I have been fortunate for most of my life to be able to see the "Big Picture". Some of this may be genetic and some circumstantial. I was born and raised in a northern blue collar city but spent my adult life in a small southern town. My family is blue collar by tradition and I was initially a plumber, but I eventually went to medical school and became a physician. My family comes from a long line of evangelical Methodists and I was a Methodist as a child, Episcopalian as a preteen and went to Catholic school as a teenager. I now lean toward eastern philosophies. It is this broad range of experiences, I believe, that has made it easy for me to continually see the "Big Picture"
I would like to use the "Big Picture" and outline the reasons why Obama is the only choice for President.
- The ends do not justify the means....What makes America great? Our Constitution. For it is our constitution that creates a balance of power between our branches of government, a balance between our federal and state governments, as well as our system of justice. It is this open ended, amendable document that serves as the means to an end. That end being freedom and opportunity, (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness). So from a big picture standpoint it is the means or process which is most important. The Bush administration is a typical example of the mentality that the ends justify the means. They can lie, mislead, distort the truth, trample out civil rights, circumvent our constitution, and in short do anything necessary to achieve whatever goals they deem important. Doing so they are missing the point of our great nation, our process is what makes us great. Though we have been involved in just wars and unjust wars, we have done things we can be proud of, as well as things that we might not be proud of; it is our process that allows for self correction.
Though I cannot put the Clintons on the same foul level as Bush and Cheney, I do believe, they too live by the ends justify the means, as evidenced by their do anything to win mentality. Only Obama seems to understand that the process is important.
- Intention is everything....If your intention is to fight the republicans, fight the corporate interests, fight the healthcare industry, fight John McCain, then all you will ever end up doing is fighting and the stalemate in government will continue. If your intention is to unite groups in order to achieve certain goals then you at least have a chance to make that happen and end the stalemate. Clintons’ supporters always allude to her as a fighter. I think that is what we saw during the last healthcare fiasco, a lot of fighting. An antiwar group holding a rally asked Mother Theresa to join in. She declined, but told them to ask her again when they held a peace rally. Though I seldom agreed with Reagan’s policies, I do believe he was good at defining a clear intention and uniting the country behind it. If we examine the current presidential candidates, I believe only Obama has that capability.
- Transformation is needed....The world underwent a significant political transformation around the time of our independence from England. The French revolution, the fall of European monarchies and the blooming of democracies and republics are evidence of this transformation. The result was increased freedom and opportunity that eventually spread throughout many areas of the globe. Though many voices led to this transformation, I believe our democracy and constitution were critical in its success. Our world desperately needs another transformation. Global warming, famine, poverty, continuous war in the Middle East, and the global economy, are but a few reasons that we need a transformative leader in the White House. True transformation requires a new way of seeing things. Though I agree with most of Senator Clintons’ policies, she is not transformational; she sees the world as a contest between competing factions. The only way to," win" the game is to get out of the game. This is transformational. The Tao Te Ching states the true leader is one, when the task is accomplished, the people exclaim, "Look what we have done", without even recognizing the leader has been involved. I really don’t know if Obama is this leader, but certainly he is the only one of the candidates that has a chance.
So from the big picture standpoint, the only choice is a presidential candidate who recognizes that the means are the ends, that intention is as important as policy and that the only way to "win" the game, is to get out of the game. This is why Obama is the only choice.