I wish that I had a more active interest in politics. For the first time in my life, politics have exploded onto the scene for me. Facebook has become not only a place where I can see what my friends are up to, but as political issues heat up, it has increasingly become an arena to express views and sometimes it feels like it’s just to see who is on your side. I have friends on both sides of almost every issue, so I get to see how the mud flies.
So I’m not a political person, but I am an observer. And there’s a disturbing trend with our current President. I recall not believing that he would be voted in as President, but even so I voted for him to avoid more of what Bush brought to our table (although for that I also only have a vague idea). I wanted to see an America reborn and revitalized with change, and I felt that President Obama was the candidate for the job. After he was elected, I didn’t think he’d make it to inauguration, but he did. Now, almost a year since the general election, he is raising the hackles of his opposition. This is what I’ve seen:
- TEA (taxed enough already) demonstrations
- Obama/Hitler comparisons
- Socialist, Communist, brainwashing, fear when he addressed students recently
- Radical conservative outbursts during town halls and meetings having to do with healthcare
- …and general lack of decorum when it comes to what the President is doing
And these are things I haven’t seen during any period of my life, toward any other President. Even when George W Bush was in office, and most people were fed up with him, they still treated him with the respect his office deserves.
Okay, okay, so there’s always the critics and the political cartoonists that will always be there to poke fun at whatever goes on in the White House. I know. But the general feeling I get from the President’s opposition is that they are using scare tactics and intimidation to get their politics across. I even started wondering what was going on with the President after hearing so much against what he was trying to do. People are not giving him the benefit of the doubt.
I even started to fear that there are those out there who fear that the automatic privilege of being White in this country are fading, and therefore are lashing out against this symbol of their god-given rights to a better quality of life than the rest of America.
Today I watched his address to Congress on healthcare reform. I don’t think I’ve watched any leader broadcast so much information about what is really going on than President Obama. I was also inspired by his obvious and exaggerated effort to be bipartisan in the reform effort. He is also obviously not about to turn America into a socialist nation. Yes, he feels like government needs to step in where it’s needed, but he also understands that the people have the choice. He is great to listen to, but that doesn’t make him Hitler. He is forthright, he does not require allegiance to his office, nor any of the other things that I have heard said about him recently.
After listening to his speech today, I feel like he truly has our best interests at heart. He doesn’t have to do that. He has nothing to lose for another three years.
So I guess that puts me in the Obama camp again. I just wish we could see a political system that was based on improving the country rather than improving whatever party you prefer. He’s the President, but he doesn’t have all the power. The power is in the people, in the elected representatives who vie for their constituents’ best interest. When I see him giving live broadcast addresses, I see a President who is actually trying to inspire the patriotism I’ve lacked for all my years. I see someone who is trying to show that he can be a leader and not just a figurehead. I see someone who has the drive to get things done and will not compromise on what he believes is best for America.
He has a dream, to be cliche, and I like that. I relate to that dream for a better country. I relate to his idealism and strength. I see him trying to emulate the Presidents that he has looked up to.
Whatever. Hopefully the politics will die down and I won’t have to think about it much anymore. I just wish people would learn how to reasonably express themselves rather than devolving to animal tactics.