Social views explain Obama’s re-election

Social views explain Obama’s re-election

I do not believe the economy and national debt impacted the 2012 election. It was based more on social issues like sex, marriage and family. While the economy is important, people showed they would rather not have religion come into politics via trying to ban abortion and gay marriage.

Unlike Mitt Romney, Barack Obama supports gay marriage and has not expressed an interest in banning abortion. The election proves people were willing to overlook our expanding debt in order to prevent going back to 1950s beliefs about sex, marriage, and family.

Romney, largely because of the role of religion in his life, is against gay marriage, and has been unclear about his opinion on abortion, like whether it is OK in instances of rape. Additionally, his running mate was staunchly against abortion in all cases.

Seeing as there were binders full of controversial anti-abortion comments from religious conservatives Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock and Joe Walsh, and all lost their respective races, it is clear that their stance was damaging to their campaigns. On the same ballot in three states — Maine, Maryland and Washington — laws passed that extended marriage rights to same-sex couples. Minnesota voters rejected a ban against same-sex marriage.

It is obvious people cared more about progressive views regarding sex, marriage, and family in this election. The economy is still important, people just made a decision about what is more important to them on a personal level in this election. And this is why Barack Obama is still president.

Brandi Slavich

Naperville