Will Fear Rule This Election?
I claim no Political Science degree, nor am I a journalist. I have just been watching as carefully as I could since the 2000 election…since 9/11…since Iraq. I have listened attentively to Limbaugh and Moore, and every pundit and wannabe reporter in between. I have listened to the call in shows, talked to strangers, gone to a few meetings, read and participated in several blogs, trying to gauge the mindset of the people.
Now I sit here with only a few weeks to go before the election, and I am absolutely and completely terrified. Why? Well let’s start with the Dubya administration.
I have watched this administration remove all obstacles from big corporation profit, remove environmental, financial and civil rights standards that have been in place for years, remove science and balanced legislation from the forefront to be replaced with right wing conservative restrictions. I have watched allies become enemies, and the world change its opinion of our country by 180 degrees in 4 short years. I have easily uncovered lie after lie coming from this administration. Anyone can do it. Listen to them speak, then do research and find documents, reports, even their own previous quotes to find falsehood after falsehood given to the American people with a straight face and a God Bless.
The laws our forefathers put in place, the checks and balances, were all to insure that one man, one party, and one ideology would not control this diverse country. None of that applies now as Neo Cons of the Republican Party now control the House, the Senate, The Supreme Court, and the Executive Branch of our country. The other voices have been silenced…and that terrifies me.
I am also afraid for the future of the Democratic Party. From the Minority Leader Daschle to the current Presidential candidate, there is hesitance…apparent weakness…and far too much compromise. Since 9/11 they have attempted to read the American people’s need for vengeance and remuneration, and it has been interpreted via new legislation such as the Patriot Act, giving the Executive power to go to Iraq, not fighting hard enough against the Medicare legislation etc etc etc. Not to mention the whole 2000 compromise which was the beginning of their secession from the power they acquired during the Clinton years. No attacks against the President, no rightful calls for impeachment when Bush was caught in the Iraq lie, nothing. They look to be now coming out of their stupor, {and though they won’t admit it the thanks go to people like Howard Dean and Michael Moore} at least to a point. But is it too little too late? That terrifies me too.
The controversies surrounding the Diebold voting machines, the inattentiveness to the point of collusion coming from the major news media, the absolute power and monetary backing behind this regime, the outright fear mongering…all of these things scare me. However, nothing shocks me as much, nor fills me with as much trepidation, as the divisiveness, antipathy, and occasionally stunning blindness of a large percentage of my fellow Americans.
The freedom we have been gifted with is not free. We have taken it for granted. We have forgotten all that we learned in school, that our votes count, that being informed is a requirement so that we never let what’s happening now happen. We the people are supposed to be in charge of the government, but we aren’t. This election should be based on more than the televised debates or mud slinging commercials. We all have access to the laws that have been passed, to the transcripts of speeches and campaign promises, but we don’t read them. One guy looks like Uncle Bubba and the other like Frankenstein, that’s all a lot of us care about. Or one single issue decides us, or the personal religious belief of the candidate…and this may be the most confounding thing of all. Our country, the same one with the French made Statue of Liberty which welcomes all creeds and religions and economic levels to our shores; our country is not based on a single religious ideology…it never has been. Most of the first settlers came to escape religious persecution, to be free to worship as they pleased. We are Hindus and Buddhists and Christians and Muslims and Jews and everything in between. Individually we may believe the rest will find at the end that they were wrong as they plunge into a fiery pit set aside for pagans…but what does that have to do with Health Care? Or the huge Unemployment rate? Or our sons and daughters going off to die in a war that had nothing to do with 9/11 OR Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Freedom means that a Liberal cannot do anything to stop the pro lifers from holding up signs of dead babies in front of the Planned Parenthood, or bringing their five year olds with them to protest a gay marriage. Freedom also means that same pro lifer can’t stop a woman from being able to choose, as the Judicial system has given her the right over her own body. A Vietnam Veteran can burn a flag, a Grand Wizard of the KKK can march in a parade, as long as they aren’t hurting anyone physically, this country’s laws protect them…or did.
I am afraid of the people who make up their minds based on party line, based on apathy, based on appearances, or based on faith. I am afraid that if people are too caught up in high emotions and the need for retribution instead of the facts, the wrong man will be elected. And if the wrong man is reelected, there will be more war, more death, more poverty, and most of all, less freedom.
I have often said I would feel blessed to spend the next 200 years arguing about whether or not abortion, gay marriage, or the use of automatic weapons should be legal. I would love to have a long conversation about the health benefits of marijuana, the racial connotations of quotas, or even a generational debate about the use of Under God in the Pledge of Allegiance. This election, no matter what you have heard, isn’t about ANY of that. This election is about the future of our country…and Truth. Instead of fighting each other to the bloody death over our individual causes, we need to spend the next few weeks pouring over ALL of this administrations decisions, passed laws, vetoes, and appointments. We need to look at all the facts, spend an hour a day paying attention to our responsibility as Americans. And on November 2nd we all need to vote based on a single question. Not: does this or that candidate support my favorite cause? Not: is this or that candidate a Christian? The only question that should be pertinent in this very important election is…Based on all the evidence I have found, all the laws passed and actions carried out by this administration, is this the direction that I want my country to continue to be headed in? Do I want more of what this administration has done? Let me put it in a simpler way. You are an employer. You have someone currently in a top position up for review, and another person with the right qualifications should the review be negative to fill in for the present employee. Now, are you satisfied in everyway that your employee is doing a super job? And are you 100% sure the other candidate couldn’t do it better? Remember, millions of lives depend on your decision…not just your own.
