Change

President Elect Obama’s campaign (dang, it felt GREAT to write that…President Elect Obama) was run on the theme of change.  And change is what we need in this country, though not just change for the sake of change, not just change to be not-Bush.  We need change to fix our place in the world, change to repair our tattered Constitution, change to improve our torn economy, change to make us all proud of being American again.  I do know that many followers of Bush/Cheney, McCain/Palin are proud of their country.  And there is much to be proud of.  But I want to be proud not only of my country, but of my Government, and of what being an American means in this world.  The policies of BushCo have stripped me of that pride.

When people get up and declare that water boarding is not torture, and is an acceptable method of extracting information from our enemies, I am not proud.

When the government begins wiretapping its citizens, and claims that it’s all for public good, even though it is against everything we believe in, I am not proud.

When the government claims to be pro-life, and yet continues capital punishment, I am not proud.

When the government claims to be pro-life, and yet pushes abstinence only policies on the youth of America, I am not proud.

When our government sends troops into harm’s way without properly equipping them for the danger and harm they will find there, I am not proud.

When our government contracts with companies like Halliburton and Blackwater, giving them no bid contracts and paying them far more than they pay our soldiers, fleecing the American taxpayer and demoralizing the troops, I am not proud.

When my country is attacked, and there is an outpouring of support from the world, and our government squanders that good will, I am not proud.

When my country is attacked, and proud Americans want to come together and somehow HELP, and they are told that the most important thing they can do for their country is to go shopping, I am not proud.

When my country’s economy is falling apart, and the response is that we are whiners, I am not proud.

I could probably go on for days.  When my President is such a bafoon that I cringe to see his smirking stupid face on television, I am not proud.

McCain is not George Bush.  But while not-George Bush is certainly a vast improvement over George Bush, it is not enough of what our country needs right now.  McCain failed to convince me that he would take our country in a different direction than the horrible one it has been traveling these last 8 years.  He failed to convince me that he has the backbone and integrity to lead our country out of the mess we are in.  Why do I doubt his backbone and integrity?  Because he was savaged by BushCo back in the primaries in 2000 (His war hero status didn’t seem to matter much then, did it?  Against Bush, who managed to stay home?) , and yet he was willing to kiss the ring of a man he truly disliked, chummy up to the people who spread viscious rumors about him, who played the ‘race card’ against him in South Carolina, claiming that his adopted Bangladeshi daughter was in fact his illegitimate daughter with a black woman.  And yet, he cowed before these people, and more than that, he became one of them.  I could never vote for a man who is willing to do these things.  And if half of the things being said about Palin are true, I say we dodged a bullet by not having her a heartbeat away from the Oval Office. Let’s make sure we remember them in four, eight, twelve years from now, because she doesn’t seem to be wanting to spend the rest of her life as a Washington outsider.

Obama, however, has done something that no other politician in my lifetime has managed.  He has captured the imagination of the American people,and the world.  His calls for service, his statements that we are all in this together, and that we will all of us need to work in order to make America a better place, are a welcome relief compared with being told to go shopping.   The current situation in America is dire.  But it is far from hopeless.  We are still a mighty country, and we still have hard working people who want our country, and our world, to be a better place.

My hope is that President Elect Obama is just the change we need.

This post was inspired by the prompt Change, from Sunday Scribblings