It seems both tragic and funny to me whenever I
hear some people talk about what candidates are
rather than who they are and what they stand for.
Americans are yearning for a new kind of politics
and yet many expect to get that new kind of politics
out of the same old sort of politicians.
The hair stands up on the back of my neck when
I hear someone say they wouldn’t vote for Barack
Obama because he is black, for Hilary Clinton
because she is a woman or for Bill Richardson
because he is hispanic. If we truly desire a new kind
of politics then certainly this will require a new kind
of politician and just as equally, a new kind of voter.
I guess that it requires reminding to each of us that
the current president of our United States was sent
to Washington not because he had any great ideas
or grand ideals, but rather because he was a white
male who claims to be a christian. Indeed, many of
the folks who voted for him were thoroughly
convinced that Christ Almighty Himself snuck into
W’s room at night and whispered inspirations into
his ear, but of course as we have since discovered, it
wasn’t Jesus at all that was pulling his strings, but
Dick Cheney and Haliburton instead.
As a volunteer with the Red Cross in the Gulf Coast
following Hurricane Katrina I was nearly lynched
when I made similar remarks about the president to
a small group of "christians" who were also there
volunteering. They informed me that God had also
told them to come down there and help so it was not
at all a stretch of the imagination to believe that His
divine hand would be guiding little W.
Well, after only a week of the sultry weather and
frustrating conditions God must have told them same
people that it would be okay to quit early and go
home because that is precisely what they did. I have
never spoken to any of those folks again but I often
wonder if they are among the 20% or so of
Americans who still believe that the boob who is in
our Nation’s oval office wakes in the morning with
the words of God still ringing in his ear.
There was a time not so very long ago when this
sort of talk about W would be considered an act of
treason. I am no doubt in some top secret FBI
possible terrorism suspect file for doing so and some
day a flower van is probably going to pull up at my
door and haul me away to parts unknown.
And when that happens and the CIA is driving
wedges under my fingernails it will all have been
worth while if only one voter, just one, will take a
little more time to learn about the issues and the
candidates and vote just once for a president based
upon the individual’s abilities, capabilities, and
policies. Because when that day comes I’ll be looking
to that new president for a pardon and I’ll accept my
freedom from a woman or a man, a black or a
hispanic, a christian or an atheist. Vote Smart!
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