We often hear about the“mess” that President Barack Obama inherited when he was elected four years ago.
Many blame George W. Bush, saying that his policies and those of Republicans caused the worst of everything, inflicting this awful state on the backs of the American citizen.
Obama cannot be expected to fix the problems in four years, because of course the mess was much worse than could have been predicted. In addition, awful Republicans in Congress have done nothing to help, and have halted any conversation with the administration, especially a president who is so willing to “listen to ideas.”
Obama is the victim of someone else’s mess, and his efforts should not be judged on their own merit, but rather the mess he inherited.
The victim mentality is the feather in the cap of most Democrats. They capitalize on the distress of the American who fears that his or her only grasp of the American dream, that which the government affords, will be lost if the wrong people are elected.
And, ironically, the threat on which those fears are based is that Republicans will take away those things to which they are entitled. It works in every instance, not just with economic issues, but social issues as well.
According to Vice President Joe Biden, Republicans will put black people “back in chains.” Republicans are only happy if women are denied access to mammograms, birth control, abortion and equal pay for equal work. Certainly,republicans don’t want kids to go to college and make themselves marketable. Besides, there aren’t any jobs anyway and the Republicans did that, too.
There is a war on seniors, gay Americans, veterans, green energy, labor unions … these are only a few examples, but the list of the victimized goes on and on.
Back in the 1920s, my grandfather and his family came to America from Italy and my wife’s family came from Lebanon. Their parents left those countries for a better life, not a better government. Our great-grandparents begged our grandparents to learn English, to be American. They lived through the Great Depression, after having been here only a few years, and found that even an America in depression was stil lAmerica; it was about working hard to overcome.
They looked to their families,their neighbors, their communities and their churches to help them through the worst. They were the best of what the Goldenrule is all about. They never, even in the worst of economic circumstances, gave up on the American dream, knowing that with freedom they would not only overcome, but be better because of the struggle.
Our families,like so many other melting-pot Americans, came to this country knowing itwas exceptional! They were not victims,they were patriots invigorated by thespirit of freedom and liberty!
Our fear is that as we depend more on the government to solve our problems, we lose that American spirit.
When we delegate responsibility to take care of those in need to government bureaucrats, we lose what made us great.
Once we lose that spirit, we lose our freedom.
It is our duty to fight for freedom and liberty, to fight against a government that wants to provide everything from cradle to grave. Dependencyleads to slavery, and once we depend on others for our daily needs, it leads to control. This is what this election is about: starting the process of rolling back this out-of-control government, which preys on the victim mentality for its reason to intrude.
Mitt Romney said, “What makes America the greatest nation in the world is the heart of the American people: hardworking, innovative, risk-taking, God-loving, family-oriented American people.”
That is why we will be voting for Romney. I believe that he understands we need a course shift, and I believe his leadership can bring real hope to the people, to grasp an American dream that comes from within and not from the government.
The fact is, the “mess” that Obama inherited was not Bush’s mess. The mess was created by all of us who sat back and let the government step in without question. I, for one, will not make that mistake again, and promise, if Romney is elected, to hold him to account. This is our country, and we must fight to preserve it no matter who sits in the Oval Office. We have a choice on Nov. 6 between an America based on the dependency of the victimized and government entitlement or an America of potential and, to quote Romney, “individual initiative, personal responsibility, opportunity, freedom, small government, the Constitution.”
Now, after four years, it’s not time for moving “forward” on the current path. It is time for “change” in the direction of freedom. That same freedom sought by our Founders and our grand-parents, and the very same freedom that should be guaranteed for the future of our children.
