November 6th- A National IQ Test

An acquaintance of mine, who is the true definition of a “low information voter”, said that she almost took a photo of her absentee ballot to rub it my face that she is voting for Romney. This acquaintance went on to state that she just heard that Romney is leading in the popular vote for the election. (Irrelevant of course even if true—please see Bush v. Gore in 2000). And this particular person happens to be of childbearing age whose spouse is a government worker. The same type of workers that Republicans are trying to limit the collective bargaining rights of their unions and privatize their wages down to “market rates.” (Note to acquaintance: that will not be anywhere near the take home pay and benefits you now enjoy.)

This is what we are faced with in this election. Voters who will go to the polls that do not read a newspaper, do not tune into the news (of course the latest episode of “Reality Show Trash, Season 5” is a must see), and have almost no basic knowledge of the policies that effect them and the country the most.

How could any childbearing age woman vote for a Republican after what has been thoroughly documented in the last 18 months? Trans-vaginal probes? Check. “Legitimate” rape? Check. Employers choosing whether women can have contraception covered in their insurance? Check. Voting against the Lilly Ledbetter Act (for those of you low information voters that have got this far—not likely I know—that’s the equal pay for women legislation the President signed) and having the current party standard bearer dodge every question about it. Even at a town hall debate to a voter staring him in the eyes? CHECK! Rape is God’s will. Ch—what??? Really?

Yes, really.

Let’s take foreign policy. Let’s forget for a moment about the last time Romney left the country and insulted our greatest ally in England, incited and insulted Palestinians by saying their culture is inferior to Israelis, and refusing to answer not one question by reporters in Poland then having aides curse at said reporters for asking questions. Whew! And that was just in one week! Romney stated that Iran is tied to Syria because Iran uses Syria for a route to the sea. Um, excuse me but Iran has 1520 miles of coastline. (More than the distance from San Diego to Seattle.) Romney has apparently stated this four times on the campaign trail and at the final debate. FOUR TIMES. Who in his entourage is NOT correcting him? Other than that, he completely agrees with Obama on foreign policy. (Check back tomorrow to see if he still does depending on what audience he is speaking to.)

How about the economy? Romney states that he knows what to do to turn the economy around. But he wants to go back (and then some) to the Bush policies that collapsed the economy in the first place. Romney states that the President “picks losers like Solyndra half the time.” Fact check alert: Only 5 of 67 companies that received significant federal funds has gone bankrupt. That’s roughly 8%. What, you say, is Romney’s record for picking “losers” in the private sector? 22%. That's right, 22% of companies that Romney invested in at Bain have gone bankrupt or are out of business. How’s that for picking losers Mitt? President Obama has guided the country to 30 straight months of job growth while overseeing the reversal of 750,000 jobs being lost in January of 2009 with 5.2 million jobs gained since.

Romney is basically saying we should go back to all of the policies of 2001-2008. No thanks. My memory is good enough to remember 2008 unlike roughly 50% of the electorate apparently.

How anyone in Ohio or Michigan or anyone living in a state that is dependent upon the automobile industry can vote for Romney apparently hates Obama even more than themselves. If Romney had his way we’d be driving BYD’s right now. (That’s one of the top Chinese carmakers). And even if you aren’t directly employed by the automobile industry, I’ll give you a quick economics lesson: The guy who works for a car company spends money in your pizzeria, and your barber shop, and your dry cleaner, or buys the product the company you work for sells. The money he or she makes, is your income. And so on, and so forth. Without the bailout that Obama stewarded, Michigan and Ohio would look like a movie scene out of one of those old western ghost towns with tumbleweeds blowing through the streets.

So, this election is not just about the fact you don’t want to vote for the black guy because he doesn’t look like the 43 Presidents that came before him. (I’m talking to you white middle-aged voter making $55,000 a year!) This election is actually about how smart and informed you really are. If you really think that there are different categories of rape and that letting Detroit go bankrupt was a good idea or that Iran is a landlocked country, then America as a whole loses this National IQ test on November 6th.

The only difference is, if we don’t get this test right, we will be living with the bad report card for decades to come. Time to cram for the final exam America. You still have time to not be as stupid as the rest of the world thinks we are.

Now turn off Jersey Shore and go read a newspaper.