Saturday, July 12, 2008

No Audacity In Resignation

I have been noting, with a small amount of inner stress, the many Barack Obama bumper stickers on cars in my area. It's like being on the Titanic (not that I would really know) and knowing that the ship is going down -- and having a very small amount of time to resign oneself to the sorry fact. Because I live in a very rural, quite conservative area, and if Barack has such support even here, I fear that it's next to inevitable. 

So... to what do I need to resign myself? Well, let's see...

1. Universal Health Care. Ugh. It's such an ugly phrase, universal meaning "affecting all people." I, frankly, don't relish the thought of being affected by government controlled health care. But with Obama in and a Democrat controlled congress? Not much to stop it then.

2. Foreign Policy Faux Pas. Yes, Barack Obama would be a national nightmare. You think Bush is embarrassing? His failure to correctly pronounce words in the English language is pathetically mild compared to Obama's plans for the country. Get a load of this: "I am the only major candidate who opposed this war from the beginning, and as President, I will end it. Second, I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending. I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space. I will slow our development of future combat systems. And I will institute an independent defense priorities board to ensure the quadrennial defense review is not used to justify unnecessary spending. Third, I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal, I will not develop new nuclear weapons, I will seek a global ban on the production of fissile material, and I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off hair trigger alert..." Gosh... I've always wanted to be the weakest on the block! Where can I sign up?

3. Change We Can Believe In. Oh, I believe... I'm sure there will be some change. But healthy to sick is a change, too -- change I would believe in even. It's just not necessarily one that I would invite on myself. Besides, this "change" talk is all very vague.

So we've got some dude running for President of the United States who vocalizes his plan to disarm the American military, pull out of a war we started (basically waving the white flag), and institute Universal Health Care in America. I really don't see the attraction, people. But still... there are folks all over the place with his stupid bumper sticker on their car!! 

From this I can only come to one conclusion. Some of the American people, perhaps even a majority, are no longer interested in being free. They just want someone to take care of them. See, freedom isn't easy... it's not for the lazy man. Freedom is not risk-free. It means taking responsibility for your own actions and dealing with the good and the bad that results from them (and all without suing anybody). Freedom is hard work - and I guess the American people have grown soft over the generations. 

Well, I, for one, am not interested in just giving mine up. And maybe - just maybe - there are other people like me out there as well. Maybe it's not inevitable after all... I guess I'll just have to have the audacity to hope.

1 comment:

Jodi said...

I had not seen that study, but I did go to the article you provided. I LOVED it!! Thank you for pointing me in that direction. I think the national health care propaganda is worth some extra research... and maybe a blog or two. :-)