It’s over. Thank the Lord. However, now the pundits will spend the next few weeks or months telling us why Kerry lost. They’ll give us all sorts of ‘reasons’ from the gay marriage question to terrorism. But, the real reason why Kerry lost is simple: he was a weak candidate and ran a poor campaign. Heck, until the first debate just about everyone who was a Kerry supporter was, in fact, an anti-Bush partisan. Beginning an effective campaign a month before the election is not exactly a recipe for success. Nor is an unremarkable record as a senator.
I guess now we’ll see an exodus of the ABB people. Or, will we? How many of us can afford to pull up stakes here for the next four or more years? Is life really better elsewhere? Yes, the president and the federal government are important factors in our lives. But, our local and state governments probably exert more influence on us. And, life is more than government.
The election is over. Is Bush’s record as a failure ended? I know that I’m not alone in hoping so. These are the areas to watch.
An overweening confidence
No human being is without fault. We all make mistakes, and others are willing to accept that fact. What we find hard to accept is the claim that no mistakes have been made in the past four years. If Bush begins to accept that he and those who report to whom have erred, then hope of a better tomorrow begins to glimmer. One sign of this would be the resignations of Rumsfeld and Ashcroft.
Encourage disagreement
This goes hand in hand with an overweening confidence. Yes, there is a need for a united stand but only after dissident voices have been heard. Any manager worth his salt wants to know that his decision has met the test of other capable individuals. And, any professional should have the gumption and decency to resign if he is very strongly opposed to a major presidential decision. Right, Colin?
Tolerance
We are moving towards a state religion, Christianity. This country was founded by those seeking religious freedom; we need to preserve the separation of church and state. Do we want to adopt the bible as a way to run our country as Afghanistan and other Muslim countries adopted the law of sharia to run their countries? Yet, this – the desire for an Islamic state - is why some of our people are killed in Iraq almost every day now.
Fiscal maturity and honesty
Acknowledge that we have a major problem today in that we are spending far beyond our means. Ask the country to sacrifice for a better nation tomorrow.
Who’s watching the hen house?
Appoint people who will actually monitor, and not collude with, the industry they are supposed to watch.
Practice what we preach
Let's make sure that we really are the land of the free and the home of the brave.
2 comments:
I believe you’re hoping for too much from this administration, Al. Ok, Ashcroft has resigned, but expectation among political commentators is that his replacement will simply be a clone. As for Rumsfeld, I’d lay money on him keeping his position for the next four years, unless of course Bush moves him to higher office and Wolfowitz steps into his shoes, which is painful even to contemplate. One might hope that Colin Powell will finally do the honorable thing, but his recent comments on a ‘continued aggressive foreign policy’ give no indication that will be the case, though how he can continue to serve the ‘dogs of war’ is unfathomable.
I agree that my hopes are based on very little. They are very likely wishful thinking. I agree it's unlikely that Ashcroft's replacement will be a very different attorney general. But, stranger things have happened. Vide, Nixon going to China.
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