For a change

Sometimes things get so bad, and there’s so much bad feeling in the country, that you just have to make a clean break and have a fresh start. That’s what happened in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was elected, bringing a new sense of optimism to a country wallowing in high interest rates, a hostage crisis, malaise, etc. That’s what happened in 1932 when FDR came along and pulled us out of the Depression.

Now the country is wallowing in bad luck, red ink, flood waters, poverty, spilled blood, tears, anger, raw nerves, high energy prices, political scandals. The country is in desperate need of a change. Unfortunately, we are stuck with the current group of politicians until the next election.

If the President is the symbol of the country when it is doing well, he is also the symbol of the country when it is not doing so well. That is what George W. Bush has become, just like Jimmy Carter and Herbert Hoover before him.

He can't run for re-election, so we don't have to worry about that. But the members of Congress can run for re-election, and they are, in some ways, just as much a symbol of what is wrong in this country as is the President. They gave him his judicial appointments. They gave him his tax cuts. They gave him his wars. They collaborated in creating the mess we find ourselves in now.

It’s going to take a while to turn our country around, but we can start in 2006. I suggest that we vote out as many of the President’s allies in Congress as possible. Then in 2008 we do more of the same, with the additional opportunity to elect a Democratic President.

America is a great country. We deserve great leaders, not just great politicians. In 2006 and 2008 we can get rid of some of the politicians and elect some leaders, for a change.