a tax cut bias. So, we ended up with a tax cut of no consequence as opposed to true demand generating stimulus.

I actually agree with the Republicans that Obama is forever not making up his mind unless it is something like the mega-storm Sandy. Part of it is his inexperience with the bureaucracy and part of it is the man's lack of courage! He is always trying to compromise and find a middle path where a middle path does not exist. In the third debate he simply stated that sequester will not happen. That is a jaw dropping bombshell. Because of the sequester, the so-called Fiscal cliff give the Democrats once in a lifetime chance  to make huge changes in tax policy and strike a grand bargain with the Republicans. However, bargain requires negotiations and fighting for your position. Our lily livered President is giving up all bargain chips before the talks even began.

I was talking to a Bengali friend of mine. He just voted for Obama. I asked him why and his answer was he is the lesser of two evils. Well, maybe I have to pick a lesser evil too! I would rather have small ball game than the reign of the American mullahs cloaked in Christian robes.

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Kayes Ahmed lives in Boulder, Colorado, USA with his three dogs. He runs a small yet global apparel and design business based in Boulder.