“It’s very sad for the world; it’s very sad for humanity; it’s frightening.” So said my next door neighbor George, as we commiserated together the morning after the election. I consider this friend a sound judge of world events. He knows from personal experience what can happen to the people of the world when unwise leaders gain power.
Had John Kerry won the presidency, I would have been astonished but happy. The actual results appall me and plunge my spirits down to a new level of pessimism about our American future.
Once again, Lincoln (or whoever suggested the moral) needs to be amended: You can fool most of the people most of the time
For a challenger with serious weaknesses, Kerry did remarkably well. He had the disadvantage of having supported a misbegotten war, and then, to compound his error, he foolishly stated that he would have voted the same way all over again.
In response to inquiries from friends from other parts of the country, I always told them that I did not know anyone in Massachusetts who much liked Kerry. Though he revealed new facets of his personality during the long campaign, he remains a man who does not generate much warmth, certainly not to people in vast swathes of the country.
My pessimism about the future finds grounding in the record of George W. Bush’s last four years. His leadership, so widely admired in many parts of this country, strikes me as badly flawed and dependent on propaganda to look effective. His jettisoning a policy of deterrence and containment in favor of waging war against Iraq will surely rate always as a terrible blunder.
Never did I imagine that I would enter into old age with a federal government in Washington dominated by Republicans. The prospect of at least another four years with the current ideals of their party holding sway makes me dread the future, at least as it is determined by politics.
It seems like a return to the political condition of this country at my birth. In 1928, the GOP dominated American political life. Coolidge was president, followed by Herbert Hoover, chief executives who showed themselves incapable of anticipating or, in Hoover’s instance, dealing with the Depression that was to begin in 1929.
Of course, I am not such a zealot as to disapprove of Republicans per se. The tradition that we had earlier in Massachusetts history made me appreciate many who professed allegiance to the GOP. Such fine public servants as Leverett Saltonstall, Henry Cabot Lodge, and John Volpe served the commonwealth and the nation well and deserved the many votes received from Democrats.
But so-called liberal Republicans like these leaders have given way to narrow zealots like Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, and now Tom DeLay whose agendas prefer political advantage over the common good. By contrast with the men cited above, the professed ideals of these men have been often been hypocritically contradicted by their actions.
Many of the elected leaders of the current Republican party bring values to American life that I cannot identify with. Centrally, their attitudes toward wealth and poverty especially alienate me, and we will now surely witness the phenomenon of an increasing gap between rich and poor.
Ironically, however, I do identify with many of the values that endear George W. Bush to so many Americans, especially those who vote in the Red States.
Religion stands out for me too as a precious part of my life. I believe in prayer and practice it regularly. My religious life oriented toward a parish church remains vital to me, as does my association with a community of faith. Though I consider the separation of church and state a principle vital to the nation, I welcome recognition of various religious traditions in American life.
I consider abortion an evil that the nation should try to discourage. To me, efforts to support women who choose to give birth rather than to abort are important. I also feel some wariness about stem cell research, partly because my ignorance of the subject is so far reaching.
Of course, there are many other values dear to many Americans of faith that I cannot approve. Much of the opposition to gay marriage, for instance, strikes me as coming from prejudice that seems unloving. Various forms of what is called patriotism stir in me feelings of alienation. What is done to the American flag, for instance, is not deserving of a constitutional amendment. And I consider campaigns against the teaching of evolution to be downright silly.
I also feel wary about the kind of religion followed by many of Bush’s most fervent supporters.
Religious enthusiasm has a long history of causing trouble to the body politic; piety, though it seems inoffensive, can actually prove destructive if not paired with wisdom.
Many world leaders felt wary of Bush being elected president. His militancy and American Firstism had alienated them and made them apprehensive about a newly empowered president who can now impose his policies with only ineffective opposition at home.
I feel concern about our environment at the hands of a man whose first allegiance seems to be economic advantage rather than care for our natural heritage. Similarly, precious little suggests that Bush will cut our dependence on foreign oil with its potential for further violence.
Chances for a radical revision of the Medicare prescription drug benefit now seem much diminished by the Republican dominance in both the White House and the Congress. Almost surely we elders will be treated to the spectacle of the medical and insurance.
Richard Griffin