Garbage in, garbage out!
We are responsible, as educated voters in a participatory democracy, to be educated on the many issues affecting our lives. We must intelligently research the candidates’ positions on these issues for ourselves. Each election cycle, getting at the truth becomes more difficult, what with more and more extremist spinners throwing garbage our way. We’ve allowed extremist spinners to do our thinking and set our agenda for far too long. If we’re ever going to take our government back, we must stop being lazy, easily fooled, think for ourselves, do our own research, and demand we set our own agenda with the facts, reason, and knowledge. We must also get back to believing in the liberal idealism of the founders!
To accomplish this quickly, we must haul the garbage to the dumpster. “This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins.” (Benjamin Franklin). After a major trip to the dumpster, we’ll be ready to turn the page to a healthier 21st century leadership with Barack Obama.
Recently, Peggy Noonan, Republican and former-Reagan speechwriter, said: “The Republican Party has a soul problem!” Ironically, it was Noonan who also said, back in 2000: “we can’t afford another famous liar in the White House.” Back in time to the Clinton administration’s sex scandals, wrongdoers must be held accountable again. We’re sick and tired of our ideals not being exemplified, from the president on down. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” All those who break our laws or refuse to play by the rules must be made to take full responsibility.
Dumpster politics trash talk keeps this nation caught up in its past. “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Hate spinners don’t want intelligent voters thinking for themselves, so they keep pushing the labels, the name calling, the fear, and the hate. Race, gender, real issues, and fairness don’t matter; power does. Fear-mongers, on all sides, are never concerned with the real issues of real people. They will never vote for what is good for America, or for real change. These are the real unpatriotic among us, as they care less that we must first live by our Constitution.
While the Republican Party may need to search for its soul, taking as long as necessary, the Democratic Party must search for its spine and gain some courage immediately. Freedom-loving Americans of all stripes should insist we return to the original principles underpinning our nation’s creation: independence, free speech, and government of the People. These were, and still are radically-liberal ideas. No matter how we may dice or slice it, dissent is and always will be patriotic and a necessity for our growth.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident” that before this nation goes off to war again, we should insist on two of those necessities: only Congress can make war, and all those pushing for war must first be willing to sign up and sacrifice themselves. The immediate tests of our democracy are these: will we choose to think for ourselves, take our government back, set and demand returns on our own agenda, and throw out the garbage of the past? If we expect to pass the test of our lifetime, we must not choose more of the same with John McCain or Hiliary Clinton, thereby continuing the Bush-Clinton dynastic rule.
“That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.” (Thomas Jefferson). Real change comes as the People participate. We’ve had enough of the Wall Street fat cats, the special-interest lobbyists, the hate-mongering extremists, the self-promoting media spinners, and the liars in the White House! “Old habits lock us down…we cannot wait; the time is now.” Never underestimate hope. We have our best candidate. We must turn the page to real change and A More Perfect Union in the 21st century and the leadership of Barack Obama.
