I’m really getting tired of having people ask me this question, and then answer themselves with: “All he’s done is try to let gays marry and fuck up the economy.”

Okay, with tomorrow being election day, let me educate you a little bit.  He’s actually done quite a bit, though if you’re extremely right winged I’m not surprised that you’re ignorant to the fact.  Do you go to college?  Did you take advantage of a Pell grant?  He helped you, there.  Are you a woman?  Have you been abused physically?  Yeah, there too.  Have you ever been afraid that banks could use your money to turn themselves a profit?  Yeah, that’s illegal now.  Did you have kids without health insurance until recently?  There’s that, too.  But let’s get into specifics:

• Provided travel expenses to families of fallen soldiers to be on hand when the body arrives at Dover AFB.  Oh, you’re unimpressed?
• Launched recovery.gov to track spending from the Recovery Act, providing transparency and allowing the public to report fraud, waste, or abuse.  Big fucking deal, right?  What else?
• Provided the Department of Veterans Affairs with more than $1.4 billion to improve services to America’s Veterans.  Yeah, and?
• Signed the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act, which provides health care to 11 million kids — 4 million of whom were previously uninsured.  But what has he done for me lately?
• Signed the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act, the first piece of comprehensive legislation aimed at improving the lives of Americans living with paralysis.  Okay, so?
• Established Credit Card Bill of Rights, preventing credit card companies from imposing arbitrary rate increases on customers.  Well, I don’t have a credit card, what else you got?
• Health Care Reform Bill, preventing insurance companies from denying insurance because of a pre-existing condition.  Well, I guess that’s something.
• Tax credits for up to 29 million individuals to help pay for health insurance.  Okay, but..
• Significantly increased funding for the Violence Against Women Act.  Well, uh..
• Eliminated subsidies to private lender middlemen of student loans and protect student borrowers.
• Significantly expanded Pell grants, which help low-income students pay for college.  Okay, okay.  I get it!
• Signed financial reform law allowing shareholders of publicly traded companies to vote on executive pay.

And that’s just the handful I can rattle off the top of my head.  So before you actually step into the booth tomorrow, regardless of whom you’re voting for, take a moment to realize that the man in office is actually doing a relatively good job.  The economy isn’t in its entirety his fault.  He was passed a flickering baton, and that’s just how economics work.  After every boom (Clinton), there is a plateau and a recession (Bush) that we have to subsequently pull ourselves out of.  That’s literally the nature of the beast, but that’s neither here nor there.

I’m not telling you who to vote for, but before you wander in there with blinders on, take a moment to actually realize what the last four years has done for you, and if you’re still unhappy with that, then go ahead.  But at least vote for Ron Paul.

(Source: twominutestilltakeoff)