2012 Presidential Election Essay

2012 Presidential Election: An Election to Preserve America
By: Morgan Jenny
April 17, 2014
PAS 320- Dr. Bruce Tyler
Final exam paper

During President Barack Obama’s first term conservatives felt that success came in the form of fighting Obama with every step he took. He took office hoping to bring real change and support for middle and lower class Americans; the type of progressive inclusion these classes had not seen in five decades. Conservatives hope to not only stymie his efforts but to “fundamentally change America,” leaving millions with nothing to turn to –a fatal reality. In the summer before the 2012 election, an election with grave stakes, Conservatives like Allen West argued, “Obama does not want you to have the self-esteem of getting up and earning that title of American.” Instead stating that the president wished to promote a society of “takers” and “moochers,” encouraging the degradation of all things (according to conservatives) American. They sought to depict Obama’s administration as promoting a sedentary America despite scholarly evidence to the contrary. In order to push this elitist agenda conservatives would need to hide behind the shroud of protecting authentic American values, scaring the insecure, financially-strapped electorate into believing Obama’s America would take something from them and spoon feed it someone less deserving. Alter explains to accomplish their goal to see their plan of dismantling the Social Welfare State and deracinating Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity policies come to fruition, the Republican party would need to capitalize on the momentum they saw in the summer of 2011. It was during this time that Paul Ryan would gain exposure and momentum for his radical policy blueprint. Alter explains that the Ryan plan represented the extreme stakes of the 2012 election. The severity of this blue print was a salient reality of what was to come if the democrats failed to preserve the driver’s seat. Ryan proposed devastating cuts in discretionary funding, cuts that were targeted at the poor and disproportionately black. Two-thirds of Ryan’s spending cuts were to programs aimed at helping the poor, all the while ensuring tax cuts for the grossly affluent. Conservatives took cues from Newt Gingrich’s 1994 Contract with America and the Fiscal Responsibility Act for their radical fiscal policies. The Contract and Fiscal Responsibility act hid racism and social oppression behind a thin veil of fiscal conscientiousness. The Fiscal Responsibility Act promised a balance budget, like Paul Ryan’s blueprint, by making extreme life-changing cuts to Social Welfare programs. Even with these cuts, which would wrack middle and poor America, the budget would not be balanced for decades. Economist would regard these plans as phantom political economics. Another trope Republican’s used to progress their agenda was the “Makers and Takers” argument, a Fountainhead-esque image of dichotomy in America. After the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act, the Republican media turn on the Supreme Court calling into question its validity and relevance. They used fear mongering to sway the average American away from Obamacare, scaring them with the threat that “moochers” were going to take away what was rightfully theirs. The sense of a new passionate ploy to subvert all the previous efforts to uplift the lower classes in America to a first world status was palpable in the air. The 2012 election was so important because a republican win would mean the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and mean a complete denuding of the protection and promotion of economic and social programs, which ensure the well being of American citizens. Alter explains, conservatives like Grover Norquist felt that America had strayed from its independent history. Norquist’s “Americans for Tax Reform” pledge was the first step in fixing the

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