It may not be about Boquete Panama but US politics effects the world and Panama is a tail wagged by the big dog up north, so it is something I watch, with dismay.

GW Bush was one of many reasons I left the US, a minor one but a contributing factor. Many new immigrants are fleeing the current President and regardless of the winner of the upcoming election, Panama will see a wave of new immigrants fleeing their perception of the changes that will come.

To me Barack Obama has been a weak and disappointing leader for the US. GW Bush was a disastrous leader and Bill Clinton, better than either. I was in the Netherlands working when the entire Monica Lewinsky affair hit the media.  The people I knew in Holland agreed with me, it was bizarrely puritanically American, to care who is having sex with who, politician or not. I liked that trip the dollar bought 1.24 euros, not now, then.

The unfunded wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan coupled with run away spending, extreme tax cuts and a crashing the economy of the Bush years ended the economic boom of the Clinton years. Those actions ended the balanced budget and plunged the economy in the worst recession since the 1930′s. We see the impact here in Panama, new immigrants many of whom cannot sell homes in the US and cannot buy houses here. Despite the excellent growth of the economy in Panama City, Boquete is yet to see much of the impact because of our dependance on retiring immigrants and tourists.

The current US political scene is a disaster, Obama a weak centrist vs. Mitt Romney a man who is denial of the one good thing he did as governor of Massachusetts; his medical insurance program. Ron Paul who captured some hearts with some truth is unelectable, anyone who is honest cannot succeed in politics. All politicians pander to their base when running for office and then do what the people who funded them want once elected.

Although I respect neither Romney or Obama the choice of Paul Ryan by Romney scares me as much as John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin did four years ago. What are they thinking?

The Republican party of today claims to be conservative, but they want to control what people learn in schools, what people do in their bedrooms and even worse their very bodies. We now have a candidate for the Senate in Missouri,  Todd Akin, who believes the female body can decide whether a rape is a good rape or a bad rape and expel the fertilized egg from a bad rape. How can a rape, by definition be good?  This guy is a “well educated”, Christian who sits on the House Science committee and can spout nonsense. Todays media says the mainstream party is disowning him, but they bred him.

The framers of the US constitution  came from immigrants many of whom fled religious persecution in Europe. They wrote a document that allowed freedom of religion, a rare concept at the time and did not want a State religion. Why tdo so many of these new politicians demand their religious views be imposed by law on those who do not share them?  If you do not want an abortion don’t have one. If you want to pray in school, pray, but don’t tell my child they have to. If you don’t want to eat pork in a school lunch don’t eat it. True conservatives like Barry Goldwater wanted government out of the lives of people, not more and more laws.

I am not going to vote this year, I would need to go to Florida and register, and I am not going to do it. I will watch the election with interest. Regardless of the winner there will be change, if Obama wins and gets a working majority in the Congress he might get a few things done in his second term. If Romney wins he will spend some time trying to reshape  what he can to the whims of those who fund him. Either way the people will lose because unless fundamental, unpopular changes are made by politicians who want to be reelected nothing good can happen.

Some ideas for simplicity. Affordable healthcare was a start, a good copy of what Romney did in Massachusetts, most people don’t realize what the law does they just hear the negative sound bytes. Among other things people cannot have their insurance cancelled when they need it as long as they paid their premiums. People can buy insurance even with pre-exisitng conditions. Insurance companies need to refund excessive premiums collected.

More grants for innovation, a good start too. Sure some things don’t work, but idea that does work and creates a jobs makes up for ten failures.

Reduce some of the tax breaks for corporations. As we expats know, we need to declare and pay income taxes on offshore earnings. Yes we get some exemptions but did you know that corporations do not need to pay unless they repatriate the earnings? As long as Apple leaves profits in China, the US collects no taxes. Eliminate corporate welfare!

How about some workfare instead of welfare for people. Want that check work, FDR did public works projects nationally with WPA it did a lot of good and created a lot of jobs, he also created Social Security. Welfare should only be a short term safety net, not a life entitlement.

Fix Medicare and Social Security, they are good programs. Many retired people would have neither medical care nor food without them. We the current generation who are starting to collect paid for those benefits, we are entitled it however is not an entitlement. If you privatize them, like IRA’s and 401K’s most people will not fund them, and if they did a collapse on Wall Street would wipe them out.

Stop using the US military as a police force for multinational corporations, many of them don’t even pay US  taxes, but taxpayers pay to station troops around the world to protect their interests. No one wants wars except the businesses and politicians that profit from them.

End the war on drugs, unlike ending prohibition this does not even require a constitutional amendment; legalize and tax them. This won’t happen because too many people benefit from illegal drugs. The pharmaceutical industry, private prison industry, corrupt politicians and police all love the war on drugs.

The money saved on imprisoning people for drugs and new taxes collected can be used for health care and education. It costs far more to maintain a prisoner than educate someone in a University.

I can go on, but regardless of who is next in line for the White House bedroom, none of the above will happen, too many people with too much power have too much to lose.