A common mantra uttered by the four contenders for the Republican nomination for President — when they take a break from bashing each other — is that America won’t survive another four years with Barack Obama as President.
While I’m no fan of the current occupant of the White House, an examination of the four lackluster pretenders running for the GOP nomination could lead one to ask: “Can America survive even four more days with one of these guys as President?”
The answer of course is that America can — and will — survive whomever emerges as the victor in November’s Presidential race, be it the current out-of-his-depth President, an empty-suit rich guy, a trash-talking evangelical, a serial adulterer or an old false-prophet Libertarian.
America, thankfully, is stronger than any delusional Presidential candidate, any power-mad political party or any faux populist movement.
As a nation, America may be headed in the wrong direction but she has gone down that road before and found her way home. This nation has — and will continue to — overcome many challenges, many warnings of impending doom and many threats to her future.
It isn’t always easy. This is the America that put its first African-American President into the White House, which immediately spawned a resurgence of hate, bigotry and delusions of white supremacy. We are a diverse nation with a diverse people and diverse opinions — some of them not pleasant.
If there is a threat to America’s future, it springs from the belief that this nation must be one of singular focus, of blind adherence to just one set of beliefs with allegiance to only one ideal or philosophy.
That is where political parties, so-called “grassroots” movements and hidden-agenda-driven organizations fail to grasp the true America. America is bigger than Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and independents. This nation was founded on the concept that a new land could welcome peoples of different beliefs, of different religions and different economic strata.
Instead of a nation where differences are welcomed and embraced, we have become a nation at war with itself, one where those who seek to control government and consolidate power operate under the flawed concept that their way is the only way.
From time to time, such conceit may succeed. One party may control government — for a short while — yet such seizures of power end because Americans have a self-correcting mechanism called the ballot box. Voters may bitch and moan about the how futile our Democratic Republic has become but they are the ones who rise up when needed and toss the bastards out so another set of power-mad politicians can come in and fail.
At best, democracy is a flawed concept but yet it is one that works when needed and serves its purpose.
Winston Churchill said “democracy is the worst form of government imaginable…except for all other forms.”
America will survive another four years with any flawed leader that voters choose in November.
Amy and I are not Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Independents, Socialists or any other political stereotype. We are not conservative, liberal, progressive, regressive or whatever.
We are Americans and we believe that is a big, important difference.
We believe in an America where failure is too often predicted but is never really an option.
