It is my feeling that if John McCain had remained the independent, consensus-building Senator that he was only a few years ago, he would have been elected President last week.
A year ago, his quest to win the Republican primary was dead in the water. Desperate to win, and forgiving all the sleazy tactics they had used to destroy his campaign only four years ago, he employed George W. Bush’s operatives to direct his campaign.
John McCain abandoned both his Senatorial reputation and the broad based support he might have garnered by pandering to the religious right-wing base of the Republican party. If McCain had remained true to his ideals, his conscience, and his honor, Sarah Palin never would have been on his ticket. He would have chosen a running mate with a much wider, more moderate appeal.
It is sad that a great American war hero, a man who endured years of torture, could not find the strength of character to stand on his own history of leadership. He could not marry the Republican party with one hand, and divorce himself from supporting President Bush’s record on the other. In so doing, he sealed his fate.
Bush and Cheney widened Executive branch power so that checks and balances became stagnant.
The inability to focus on Al Qaeda and bring Osama Bin Laden to justice was bewildering.
The tax breaks for America’s wealthiest segment were self-serving.
The absence of leadership in fixing the broken health care delivery system showed a lack of both compassion and of intellect.
The crash of the financial/banking/lending sectors, brought on by the dismantling of regulation and oversight was preventable.
The appointment of extreme right-wing Supreme Court justices created the illusion that these ideologies would endure and overturn civil rights advances.
The lack of response from the federal government to Hurricane Katrina’s disaster in New Orleans was criminal and racist.
The passage of the “Patriot Act”, allowing the federal government to spy on our citizens without cause or warrant was autocratic and un-American.
The secret service agent exposed because her spouse had criticized the regime, proved that Bush would destroy any “enemy”, even those serving our country in the war on terror.
The shameless support of Big Oil and other lobbied industries that reaped enormous profits during this period, and paid millions in tribute to the Washington insiders was arrogant.
The embrace of torture, secret prisons and the willful disregard of the Geneva Conventions diminished our Democracy.
The decision to boycott the Kyoto Protocol, maintaining that global warming is not influenced by greenhouse gases produced by our gluttonous consumption of oil, served to further isolate us from the world community.
The disregard of due process, denying legal counsel for alleged combatants, whether foreign or American citizens, dismissed the basic assumption of innocence guaranteed in our culture.
The intimidating propaganda that anyone who is not “with us is against us” pitted region against region, population centers against rural communities, religious against secular, and ruined relationships with countries who were once our allies.
Full of hubris and pride, this administration became the bully of the world and of our own people.
This is the legacy the Republicans leave behind, and John McCain could not extricate himself from these travesties. When he embraced George W. Bush, McCain became his handmaiden.
They held Democracy hostage with a cynical, repetitive litany that almost convinced us it was un-American to question the decisions of our President. We almost believed we were simply too stupid to understand the complexities of his policies.
The American people will not be lead as sheep. In the end, the people cannot all be fooled all of the time.
We are a diverse culture, bound together by common expectations, and the responsibilities we gladly assume, to live America’s promise of individual freedom.
After the debacles of George W. Bush and John McCain’s campaign, we will heal and rebuild.
We are, after all, still a free country.