Each day I watch the news, the hairs on my head stand straight up. I am afraid for me, hoping to retire. I fear for my son and daughter-in-law and my new grandchild. I have incredible fear for this country.
In November 2012 our country will continue it's very slow, maddeningly slow move toward the future, or we will begin to hammer the final nail in this country's coffin.
I like Barack Obama, despite some policies differences I have with him. I want- no, I need, for my own mental health and for my children and grandchildren, to have Barack Obama elected again. But I am afraid of the following:
1. Regardless of how many people deny it, there is unmitigated hate for Barack Obama. I hear it every day from those with whom I work. "There is something about him I don't like. I don't know what it is." Let's be honest, that "something" is the color of his skin. There is a portion of the population that hates, loathes the fact that a black man sits in the Oval Office. I fear these people, for they are being used by the Obama haters who have the power to destroy him.
2. I fear the voter who refuses to educate themselves, who vote Party line, just because. I speak with people every day who don't have a clue about anything. They are not necessarily uneducated; they lack the critical thinking skills to analyze what is happening around them. They do not read actively; they are passive, waiting to be told what to believe, right or wrong. They tend to vote against their own best interests. Ask of they understand the difference between revenue and spending, they really don't know. These are the ADD voters, jumping from candidate to candidate, depending on what they are told- or assume.
3. I fear today's press who are more interested in the salacious story that will bring in the most viewers, making their corporate owners happy. I fear a press that is so slanted to the right that only one voice gets to control the narrative. I do not understand journalists who give voice to the uneducated and uninformed. I fear press that hires someone with an agenda who sets out to find damaging information on the opposition in order to stop any kind of progressive agenda. I fear those in the press themselves that are uneducated and are deliberately uninformed. It is a tragedy for this country when the most respected newsperson is a comedian. I fear a press who cannot distinguish between David Vitter and Anthony Weiner. I fear a press that allows the RNC to demand a representative to resign while ignoring other's poor behavior. I fear a press who drives a narrative, as they did in 2010. I am pretty sure Ben Franklin said without a free press, there is no democracy.
4. I fear this irrational belief that an education makes one an elitist. I fear those who believe that an Ivy League education makes one an elitist. I fear that intelligence in our leaders is now a deficit, rather than a positive. I fear those who want our leaders to be "real people" rather than learned men and women who use their intelligence to solve problems, rather than irrational, cowboy decisions.
5. I fear many in the Democratic Party who willingly, despite or in spite of our leader's faults, will continue to hammer him when he needs our support. I fear that we will unwittingly support the opposition.
6. I fear the average person voting suffers from ADD or has the attention of a flea. I fear that it took Barack Obama to stop our free fall and begin our digging out, only to lose to a Mott Rommey who will take credit for all the successes that Obama set in motion.
7. Yes, I fear so much more. I fear that because our economic status is moving slowly into the growth column, that people are still not patient enough to understand that things change slowly. I fear a Congress who refuses to understand Green Technology and other investments.
8. I fear. I fear that any one of the Republicans running to be the leader of the free world will reward their corporate masters by dismantling social safety nets, education, and any program that allows some power to the people.
9. I fear that even after Bush's eight years, people will forget and accept that we will become a country of have and have-nots.
10. There are not enough drugs or mental health doctors to make me live through one more year of Republican ideology. We need to get the message out: there is a difference between voting Republican and Democratic.