By Shawn Johnson www.libvoice1776.blogspot.com, wpayton5599@aol.com, https://www.facebook.com/liberalvoice1776 - click on the links to comment and let me know where I went wrong...
Note: I am still writing my book, with a chisel and hammer which is why it is taking me so long, but I did not go away! This blog is directly from my new book, but it has a direct effect on this weekend so I wanted to share! Please comment!
As I am writing this section, the President of the United States is currently being sworn into office for his second term. I am very confused how other people, who write books, get those books out in such a timely manner. As I expressed in earlier chapters, I am a very common person with a common profession, and I fully admit that sometimes playing Angry Birds gets in the way of me finishing this book. Ok, where were we now? Oh yes, the direction of President Obama's second term in office.
As you are probably sensing by now, the theme of this chapter is going to be about pulling Obama to the left in his second term. He is out of excuses now. He understands what liberals told him about Republicans from day one. In a 2008 debate, Hillary Clinton pointed out that she understood the Republicans in Congress and he didn't. She was right. The Republicans were soundly rejected in the last election. The Democrats not only took more than fifty percent of the vote in the Senate, but also in the House. Due to gerrymandering districts around the country, the Republicans found a way to lose an election, and still maintain control. So the country is stuck with leaders they do not want, and the numbers show it.
The kickoff to Obama's second term will be his inaugural address. When President Obama gives his inaugural address on January 22nd, he has two directions to follow. He could stay the course. He could do what he has done in his State of the Union Addresses. He could lay out his second term as to not appear controversial. He could concentrate on being a faux "uniter." He can give the people exactly what they want to hear with his magnetic voice and style. The viewers (mostly Democrats) will give him rave reviews. The few right-wing media forced to sit through and assess the speech will claim it is the most liberal, one-sided address in history. Both opinions will be unbelievably incorrect, the right-wing opinion being not only false, but also psychotic.
Or, President Obama could make history and big-time news. President Obama could come out and tell America where it is going wrong. And, granted he will do that on guns and immigration, but it will end there. The President could have a dialogue with the country that no president since Jimmy Carter has been willing to have. He can look America in the eye and tell them that we need to push out racial and sexual bigotry completely. He can tell the story of racial inequality which still exists heavily in this country today. We need to transform our energy policy, not incrementally, but harshly and swiftly. We need to address that his first four years have been devastating for the poor and especially the African American and Latino poor. He can call for reinstatement of the war on poverty and show where it worked. He can call for an end to disease and despair by finally passing a public option for health care. He can address the illegality of drone strikes and vow to find another way to defeat Al Qaeda without carpet bombing countries. He can tell the country that the over-bloated military budget is not necessary, and we could cut it in half tomorrow and still properly protect our country. He can vow to order the justice department to arrest and try Wall Street bankers guilty of heinous economic crimes. He can speak to the country about our obsession with greed. . He can speak about a country which has no honor or ethics. He can chastise, people who lie about who they are and what they have done. And, he can invoke Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to justify what he is saying.
And lastly, he can look squarely in the face of each person watching, and ask them to sacrifice. Sacrifice something for your fellow human beings. Help an elderly neighbor. Help an inner-city child graduate high school. Give up something for the greater good. Tell people that paying taxes is not a punishment or an attack on your economic class. Tell them it is patriotic. You love your country enough to make sure that the government has what it needs to function properly and efficiently. Tell them that spending more money on education, gun reform, immigration reform, health care, science and invention, environmental protection, space exploration, help for the poor and needy, support for labor, and infrastructure will improve all of these things. And, you need to look no further than the United States military to prove it. We spend twenty-six times more on the military than any other country in the world, and our military could annihilate the entire world if we really wanted. When someone tells you that "throwing money at a problem doesn't make it better," retort by saying "Tell that to the soldiers who fought at Iwo Jima. But, to accomplish great things takes great people who are willing to sacrifice. Let the American people know that this is their presidency now. We will not accept a dying empire anymore. We will lead the world again, and we will do it through the same liberal ideals Republicans and Democrats used throughout the twentieth century when America really was on top.
I am pretty sure that Obama's speech will be the former and not the latter. Obama believes that it is ok to sputter along watching liberty die while corporate interests control more and more of what used to be ours. Liberals have had their voice shut out. Liberals triumphed in the last century and it has only taken thirty years to undo over two hundred years worth of work and sacrifice. It is time for the most powerful voice in the nation to get us back on the track moving left.
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