|
There’s something happening across the country.
It’s not covered by the mainstream media, but you know about it nonetheless. You discuss it over the backyard fence; you sense it in the once-vitriolic family conversations that have taken a decided turn. You recognize its implications in the shifting dynamics of local politics, and its impact on nation-wide political discourse as a whole. It is a sense of unity - and you may not immediately have recognized it, simply because it's been absent for so long.
With all of the mistakes, missteps, and miscalculations that can be laid at the feet of the present administration and the party that supported it, the failure to foresee the most obvious consequence of their actions now comes home to haunt them: any effort to divide the American people – despite however many short-term victories may be touted and played-upon – is, in the long-term, inevitably doomed.
Over the span of this disastrous administration, the Republicans have dispensed the KoolAid with a more than generous hand, a sleep-inducing potion meant to inspire nightmares of terrorists under every bed, of a gay agenda intent on destroying the sanctity of traditional marriage, of universal healthcare being an unmistakable prelude to the nation being overtaken by communism.
But the Republicans carefully-crafted plan to divide and conquer by way of such obvious scare tactics failed to take into account the simple fact that eventually Americans would come out of their stupor, put their feet once again firmly on the floor, and act the way people angrily act when they get up on the wrong side of the political bed.
It should have been realized that when the effects of the KoolAid start wearing off, the bitter aftertaste tends to linger when your job is in jeopardy, you can’t keep up with your ever-rising monthly bills, your kids complete their homework assignments based on rote rather than an understanding of the subject matter, your once-respectable savings account at the bank has been replaced by a jar full of pennies on the kitchen counter, and not a single prediction of economic prosperity, fiscal responsibility, safeguarding of traditional freedoms, or certain victory in war has come to fruition.
What it all comes down to is a handful of undeniable truths that We the People see as being self-evident, whether one political party or another agrees or not. All Americans want two things above all else – the opportunity to partake of the American Dream and all that it promises, along with the ability to bring that dream more firmly within their children’s reach.
In the end, that is what it all boils down to for the American citizenry – and all the rhetoric in the world won’t alter it, won’t replace it, won’t obfuscate it, won’t offer something to substitute for it that will be accepted as being of equal value. A better life for me than my parents had; a better life for my children than I have now. This is the American Dream that no citizen will lose sight of, nor relinquish their right to, regardless of party affiliation, political loyalties, or talking points driven home with fervor and frequency. It is their most closely-guarded birthright, and one which they are most determined to pass on to their descendants.
In this, above all else, We the People stand united – much to the surprised consternation of the party whose every success depended on permanent division.
In the lead-up to the November 2006 mid-terms, the GOP pounced on the idea that the only thing the Democrats had to offer was the fact that they weren’t Republicans. They reiterated this idea again and again, apparently not realizing that the seeds of discontent had already sprouted; seeds that they themselves continued to sow.
It is a classic case of being careful not so much of what you wish for, but of what you predict as a disastrous result being seen by the populace for what it is: a result far preferable to what has been proffered by the party of broken promises, of hypocrisy, of corruption, of war, of outsourcing; a party that never fails to support the interests of corporations over the interests of the hard-working Americans without whose efforts those corporations would not even exist.
The upcoming elections in 2008 come down to a few simple questions to be answered by the American people, and I believe their response is predictable beyond any manufactured or perceived margin of error: Do you want your country to be governed according to the Constitution, or according to the whims of whoever happens to occupy the Oval Office? Do you want your nation’s established laws to be consistently adhered to by all, or do you want to embark on a path of seat-of-the-pants governance that is swayed by ever-changing goals based on corporate influence and political agendas?
In short, do you still believe that your government’s role is to ensure your participation in the American Dream, or to hold it for ransom until you have complied with the wishes of those in power?
In the end, this election will not be decided based on who gave the more memorable speech, who polled better in the surveys, who dazzled in the debates, who publicly displayed the right religious beliefs, who wore the right outfit, who lives the acceptable lifestyle, who strikes the right chord in the heartland, or who captured the imagination of the sophisticated versus the barely-informed.
It will come down to who has a (D) next to their name as opposed to that now-hated (R), a scarlet letter that has come to represent the abandonment of every principle that made this country great, a mark that identifies the willing participants in a thinly-disguised plot to substitute butter with tasteless, nutrition-free margarine in the mistaken belief that the unwashed masses don’t have the intelligence to notice the difference.
It is a sad comment on how far down our country has fallen when the outcome of a presidential election is predicated not on a choice between the positives that each party represents, but rather on the negatives that one party has demonstrated without apology or regret, whose leaders have contributed to the wearing-away of our freedoms without trepidation or remorse.
But behind all of the political strategy, the jockeying for position, the talking points, the mindless rhetoric, and the endless litany of empty promises, the overwhelming truth is that the Democrats have one thing going for them that the Republicans can't hope to defeat: Democrats are not Republicans, and the fact that the GOP never miss an opportunity to point that out to the voters will prove to be their undoing.
We will have the presidency, the Senate, the House - perhaps because we deserve it, or perhaps simply by default. But the course of our nation's history will be determined not by our attainment of that powerful position, but by what we do with that power once it is in our hands.
Whoever we elect in 2008 will bear a heavy burden, and regardless of whether the next president is your personal choice among the present candidates or not, I am confident that that none of us will waver in our support of our elected Democratic president - or in our vigilance to ensure that he or she hears the voice of all Americans and governs accordingly.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
