Wednesday, November 05, 2008

President-Elect Obama, my response

I first want to quote and respond to an elderly gentleman. He posted the following: (note, I have no contact with this man, nor do I know what his name is, I just wanted to respond to it)

I know that what I have to say won't make many readers happy but......I am appalled by the outcome of this election. I am 76 years old and I have watched this nation grow. I was born during the Big Depression and lived through World War II when the Greatest Generation sacrificed themselves for our safety and freedom.

I myself served in the Korean War and was proud and honored to do so. I have been called a war monger by idiots who have no idea what war is all about. Veterans don't love war.

I watched a great man lose an election to a nobody who promised the Horn of Plenty to them and like hungry fish they took the bait. When a man like John McCain can't be elected this country is lost.

Here were the problems. The people did not vote FOR someone - they voted AGAINST Bush. Not very sound reasoning. The childrens vote carried the day for Obama. Young people who know little or nothing about this nations history or the perils we will face in the future. It was mob mentality that ruled over reason.

Blacks and whites who wanted to be part of a movement to elect a black man President. How noble. It didn't matter who he was or what he stood for. Just that he was black and sounded good. Date rape?

Where is John F. Kennedy today? He said, "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country". The economy played a major role among the "me first" attitudes of many voters.

I have lived too long it seems. Patriotism is dead. Country First is dead. The selfish and uninformed led by the inept rule. It is true and I wish it wasn't. - If you feel like a winner you aren't

I warned you that what I had to say wouldn't make you happy and it doesn't make me happy either. The TRUTH often hurts.

Good Luck to all of you - you will need it until you grow up.


To this Korean War Veteran, preface: I don't completely disagree with everything you said, however, I am taken aback when people use the phrase: "Greatest Generation" and actually mean it. If you are simply referring to people born within 20 years after the dawn of the twentieth century, and it is a reference divorced from the implications, then it is fine; however, if you do mean that those 20 years bore the greatest men and women this country has ever or will ever see, then I take a great objection to everything you said. If you use bigotry as a lens through which you view anyone or anything, you will never see clearly.

Despite the fact that I voted for McCain, as a political scientist, I can look at the results of the election and say that even if we had a normal turnout of youth voters, Obama still would have won. Even as a republican, you must acknowledge that the last 8 years have been a time of unprecedented unilateral action, locally, nationally and internationally. The determined divisiveness of Bush led to the defeat of McCain as much as the promises of the "Horn of Plenty".

When you split a people through various fiats, and you then ignore the disempowered majority, you must face the consequences; now the Republicans must sit back and watch as the Democrats use the system that their rivals have warped over the last 8 years; a diminute legislature, a hyper-active, hyper-influential Executive who can make laws, a Vice Presidential office who is more powerful than the legislature and the future officials that will be born from the 20-year-old men and women that spontaneously marched around their towns and cities throughout the country in celebration of Obama's victory.

Oh and any Republican senator who attempts to filibuster should be laughed off his or her pulpit, remember when the democrats wanted to filibuster and the Republicans basically said it was un-American to do so?

I'm glad I'm a centrist with no party ties as the next 8 years are going to be tumultuous.

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