I’m wondering now what it’s like to have a president that the country likes. What’s it like to have a hero in the oval office? What’s it like to have someone you admire as Commander in Chief? What’s it like to trust your President? What’s it like to have faith that he will make the right decision? What’s it like to know he’s making America and the world a better place?
I can’t answer these questions. I don’t know. All my life – or the whole part I’ve been aware of the government around me – I’ve disliked our current leadership.
I asked my grandmother the other day if she plans on voting for Obama. I knew the answer but asked anyways. The distress she displayed on the thought of him in office was unsettling. How can it be that people are afraid of the other candidate for President?
I can’t say I’m afraid of McCain as a president, but I am afraid of a McCain administration.
There’s something lacking in our country now. I can feel it. It has something to do with a disconnect between the people and their leaders. The approval rating and trust in the government is low. The causes of this erosion of faith in our American institutions can be attributed to whatever you like, but the fact is this isn’t good.
Is the government acting “for the people” right now? Let’s see… I guess you can call this bailout that Bush signed today something “for the people.” But what about the rest of us? So far, I have felt absolutely nothing, nothing! from this whole financial crisis. I believe, however, that keeping American’s economy strong in the world is important to prevent a greater meltdown.
I guess I have this grand idea of what a president is supposed to be. I see images of former presidents, real old ones, speaking on those cool, old, round microphones. They sound confident, concise and caring. I connect with their words much more than I do with today’s president’s. And I must admit, it was Barack Obama’s words that actually made me feel something for the first time.
I can push politics aside. I can forget policy and ignore stump lines and follow a leader. I can listen. I can cheer and I can rally. But does this make a leader legitimate? No. It makes him follow-able, though, and that’s important.
McCain is a great leader, don’t get me wrong. But what Obama brings is something more. He represents a movement, a feeling of something bigger than us, a feeling that America can be good again. A feeling that we as Americans can be respected in the world once more, that we can have a leader who we love.
Politics has gotten in the way of this and Bush’s poor leadership abilities have prevented Americans from following him. Imagine if Bush did his own version of fireside chats, made famous by FDR when he explained his policy to Americans. Bush let us down for many reasons, but the biggest is not leading us.
I hope Americans can come together and that the partisan divide won’t ruin us. I have friends who still are adamant that Obama is un-American. How can this be? What will happen if he wins and the other 49 percent of the country thinks he is anti-American because that’s what Fox News and Rush Limbaugh say?
If anyone can bring this country together and create some sort of leadership situation that demands respect and admiration from everyone it is Barack Obama. We all know the neo-con machine is behind Sarah Palin and that can’t bode well for McCain’s so-called maverick-ness.
Americans have lost respect for their government and whoever is President come January, 20 will have the tough task of rebuilding it.
