Over the last several weeks, as many in the news media, and the Republicans have questioned Barack and Michelle Obama’s patriotism, one thought comes to mind. With the mess that the next President of the United States faces, how could anyone who seeks the office of President for this term, ever be considered to be unpatriotic, regardless of their party affiliation? To consider or expound this message for either candidate, is absurd, and in some cases hateful. How could anyone other than a true patriot stand up for his vision and plan to engage in the messy task of extricating us from Iraq without causing total collapse and anarchy when we leave? Regardless of which candidate is elected, that poor victor will inherit the instability and bloodbath that George W. Bush pushed on this country in the name of either outright lies or unforgivable incompetence.
How could anyone who doesn’t love his country take on the huge world relations crisis that the unilateral actions and cowboy politics of the current administration has caused? We are not a safer country as Bush often claims. The perception of America, around the globe has been tarnished, and the anti-American sentiment over this past decade is at an all time high based on the intolerance, greed, and unwillingness of this government to even talk about talking with someone who doesn’t always play ball by our rules.
The next President will have an awful lot of cheap all-u-can-eat buffet slop on his plate. With the U.S. foreign policy crisis as the hors d’oeuvre, the country’s economic crisis will be the main course. The mortgage and banking sector are imploding, inflation is on the rise, and the Federal Reserve seems reluctant to lasso it in by raising interest rates, for fears it may deepen the crisis. Thousands of jobs are being lost due to massive lay-offs, downsizing, and corporate bankruptcies, compounded with thousands of people each day who are facing foreclosure, and will eventually be kicked out of their homes. With huge foreign trade deficits, and hundreds of thousands of jobs shipped over seas to take advantage of cheap almost slave labor, it is not only the jobs lost but also the loss of the products which once bore the proud ticket, “Made in the U.S.A.”. Regardless of who becomes President, there is no simple solution to end America’s addiction and desire for foreign produced products, because of the low price tags low-cost labor can produce. Gas prices have gotten so much higher for Americans, that many can’t afford the cost of gas to commute to work, and have to choose between being unemployed, or working to break even and pay for the gas to get to work.
But that’s not all, that’s the easy stuff, because the next President faces an even more potentially dangerous threat, and maybe the most critical challenge of this era. Battered and betrayed, tweaked and tinkered, prodded and poked, attacked and opposed, muddied and debated, the Constitution of this nation is the one glue that holds this country together as a country of laws, and has been the model of democracies around the world since its creation and adoption. The President is sworn to preserve, protect and defend, not only the document itself, but also the content of its text, the form of government it created, including all its checks and balances of power, but most importantly the foundations of this country’s idealism and philosophy of freedom for all.
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
On January 20th, 2009, the next President will take the oath above, and have four years in which to execute the challenge it presents. Temptations will be strong from time to time to ignore it or attempt to weaken it for political or special interest gains. “Preserve, protect and defend”, this task has gotten the better of many Presidents before, and will continue to challenge many more to come. But we must believe that any man who would seek out the office of President, knowing all the difficult problems that urgently face this country today, had better be a real patriot, because that well of patriotism may be his only source of strength and solace over the next four years.
William S. James, Looking for my flag lapel pin
