My Life as Metaphor

Current Mood: thoughtful

I am a conservative.  I am a Republican.  I don't apologize for either.  On election night, I received a number of calls, text messages & E-mails from distraught friends & family.  "What now?" seemed the common sentiment. 

After the shock, I began to read blogs & news reports.  As one might expect, there were the usual wing nuts of the left & right variety.  Racists.  LOTS of racists.  White AND black.  There were normal partisans from the left gloating over "their" victory.  There were posts from the right -  sad, angry & full of disbelief.  My flooded mailbox had some unwelcomed mail from strangers and Obama supporters. 

While unsolicited, the writers felt it their duty to share their pearls of wisdom.  Here are some great quotes from those letters.  The spelling, punctuation & grammar are ALL theirs.  Please note, these sentences BEGAN JUST as they are shown. 

"if bush did not deal with Hitler these things in history would of never happened like pearl harbor, d day, battle of the bulge or ww2 for that matter."   Clearly our writer is a bit confused regarding history.

"he also wants to make it so collages would be like a public school where is don't cost you 15,000$ to get in for 1 yr. and he was free health care."     I am so glad Obama is going to assist this person in attending "collage." Also, could someone point me to the "free" health care?  Who are these doctors, nurses, technicians and hospitals that donate their services without cost and where have they been hiding?  Oh, you mean SOMEONE has to pay for this?  Drats.

"When you build a house you don't start with the roof and work your way down."  You don't start at the foundation either. You start with MONEY.  It doesn't grow on trees or trickle UP.  To build a house someone has to have, loan or borrow money and like health care, SOMEONE has to pay for it.  Hopefully, the cost will ultimately be born by the person(s) actually LIVING in or benefiting from the house.

"Thanks bush and dick for turning Iraq into a Muslim country and the united states into a dump with police that are out of control trying to give out tickets and dui's to make up for the money the stats not getting from the government. i guess you dont have to close the boarders if you make the surrounding countries better than your own."   So, Bush is responsible for speeders and drunks getting tickets? (Not the law OFFENDERS mind you.)  Damn, he gets around.  Why does he hate so much?  Who are these "boarders" and why are they making other countries better than ours? 

"Thank bush and the republicans for putting obama in the white house. A black man would of never got in or even be close if the republicans would of done even part of there job."   Our poor writer does not even realize how racist this comment is.

"the thing is that bush being so dumb did his math wrong"   How did this person KNOW that Bush was dumb?  Surely someone must have TOLD them so.   As Sarah Palin might say, " You might think Bush is dumb, but  I betcha he knows the dollar sign goes at the beginning of a figure such as $15000 and not after it."  Don't you take comfort that informed people get to vote?  Oh, yeah. 

All kidding aside, there is another voice out there. The peacemaker.  They make comments like this:  "Let's come together for the good of the nation."  "He's our president and we should get behind him."  "Give him (the president elect) a chance." 

It would have been nice if the Democrats could have embraced some of this advice during the past eight years, eh?  At least to the point of civility.   That aside, are these sentiments 100% correct?  

My initial inclination would be  to answer "yes".  But it is not.  Before the bleeding hearts experience tachycardia and the peacemakers espouse the notion that not getting in step with The One is unpatriotic, consider these thoughts.

1.  For months, conservatives & skeptics have raised questions that, as of now, are still unanswered regarding Obama's past and present associates, that include but are not limited to Marxists, felons, anarchists & radicals.  Their cries have gone unheeded by the main stream media. Now that the election is over, these questions still remain and they speak to the character AND judgment of the man who would be king  er president.

2.  Obama is inexperienced.  The dance nearly over, Tom Brokaw  finally heard the strains of music and stated the following in an interview with Charlie Rose on October 30, 2008.

CHARLIE ROSE: I don't know what Barack Obama's worldview is.
TOM BROKAW: No, I don't, either.
CHARLIE ROSE: I don't know how he really sees where China is.
TOM BROKAW: We don't know a lot about Barack Obama and the universe of his thinking about foreign policy.
CHARLIE ROSE: I don't really know. And do we know anything about the people who are advising him?
TOM BROKAW: Yeah, it's an interesting question.
CHARLIE ROSE: He is principally known through his autobiography and through very inspirational (sic) speeches.
TOM BROKAW: Two of them! I don't know what books he's read.
CHARLIE ROSE: What do we know about the heroes of Barack Obama?
TOM BROKAW: There's a lot about him we don't know.

How can you pledge to get behind this level of uncertainty?  That's like signing a contract without reading it. 

3. Obama made a lot of promises.  Is it right for citizens to settle for the ideology "That's just politics.  They all make empty promises to get elected."? Do we get what we settle for or do we settle for what we get?  How will we know if we won't even ask? 

