There's a story we need to know. It comes from one of the most Republican states in the union. In Idaho Springs, Idaho, Occupy activists secured legal documents preventing the eviction of Sahara Donahue.
They elected a spokesperson who was to hand the legal documents over to representatives of the bank. The Sheriff said that he would be there "to keep the peace."
That isn't what happened. Instead, what played out looks like something out of Afghanistan.
Sheriff's deputies showed up in full battle gear with assault rifles, refused to accept the legal documents, and acted as if they were soldiers in a war zone.
Things were really starting to look up for us. We felt we had made some incredible progress. Then we heard a vehicle coming. Around the corner I saw a Sheriff's vehicle through the trees as it was approaching. Then I saw behind it another, and another, and another. About 10 vehicles filled with men in what appeared to be full battle gear (and assault weapons already in hand) began to fill the road in front of the house. In all our planning and meetings, we never expected this kind of response. After all, we were led to believe that the Sheriff was only going to be there to "keep the peace." And don't forget that we were unarmed, peaceful demonstrators.
The spokesman of our group got on the megaphone and began trying to get everyone to converge up at the house, but it was already too late. The Tactical Response Team had already reacted. As we were rushing up the driveway, we were cut off by several men gripping their assault rifles as they began shouting at us to get on the ground on our knees. To my left, the spokesman was coming up, shouting on the megaphone, attempting to discern who was in charge since he had the letters to deliver. The officers didn't care; in fact as the spokesman was telling them he had letters, one of the officers shouted back, "No, you don't have letters!", and they continued ordering us to get on our knees. We remained standing and continued trying to open up some kind of conversation.
...
Finally, the man in charge came forward, but when he was presented with the letters, he informed us that he would take them but it didn't matter. He then folded them up without even really looking at them. It was obvious that those with the money and the guns couldn't have cared less about the injustice taking place, and they were ready and willing to do whatever was necessary to shut us down.
The full story, and more images of this outrage, are available
here.
What I'm about to say is going to sound like crass political campaigning, but remember I'm saying it as someone who will ever be a critic of Barack Obama.
There is only one person in this race who has done anything effective to prevent scenes like this one from happening.
He deserves four more years to finish fixing this problem. He knows that our problems aren't solved, and he himself has said "We can do more."
Yes, we can, but more importantly, we must.
Four years of Mitt Romney would make scenes like this one commonplace. Remember, he wants the bottom to fall out of the housing market. He wants everyone whose underwater on their mortgages to get evicted, because he has a naive faith that the magical market will make everything right.
We need someone who thinks that marriage equality is important, and that DADT's repeal should stand.
We need someone who's a realist in the White House. We need someone who has recognized the need for a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We need someone in the White House who will work with Elizabeth Warren, not disregard her because of her plumbing.
We need someone who looks at the American economy and says that there are problems that we can fix, not someone who thinks that government, not the banksters, is the problem. We need someone working on the economy who isn't a fox complaining about how we're guarding the hen house.
We need someone who recognizes the damage that storms like Sandy can do, not someone who thinks that climate change is a joke.
We need someone who can carefully work with nations across the world in these chaotic times, not someone who doesn't know that the Persian gulf exists.
We need someone who trusts women, not someone who thinks that "if" they're going to be in the workplace, then everyone's going to have to make concessions to those needy broads.
If you're the kind of person who doesn't trust women to make decisions about their own lives, then you're the kind of person who doesn't trust women when they say they've been raped. We need someone who's not going to question whether women have been "legitimately" raped.
We need someone who knows how to end wars, not someone who thinks that ending the war in Iraq and bringing the troops home was an unthinkable tragedy.
We need someone who's fiscally responsible, who has frozen the government's budget, begun necessary cuts to defense, and who wants to increase our revenue, without hurting people who haven't yet recovered from the great recession.
We need someone who can get tough with China, not someone gullible enough to believe that the barbed wire fence and guard towers at the Chinese factory were there to keep people out.
We need someone who is exploding our green energy sector, not someone who thinks that we should do more mountaintop removal and hydrofracking, and who thinks that we should burn more coal.
We need four more years of Barack Obama.
I may not always agree with him, especially when it comes to aspects of our foreign policy such as drones. But for those who, like me, are very concerned about drones, the patriot act, SOPA, PIPA, and CISPA, I have one thing to ask:
Do you really think for one second that any of these issues will be resolved under a Mitt Romney presidency?
I like Jill Stein. I think she's swell. I wish she were helping us democrats take the house back, and I wouldn't care what banner she was flying while she did it, blue, green, or even red. Rocky Anderson seems like a great guy. He'd make a wonderful Senator from Utah, and he's the kind of person who can pull off that kind of Coup.
To anyone on the fence, to anyone undecided, and I know you're out there because I've read your comments here on DailyKos: I hear you.
I really do.
But I recognize that tomorrow, our most important political goal must be to stop Mitt Romney from becoming president of the United States. We cannot allow government of, by, and for, the 1%. I fear for my country, and my world, if that man becomes our leader.
I would rather have Barack Obama, a principled leader with whom I vigorously disagree, but who ultimately wants this nation to move in the right direction. I would rather spend the next four years pushing Barack Obama in the right direction than four years fighting to keep Mitt Romney from dragging our world towards more war, more poverty, and more injustice.
Wouldn't you?
For those of you on the fence, I am begging you: for the sake of our world, help me stop Mitt Romney. Look at those pictures I posted at the beginning of the diary. Under a Mitt Romney presidency, that won't be an isolated incident in ruby red Idaho.
Scenes like that will be all too common.
I can't let that happen.
Can you?