I was a Democrat longer than I
was Independent and that longer than I was Republican. However, I wasn’t
registered as a Democrat which may be like Bill Clinton’s having smoked pot but
not inhaling. Barack Obama has inhaled with pleasure, which may explain a lot.
The point is that my credentials as a past Democrat may be questioned but, I
assure you, Democrats of my age would recognize me as a kindred spirit. I was
born as a Democrat as I was born as an American and a Catholic, all being quite
compatible at the time. I chose to be a paper boy and a Cub Scout at the age of
nine. These were the first observable signs I had started to think on my own although
there’d been covert outbreaks of latent Libertarianism from the age of three.
I never thought much about why I
was a Democrat other than as a blessing of birth. When FDR ran for his second
term as president, my mother explained that all should vote for Roosevelt
because, “He was for the poor people, like us.” Being six years old, I always accepted
what my mother told me so long as it didn’t interfere with my plans for that
day. Even then, I thought it was a strange argument since I didn’t feel
particularly poor. Starting with my being a paper boy, it seemed even stranger
since all I needed to do to have money in my pocket was to do a little work and
just doing the work made me feel good about myself, also. Then too, I found it
hard to understand why FDR was great if he was for losers. At the time, I was
for the Chicago Cubs but in those days the Cubs won two pennants so I didn’t
think of them as losers until I got a little older. If my mother had said FDR
was going to turn losers into winners I would have understood it was like
hiring a new manager for the White Sox.
Despite my confusion at an early
age, I did come to understand why people would vote for FDR even if they
weren’t born as a Democrat. In fact, I think I would vote for him, if I were
over twenty one at the time because he did talk a good story and engaged the
federal government in a lot of activity, especially for a guy who needed to
operate out of a wheelchair. Now I know that activity shouldn’t be mistaken for
progress, but in those days it caused most people to feel better even though
the depression just went on and on until the war. When it came to the war, FDR
was one of the better presidents because of his ability to convince Americans
all would turn out well in the end. It also helped that he picked an
outstanding leader for the military forces and was convinced, mostly by his
wife, to let businessmen lead industrial mobilization. Like his cousin, an
earlier president, FDR was not comfortable with the private sector and
distrusted all who were in it; they just wouldn’t kowtow to his economic ideas
and lack of experience in their field.
Most
importantly, I imagine how this blessed country of ours will fare under his
leadership. I’ve been around for the great depression, being totally unprepared
for WWII, engaged in five other major military adventures and
countless minor ones and many social and economic crises. All has not yet been
manifested, but we are in the midst of what I believe will be the greatest
testing of America in its history. The foundations of our government, economic
system and social structure are under siege without restraining influence of
experienced leaders with the prudence and wisdom to chart and navigate safe passage
through dangerous reefs for the ship of state.
My purpose in this writing is to
convince those who choose the Democratic Party as theirs to vote for the
opposition candidates, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and that, in their doing so,
they will act to save their Democratic Party as well as their country. I write
as one who once shared membership in their party, although in simpler times,
and one who has voted for rational reasons and for not-so-rational reasons, for
candidates of my party and for candidates of another party.
It’s dangerously foolish to
assume Barack Obama, in a second term, will change his stubborn march to turn
America into a second class nation subject to domination by world organizations.
He will continue to violate the Constitution as necessary to further his
totalitarian ambitions. His acolytes in Congress will continue to block open
debate to provide the excuse for government by executive order and bureaucratic
mandate. He will continue to pit one group of Americans against another and
seek majority backing through mindless wealth transfers that drive the country
ever faster into bankruptcy. It’s dangerously foolish to assume that a very
large minority of the public will accept this without resisting in ways that
will result in widespread violence. At least worst, the Democratic Party would
lose it’s acceptability as a governing body. At the very worst, the country
would be torn by violence that would rival that in the American Civil War.
On the other hand, there is
Romney and Ryan. Romney has proven he can govern effectively in an
overwhelmingly Democratic State and obtain support from egotistical foreign
Olympic czars. Ryan has proven he can work across the aisle and prefers
reasonable compromise to mindless contention. Both know the solution to
America’s critical problems lies in economic actions of the type in which both
are highly experienced. They are good people, just like most Democrats.
billlifka
