My Two Cents

I spent at least 4 minutes writing this thing for an internet forum I participate in, so I thought I ought to give it a second audience. I had previously mentioned that I take issue with Obama's lack of respect for the family. Someone asked what I meant, since Obama and Biden officially don't support gay marriage.


My beef with Obama's family policies are primarily in his education plan. For instance:

"Zero to Five Plan: The Obama-Biden comprehensive "Zero to Five" plan will provide critical support to young children and their parents. Unlike other early childhood education plans, the Obama-Biden plan places key emphasis at early care and education for infants, which is essential for children to be ready to enter kindergarten. Obama and Biden will create Early Learning Challenge Grants to promote state "zero to five" efforts and help states move toward voluntary, universal pre-school."

Parents already believe that preschool is better than not. That may be true if the alternate is daycare. It is NOT true if the alternate is a mother. So, all of these mothers send their kids to preschool (many of them sacrificing other things in order to afford it) when actually they would be a better option. (One on one is better than 3 of 20.) I realize that there are parents who are working multiple jobs to make ends meet, and thus can't dedicate the time to parenting they might like, and that is why I support headstart programs, however I oppose programs that will make parents believe (falsely) that the government can do a better job educating their children. Especially if they are trying to tell them that they should have your children from infancy. That makes me want to slug somebody. (Disclaimer: there are many reasons to send a child to preschool, and in some cases it is a good option. I only take issue with the belief that preschool can educate better than mothers. It is not true.)

Also, this statement:

"From the moment our children step into a classroom, the single most important factor in determining their achievement is their teacher" (found multiple times on Barack's site) goes a long way discounting the role of the family. Not to mention that it's a big fat lie. As a teacher and a mother and a daughter, the single most important factor to a child's achievement is their parents. Ask any teacher, they will agree. Teachers have a lot of power, but not nearly as much as even the father who left the family and doesn't pay child support, let alone the parents who help their children with homework.

I am glad that Obama has decided that he can give up what I suspect are his true belief's regarding gay marriage in order to get the independent vote. However, I'm thinking that gay marriage is most likely to come from the supreme court, not congress. Therefore, I'm not liking voting for someone who will appoint judges that will most likely have an easier time acting on their belief in gay marriage than someone who has to get elected.

Lastly, I feel that his policies on women will nudge women out of the home needlessly. As an optimist recently coming from the bubble, I like to think that the great majority of the unequal numbers of women vs. men in the workplace come because women have a natural understanding that it's really important for them to be mothers. I'm sure some of the discrepency comes from discrimination, etc., but I think there are few women CEO's because women decide it's not worth giving up their family to work 90 hours a week to get to the top. And good for them. (And good for the men who make the same decision.) Having the government throw money at that "problem" would, I think, convince women to give up that natural righteous feeling and give up their greatest blessing for money. It's not the government's place to make sure women raise their children, but I also think it's wrong for them to pay women to let the government raise them in their behalf.