What are we to do with a president who has no qualms about aggressively engaging half our nation?
There is a marked difference between liberals and conservatives in this country that has nothing to do with particular beliefs, ethics, or choice in television programming. When a certain segment of the population of the United States felt betrayed by the election of Barack Obama, they organized, changed the system, and took back the country. When they believed, without any shadow of a doubt, that their country had been hijacked by a radical, Islamic, communist, they refused to be content. They changed the world.
Right now, as the current President uses his pen to openly attack programs and agencies that epitomize what some view as the proper role of government, many liberals and moderates feel despondent. Hope was never simply a trademark of the Obama campaign. We have depended on our government for too much, for far too long. It is one thing to expect our elected officials to channel their efforts, and our tax dollars, into programs and policies that do more good than harm. It is another to look to the President for a “pick-me-up.”
For the first time in many American lives, we have a President who disagrees with us. We also, for the first time in many American lives, have a Congress that disagrees. But it is not the first time in American history. The entire bureaucracy was created because of the rampant corruption that occurred during the Grant administration. Presidents have lied on several occasions to get the country into wars, to fill their own pockets, or to bail their family members or friends, both foreign and not, out of trouble. Warren Harding allegedly shagged his mistress in a White House closet. There will be corruption as long as governments exist. There will be war, starvation, theft and decimation of native lands, the oppression of many for the benefit of a few, sex, lies, and greed.
On the other hand, there will be large groups of people just angry enough to do something about the above. I believe that is where we are, today: anger. What remains is what will come of it.
So, we have a president who disagrees with us. In the past, that was enough to garner extreme political maneuvering to regain control over the government. It was enough for some to take ball bat beatings to the head and to place flowers down the barrels of guns. It was enough to do something, anything.
Anthony Sadler 