Regardless of what political party you favor, what candidate for president you favor, or what your views are of our current president, it may do you well to reflect on where our country is right now.
When our nation’s legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government started down the slippery slope of bowing to the forces of greed, fear, military might and domination-by-intimidation, the job of changing course of our huge “ship of state” is measured in years, not months.
We need fundamental changes in the motivations and attitudes, which drive those in positions of leadership in our three branches of government. When I talk like this, some say to me: “Bob, that’s just not realistic. It will never happen.” Well, I suppose if being “realistic” means looking at the way things are as not changeable then these people are right. I refuse to believe that way, however.
The brief eight years of the President George W. Bush administration showed the world, in dramatic fashion, a sort of accumulation-to-action of political attitudes and motivations built up in our branches of government over previous decades of building “the Washington attitude.”
Then along came a young man talking about CHANGE. People exercised the one power the American public still have, the power in the voting booth. After that, of course, things usually get murky, confusing and often very disappointing. But when President Barack Obama stepped into the race for the White House and began speaking about real and fundamental change, the American public leaped on those words with a fervor that knocked two very powerful political machines right off their pedestals: the Republican Party and the Clinton Machine.
With the upcoming campaigning, regardless of who is elected to what positions, nothing is going to change without a fundamental change in the attitudes and motivations that drive those in positions of leadership in our three branches of government.
It takes more than patience and understanding of how long this process can take. It takes our involvement. “We The People” hold the true and real power for this nation’s future, and we had better be speaking out with passion for proper values, ethical behavior and building a society preserving the love for our families, our communities, and our collective health and prosperity if it is ever going to happen.
Bob McClellan
Polson