A century from now historians will look back at the American
Republic and say Tuesday’s election was a critical point for this democratic
union of 50 sovereign states.
I can’t look past
Tuesday and say what shall happen to my country, but I can share my vote with
you and why I made this selection.
In 1972 I returned to my country which was torn by civil
strife over a war which should have never been fought and with a sitting
president who was even worse than his predecessor in leading the country. I was
apathetic, agnostic and disenfranchised. The Democratic nominee was too far to
the left and held no real value as a leader. I perceived him as being weak. We
all know what Richard Nixon was or what he was to become.
As a reporter I was possibly the first in Oklahoma to
interview Jimmy Carter at the Civic Center in Oklahoma City standing in front
of his campaign bus. He had spent an hour or possibly two talking with
Democrats from western Oklahoma and the hot topic was abortion. As a man he
said he was against abortion, but as President he would enforce the law.
Looking him in his startling blue eyes, I knew he was destined
to become the next president. His opposition was a bumbling Gerald Ford,
tainted by his pardon of Nixon.
That
same year I met Ronald Reagan. Both he and Carter struck me as men with
leadership qualities who would enfranchise all Americans and not just the
paticularists or the pluralists. I was wrong on two counts. Carter provided weak,
insipid leadership. Reagan’s trickle down economic theories reached out to
particularism which still runs rampant in Washington, D. C.
In 1979 I found myself editor of four small weekly
newspapers for a short period, a student at the University of Oklahoma, my wife
expecting our only child and I was named press secretary for the Kennedy
campaign in Oklahoma.
I stuck with Kennedy until I read an article which revealed
he co-authored a bill in the Senate which would eliminate Habeas Corpus during
times of national emergency.
I did not vote that year, but in 1984 I voted for President
Reagan. He was the only president who assisted Vietnam Veterans. As state
executive director of the Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program I could not
consider the Democratic nominee.
I did not vote for either Bush. A former director of the CIA was just too
scary a thought and his son is a buffoon who delegated all of his authority to
his chief of staff or the vice president.
And along comes Clinton. Seriously, this man achieved more
for the economic welfare for the Republic than any of the others while sitting
behind his desk as a recipient of sex acts from Monica Lewinsky. But the
Republic forgives a man when under his leadership 24 million jobs are created
and the Treasury actually has a surplus.
The dot com boom helped and was largely responsible, but
that bubble bursting upon George Bush along with Sept 11 started the economic
downfall. The leadership vacuum in D. C.
only compounded problems which lead to the fall of 2008.
Right or wrong this how I perceive American presidential
history since the 60s. I think many my age share this perception, but many are
now in denial of reality.
It is an American Republic truism that you can always
determine when a politician is lying… His
or her lips are moving.
But Mitt Romney and the Republican/Tea Party have reached a
new level in falsehood. They have bought into the big lie theory. Tell it often
enough, long enough and to as many people as possible and it shall be perceived
as the truth.
It was used on the German public by Joseph Gobbels. The
Polish army really did invade Germany to start WWII and world history is
incorrect. (http://thinkexist.com/quotes/joseph_goebbels/)
But General Motors and Chrysler have called out Romney and
the Republicans.
A Chrysler executive
tweeted that Romney is ”full of shit” when the Republican hopeful said Jeep manufacturing
was being moved to China and costing jobs in America.
General Motors stated publicly that it saved one of its
suppliers from bankruptcy only to see the company taken over by Bain Capital
which Mitt Romney help to form. Apparently Bain and Romney made a few million
off that deal. Americans lost jobs.
There has been a continual struggle in this country since its very first day between elitists and populists. It’s time for
Americans—people who believe in the Constitution—to make a stand for a government
of the people, by the people and for the people.
I am one of the 47% and I vote OBAMA.
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