4.  Can we trust the main stream media to do their job and ask the tough questions encouraging accountability from Obama?  A Rasmussen poll just prior to the election stated that 51% of survey-ants believe reporters were trying to help Obama win.  A full 55% believe media bias was worse than in the past.  Project for Excellence, an agency that rates coverage found that media coverage of McCain was three times more negative as coverage of Obama. Need more proof of media bias?  Through September, the media spent TWICE as much following the Obama campaign, spending $9.6 million as opposed to $4.4 million spent following McCain.  The most egregious difference in spending is brought to you by the home of the heavily edited Palin/Katie Couric "gotcha" interview.  CBS spent a WHOPPING 1.2 million following the Obama campaign compared to spending a mere $222,000 following McCain. 

5. Our current financial & security issues are grave.  Our very lives & the future of our nation could depend on the choices HE makes.  Obama has vacillated on taxes and national security issues during the past two years.  He has called Iran, a country with a leader that has pledged to "wipe Israel off the face of the earth" a "small country that is no threat".  He has stated he will reduce our weapons in a time when our enemy is gaining them.

6.  American politics are made up of checks and balances.  Our separate branches of government conversely embrace and constrain one another.  Obama's presidency, while starting out with grave problems,  will enjoy practically fillibuster-proof support in Congress.  Democrats that have had control for the past two years, despite their lower-than-Bush ratings, added to their numbers. Pelosi, Reid, Obama, Meeks, Franks & Dodd represent a number of Democrats that resisted more oversight of Fannie & Freddie in 2005 while receiving huge donations from these organizations.  Now they have EVEN MORE power.  
 
7.  Is the left the new face of fascism?  Throughout the campaign, we have seen the character assassination of those that would question the new messiah.  Do we need to look back in history to see what blind allegiance & fervant adoration of a leader without question can do?  ''Joe the plumber" is guilty of nothing more than asking Obama a question.  Like a pack of rabid wolves, the left & the media began to sniff out private information about Joe to discredit him.  Ohio's Head of Job & Family Services and avid MAXED out Obama contributor, Helen Jones-Kelley, authorized a search into Joe's background divulging the information to the media.  "Our practice is when someone is thrust quickly into the public spotlight, we often take a look" at them, Jones-Kelley said, citing a case where a lottery winner was found to owe past-due child support. "Our practice is to basically look at what is coming our way." But Ms. Jones-Kelley did more than that. She also had a background check run on him to see if he was receiving welfare or unemployment.  She clearly used her public office to aid the candidate of her choice.  

But it doesn't stop there.  While Obama has stated he does not share his liberal counterparts desire to install the Fairness Doctrine, would he stand up to his party?  In light of the accusation that his campaign suppressed critical media (a rare occurrence) on several occasions & that he has never stood in opposition of his party in a controversial issue, it is highly unlikely. 

In his acceptance speech, Barack Obama intoned, "In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long."  One day later, president-elect Obama asked Rohm Emanuel to be his Chief-Of Staff.  Calling the opposition to bipartisanship while you choose to be brazenly partisan smacks of an attempt to hold the opposition to a different standard than you are willing to be held to.  It's rather like evening the playing field to YOUR favor.   Here are some examples of Emanuel's code of conduct, business practices & ideology.

He calls himself "Rahmbo" and cites his political philosophy as "Winning isn't everything.  It's the ONLY thing."

Emanuel Told His Staff That Republicans Could "Go F--- Themselves!" "'I'll tell you this,' Emanuel shouted out to his staff. 'The Republicans may have the 72-hour program. But they have not seen the 22-month program! ... Since my kids are gone, I can say it: They can go -F--- themselves!'"  (Chicago Tribune)

Furthermore, Chicago politician Rahm has one of the most partisan voting records,  voting 98% of the time with his party in 2007.  He sat on the board of Freddie Mac. During that time, Freddie Mac was plagued with scandal regarding campaign contributions & irregularities in accounting. (Chicago Sun) He was a top recipient of cash from hedge funds, private equity firms & securities/investment industry. That's Wall Street, baby!    A 2006 Chicago Tribune article speculated about a possible connection between Emanuel's Congressional election success and convicted former Chicago water department boss Don Tomczak. There's nothing like bringing the robbers in to investigate the theft! Certainly this sounds a lot more like politics as usual rather than change we can believe in.   

Finally, in Obama's speech he said, "I will listen to you, especially when we disagree."   The voice of dissent is a vital part of our freedom.  While sometimes unpleasant to the ear, it is a part of our national song.  It provides the tension in our harmony, not in order to destroy the melody, but rather to perfect it.  Individual presidents come and go.  To support the office of the presidency, we need that voice of dissent, as much now as we ever did. It was the voice of dissent of a few, who not reluctant to speak against the accepted ideal that slaves were soulless chattel, that sang out and inspired others to join with them.  They rose to a crescendo through and past war and sacrifice, ultimately allowing what was perhaps unimaginable to those early voices. Without them, Obama would not be the president-elect and we would still live in a country that enslaved others. The need for dissent is not diminished with time or situations.  No politician is "the one",  perfect in wisdom and understanding.  God help us if we ever believe that.  And so, I support my country.  I pray for her continued struggle to be that city on a hill.  And I raise my voice, not always in agreement, but in the hope of the freedom that allows a range of ideas while we search for a melody that is worthy of our country's history and a song of and for her continued greatness.