Make Obama do it

Romney cannot pack the Supreme Court with more radical right-wingers. But we should pressure Obama to appoint true progressives to the highest court in the land.

Romney cannot inflate military spending even more than the 20 per cent of the U.S. budget it currently occupies. But we can demand a reduction in military spending, which adds significantly to the deficit, makes us no safer, and leeches money from education and health care.

Whereas Romney sees workers as expendable when it comes to maximising profit, Obama must see to it that union rights are strengthened. He must also acknowledge the major role unions, union members and union households played in organizing the ground game and for his reelection. The President must commit himself to finding ways, including using his executive authority, to create good jobs.

Instead of Obama’s unprecedented targeting of whistleblowers, we must urge him to abandon the policies that led to the commission of war crimes that people like Julian Assange and Bradley Manning have exposed.

It is one thing to be pro-choice. Obama must push to make coverage for abortion available in all federal health insurance programs.

Obama took an important step when he issued an executive order preventing the deportation of young people who came to the United States before they were 16 and have lived here continuously for five years. In his second term, Obama should end discrimination and racial profiling by the Department of Homeland Security and the mass arrests and detentions of immigrants. He should also work on comprehensive immigration reform that includes a reasonable pathway to citizenship.

We must hold Obama to his pledge to protect Medicare and Social Security no matter how tempting it may be to weaken them in the impending deal to prevent us from going over the proverbial but not real “fiscal cliff.”  Obama should also be pressured to stick to his self-proclaimed mandate to make the rich pay higher taxes.

To help prevent another economic meltdown, Obama ought to push for strong regulation, especially in the banking and financial sectors of the economy. A financial transactions tax on Wall Street, hedge funds, etc., targeted to job creation and infrastructure must be seriously considered.

The United States is a key player in the global economy. But the free trade regimes we have followed have only promoted growing inequality in this country and countries with whom we trade. We need fair trade that includes protections for workers, human rights and the environment.

In order to work seriously to protect our environment, Obama must push for a heavy tax on carbon emissions and major regulation of coal, oil and gas companies. He must demand transition to renewables before it is too late to stop the ravages of storms like Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy.

During his first campaign, Obama pledged to immediately “let folks know” whether the products they consume contain genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) by proper labeling. He has not yet made good on that promise despite overwhelming public support for labeling GMO’s. Large corporations, including Monsanto, spent $50 million to defeat Proposition 37 in California, which would have required such labeling.

Although Obama has resisted Benjamin Netanyahu’s demands that the United States draw a red line to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability, Obama has imposed punishing sanctions that are devastating to the Iranian people, and not necessarily targeted to the nuclear program, while not saying a word about Israel’s nuclear arsenal.  He must not pander to the right-wing Israeli government on Iran or sacrifice the rights of Palestinians.