Obama: A Working Class Woman’s Story
September 16, 2009
by Rebecca Cantrell
The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and not necessarily those of The New Agenda. To submit a piece to The New Agenda Blog, contact us here.
I like Barack. I like Hillary too but I agreed with her decision to support Obama at the time she made it.
I really admire the way he’s going to all these town hall meetings and responding to criticism. It’s true that he has to compromise to get anything through at all but he’s working his butt off to get the American people the very best deal on healthcare that he possibly can.
While his statistics on women in general may not have been too impressive, he has done a lot for yours truly. For instance, I get $25 a week more than I’d otherwise get on my partial Unemployment. $25 is enough to feed a single person for a week if she’s careful. I have the option of doing a year in Americorps and having my $75,000 student loan forgiven in 10 years if I can’t afford to pay it. Since I’m 55, 10 years is a lot better than the 25 it would have taken me before. I can get food stamps more easily if things get really bad at my job before this is over. And of course, the economy is improving which means that I may be able to get off partial Unemployment and pay for my own health insurance in case his bill doesn’t go through.
He is a personal inspiration to me because I am the product of two people who were very different from each other. Before he came along, I had no real example of how a person might successfully navigate the treacherous shores of two opposite world views. I was sick of the old guard but I didn’t see any viable alternatives. He’s also a great example for underprivileged people in general and young, minority men in particular.
He isn’t perfect.but for the first time in a long time, I have hope for the future. If he’s good enough for Hillary, he’s good enough for me. You go dude!
Rebecca, thank you for your refreshing perspective! Some of the issues you bring up in regard to Barack I think are a testament to the fact that there are many policies supported by Democrats that fair better for women than Republican policies. However, women never get quite what they deserve under Democratic leadership because there are not enough Democratic women in office representing them.
I also do find his “dialogue” with the right on abortion issues very dangerous for women. Notice how more Americans than ever support the pro-life position. I think it’s no accident that this coincides with Barack “reaching out” for “dialogue” with pro-lifers. And the fact that he had Rick Warren at the commencement was incredibly damaging for women, including for those women who are victims of domestic violence and rape.
So I understand why are happy about with Barack. But in my view point, in the instances you point out he is just acting like a Democrat and deserves no special props for that.
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