Now I sit here with only a few weeks to go before the election, and I am absolutely and completely terrified. Why? Well let’s start with the Dubya administration.
I have watched this administration remove all obstacles from big corporation profit, remove environmental, financial and civil rights standards that have been in place for years, remove science and balanced legislation from the forefront to be replaced with right wing conservative restrictions. I have watched allies become enemies, and the world change its opinion of our country by 180 degrees in 4 short years. I have easily uncovered lie after lie coming from this administration. Anyone can do it. Listen to them speak, then do research and find documents, reports, even their own previous quotes to find falsehood after falsehood given to the American people with a straight face and a God Bless.
The laws our forefathers put in place, the checks and balances, were all to insure that one man, one party, and one ideology would not control this diverse country. None of that applies now as Neo Cons of the Republican Party now control the House, the Senate, The Supreme Court, and the Executive Branch of our country. The other voices have been silenced…and that terrifies me.
I am also afraid for the future of the Democratic Party. From the Minority Leader Daschle to the current Presidential candidate, there is hesitance…apparent weakness…and far too much compromise. Since 9/11 they have attempted to read the American people’s need for vengeance and remuneration, and it has been interpreted via new legislation such as the Patriot Act, giving the Executive power to go to Iraq, not fighting hard enough against the Medicare legislation etc etc etc. Not to mention the whole 2000 compromise which was the beginning of their secession from the power they acquired during the Clinton years. No attacks against the President, no rightful calls for impeachment when Bush was caught in the Iraq lie, nothing. They look to be now coming out of their stupor, {and though they won’t admit it the thanks go to people like Howard Dean and Michael Moore} at least to a point. But is it too little too late? That terrifies me too.
The controversies surrounding the Diebold voting machines, the inattentiveness to the point of collusion coming from the major news media, the absolute power and monetary backing behind this regime, the outright fear mongering…all of these things scare me. However, nothing shocks me as much, nor fills me with as much trepidation, as the divisiveness, antipathy, and occasionally stunning blindness of a large percentage of my fellow Americans.
The freedom we have been gifted with is not free. We have taken it for granted. We have forgotten all that we learned in school, that our votes count, that being informed is a requirement so that we never let what’s happening now happen. We the people are supposed to be in charge of the government, but we aren’t. This election should be based on more than the televised debates or mud slinging commercials. We all have access to the laws that have been passed, to the transcripts of speeches and campaign promises, but we don’t read them. One guy looks like Uncle Bubba and the other like Frankenstein, that’s all a lot of us care about. Or one single issue decides us, or the personal religious belief of the candidate…and this may be the most confounding thing of all. Our country, the same one with the French made Statue of Liberty which welcomes all creeds and religions and economic levels to our shores; our country is not based on a single religious ideology…it never has been. Most of the first settlers came to escape religious persecution, to be free to worship as they pleased. We are Hindus and Buddhists and Christians and Muslims and Jews and everything in between. Individually we may believe the rest will find at the end that they were wrong as they plunge into a fiery pit set aside for pagans…but what does that have to do with Health Care? Or the huge Unemployment rate? Or our sons and daughters going off to die in a war that had nothing to do with 9/11 OR Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Freedom means that a Liberal cannot do anything to stop the pro lifers from holding up signs of dead babies in front of the Planned Parenthood, or bringing their five year olds with them to protest a gay marriage. Freedom also means that same pro lifer can’t stop a woman from being able to choose, as the Judicial system has given her the right over her own body. A Vietnam Veteran can burn a flag, a Grand Wizard of the KKK can march in a parade, as long as they aren’t hurting anyone physically, this country’s laws protect them…or did.
I am afraid of the people who make up their minds based on party line, based on apathy, based on appearances, or based on faith. I am afraid that if people are too caught up in high emotions and the need for retribution instead of the facts, the wrong man will be elected. And if the wrong man is reelected, there will be more war, more death, more poverty, and most of all, less freedom.
I have often said I would feel blessed to spend the next 200 years arguing about whether or not abortion, gay marriage, or the use of automatic weapons should be legal. I would love to have a long conversation about the health benefits of marijuana, the racial connotations of quotas, or even a generational debate about the use of Under God in the Pledge of Allegiance. This election, no matter what you have heard, isn’t about ANY of that. This election is about the future of our country…and Truth. Instead of fighting each other to the bloody death over our individual causes, we need to spend the next few weeks pouring over ALL of this administrations decisions, passed laws, vetoes, and appointments. We need to look at all the facts, spend an hour a day paying attention to our responsibility as Americans. And on November 2nd we all need to vote based on a single question. Not: does this or that candidate support my favorite cause? Not: is this or that candidate a Christian? The only question that should be pertinent in this very important election is…Based on all the evidence I have found, all the laws passed and actions carried out by this administration, is this the direction that I want my country to continue to be headed in? Do I want more of what this administration has done? Let me put it in a simpler way. You are an employer. You have someone currently in a top position up for review, and another person with the right qualifications should the review be negative to fill in for the present employee. Now, are you satisfied in everyway that your employee is doing a super job? And are you 100% sure the other candidate couldn’t do it better? Remember, millions of lives depend on your decision…not just your own.