I had lunch with an old friend recently.  We’re both baby boomers and our conversation turned to politics.  He said to me, “I’m going to hold my nose and vote for Obama.”  To which I asked, why?  And he said, “Because of women’s rights.”

That surprised me.  “I agree women’s rights are important and I really don’t think Romney would do anything to jeopardize them.  But, I believe Obama’s economic policies will continue to hurt everyone, including women, working families, and especially baby boomers who will need to live off of their savings.  For most families, those savings have eroded by 40% during the past four years under Obama.  Therefore, I continued, “With respect to this election, we need to do something that our elected leaders in Washington have been unable to do: we need to prioritize.  And I think commonsense dictates that we, as voters, be pragmatic.  Clearly, the priority is the economy, the debt, deficit, unemployment, healthcare costs, and leadership.”

If you’ve had a heart attack and broken your foot too, doesn’t commonsense dictate that you deal with your heart condition first and then your foot?  Obviously, if your heart fails, your foot won’t matter.

Commonsense dictates that you vote for Romney-Ryan this election because if the economy, debt, budget, and entitlements aren’t dealt with, other issues won’t matter very much.  The clear priority in America today and, therefore, for this presidential election, is the economy and jobs.   As citizens, we need to make commonsense the new ideology.

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©  2012  Steven M. Stroum