The Audacity of Hope

by Father

The mood on Election Night at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, after McCain's concession speech, turned ugly.  McCain's supporters continued to smear Obama, accusing him of planning to "turn us into a Western European socialist state," and wanting "to bankrupt the coal industry," among other things.

It's unbelievable to think that the Republicans, after eight years of the disastrous Bush Presidency, thought they deserved four more years in power.  Now that's audacity.

And how ironic it was for Bush, as one of his final and finest achievements, to bankrupt America in the closing months of his administration.  This hardly trumps his other great works, but it comes close.  What did you expect from a man who bankrupted just about every other business he ever owned?  (The one exception was the Texas Rangers baseball team.  Still, they have remained perennial losers, just like their former owner.)

The Republicans were thoroughly whipped across the country.  After big losses in the House and Senate, one lucky re-elected Republican congressman on TV, when asked how the GOP plans to regain power said, "The Republican Party has to get back to it's grass roots."  I hear the expression, "grass roots," and immediately have visions of dumb cows grazing in a field.  By "grass roots," are they talking about the GOP traditional values that we have all come to love, like racism, hypocrisy, government-hating, gay-bashing, ultra right wing conservatism, and xenophobia?  Or, do they have some new tricks up their sleeves?  I can hardly wait to see!

Just for fun, I checked the definition of "conservative" in the dictionary.  "Conservative:  Tending to favor the preservation of the existing order and regard proposals for change with distrust."  Now we know why the Republicans lost the elections.  They were trying to preserve the George Bush existing order.

The best Republicans can hope for from President Obama is that "as president, he should govern from the center," as they keep saying on Fox News.  May I suggest that he governs as he campaigned:  as a true Liberal, from the left of center.  It's time for bold new ideas and policies.  It's time for universal health care, for re-regulation of financial institutions, for the promotion of world-wide birth control, for the protection of individuals' rights to privacy, and for saving our environment and natural resources,  Oh, and I almost forgot, how about promoting world Peace instead of world Hate.  That would be a novel change, wouldn't it?