Thank God for W!
Because how else is Obama possible? Eight years ago was when McCain should've been elected president; he wasn't, and GW Bush claimed it was God's will that he be President. I have to say I was skeptical at the time, but as a Christian independent who leans right, I was willing to let him have the benefit of the doubt. And boy, was I patient. I won't give you a history lesson, because odds are if you're reading this, you're well aware of how the country has been doing the past eight years. Even my conservative brethren would be hard pressed to give a passing grade the Republican White House.
But wouldn't you know, Bush was dead on, one hundred percent correct! God put him in office for a very specific purpose: to make Barack Obama a viable candidate for president. If McCain had won the nomination in 2000, and subsequently the presidency, I think we'd have done alright. We certainly wouldn't have gone into Iraq so cavalierly, the war in Afghanistan would be better run, and we wouldn't have increased spending by the trillions and leaving it to future generations to foot the bill. We'd be alright.
But that's all. A little growth, spending down, some safe picks for Supreme Court Justice, Roe v. Wade would still be around, because it isn't going anywhere, no matter who's in office no matter what you say, and we'd be just as disinterested and complacent and dead inside as any nation that does extremely well and then coasts on its past successes and gets fat and decadent until they are too weak to fight off the Vandals and Visigoths sweeping in from the east with torches and facepaint.
Instead, we were forced to examine our path with clear eyes. We re-elected Bush because there was really no other option. John Kerry was by no stretch of the imagination up to the task of cleaning up this mess. We still had illusions, brush to be burned so that a raging fire of devastation didn't get out of control and consume our country. Bush, whether by accident or design, was that fireman that clears the path to create the fire-break. Kerry would've just been a bucket of water.
Bush exposed us to ourselves, showed us the painting of America we'd been hiding in the attic that aged and decayed while we stayed bright and shiny Dorians. And we didn't like it one bit.
Would we have been ready for Barack Obama without that facade being ripped away? Would we have heard his call to hope above the dull hum of contentment brought on by a mildly successful decade of average prosperity? Would we muster up the energy to even care?
I don't think we would. I honestly don't. We'd be right back where we started. But now, by the grace of God, we have the chance to reverse history. The idealism of the Kennedy administration gave way to Johnson and Nixon and led to an unjust and unpopular war. Now our unjust war and unpopular president have given way to a new, robust idealism, kin to Camelot with an eye on the future.
I disagree with Obama on most of his platforms. But I voted for him because he is what a president should be- a leader. Disagree with him. Passionately. I predict just as many conservatives will be inspired to public service as liberals. I predict that more people than ever before will be inspired to take action needed to back up their ideals, whether it's volunteering for underpriviledged youths or counseling pregnant teenagers and compassionately sharing alternatives to abortion. These issues are non-partisan. The debate has to change now.
I believe with my whole heart that God takes what is broken and makes it new. And sometimes a sickness must be made worse before it can be treated. Our fever has broken, the healing can now begin.
