Loading ...How many people can honestly say they think for themselves? When viewing the various areas of the lives of many Americans, it would seem to indicate that many people do not.
There exists a segment of Americans who raptly listen to crooked politicians who clearly do not have their best interests at heart. These Americans sadly lack the ability to stand firm in their thinking and discern who would be the best person to fill leadership positions. When it’s time to vote, many voters let others make the decision for them.
When it comes to the 2008 presidential election season, many Americans allow celebrities to tell them who they should support. Oprah Winfrey touts Barak Obama for president before adoring fans who, like lemmings, shout Obama’s name and follow up with a vote for him at the polls. Chuck Norris has endorsed Mike Huckabee for president, but will I rush to fall in line behind him and vote Huckabee? No thank you, I have a mind of my own.
Conservative Republicans were livid a few years back when John McCain caved and compromised with Democrats, allowing only a few of Bush’s judicial nominees (instead of allowing a full vote on all of them) a vote after what seemed like an endless filibuster mounted by Democrats. And let’s not forget, McCain supported President Bush’s weak “amnesty” immigration bill. Remember, conservatives and concerned Americans against illegal immigration, shut down Congress switchboards in protest of the ”amnesty” bill.
John McCain took his place as one of the more notable RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) in the Senate who conservatives were railing against, but now it seems that he’s in clear position to possibly take the lead for the Republican nomination. Very surprising indeed.
In the black community, politicians are free to play the race issue. The Clinton/Obama tug of war has caused the most talk about race during a campaign season that I’ve ever seen. Former President Bill Clinton seems to think that race and gender will play a key role in what candidate a voter supports.
He believes it “is understandable” if someone would vote based on gender and race “because people are proud when someone who they identify with emerges for the first time.”
Read more: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080124/D8UC7BEO1.html
As we come fresh off the Martin Luther King holiday, how can we support the type of viewpoint Bill Clinton holds in regards to race and gender when Dr. King talked of judging a person by his/her character and not his/her skin color (or gender)?
Why do blacks (I’m not African-American. I was born in America, I’m solidly American) and women continue to let politicians exploit them in their search for power? Can we not use our own heads and shun such divisiveness? For anyone to suggest that blacks will automatically vote along the lines of color or that females will automatically vote for the female candidate in a presidential race is absurd.
What happens when people vote simply because of a person’s skin color or gender and dismiss character altogether? They risk not recognizing the underlying flaws that may otherwise prevent a candidate from progressing in a presidential race. As a result, the same contentious and perverse people running for office end up getting further and possibly winning the race, and nothing ever changes.
Let me be clear, as a black woman, I will identify with a candidate regardless of race who will stand up for conservative values that are important to me. I will back a candidate who honors our nation’s Christian heritage and who will not work to unravel those honored Christian traditions that are rooted in this nation.
Also, I will not vote for top-tier candidates because they are touted most by the media, have the most money, or have earned celebrity endorsements. We cannot be that shallow when it comes to picking our next president.
Another popular and annoying tactic I’ve seen mostly of Democrats running for office: seeking out votes in the churches (mainly black churches). The media is proud to flaunt Democrat candidates who seek votes from the pulpit before black congregations on Sunday. Sundays are strictly for the Lord Jesus Christ. The focus should be on Him. It’s HIS day. It’s NOT a day for a candidate to rally votes from the pulpit!
At times, candidates run after a certain segment of the population because they think they will secure awesome numbers at the polls from that certain group of people. They tailor their speech to reflect who they are speaking to. Enticing rhetoric is thrown out to get the crowd revved up. That is another slap in the face. And the rhetoric is completely hollow, folks. It means nothing.
Voting requires that we as a nation, act responsibly. We must cut through the slick talk from politicians and allow our vote to represent who we believe is the candidate closest to our moral standards and our stand on other important issues. Therefore, a thorough review of all of the candidates’ background is in order.
The American voter should not let presidential candidates with high status and charm influence how they view the world and vote. We forget we are individuals with a mind of our own who are capable of making important and rational decisions.
Presidential candidates need to remember…the office of the presidency should not be sought as a quest for power or an opportunity for a certain party to take back the White House. It isn’t a chance for an individual to ”make history.” It is a position of service to the people of this great nation.
America will be on the way to healing when those citizens who have been swayed by slick politicians and political “talking heads” learn to think for themselves. Vote wisely America. Take time to review a candidate’s past and decide whether they deserve to hold the most important office in the nation.
When voters start thinking and acting this way, we will then see a more positive result of the awesome power the American people have at the polls.
*Felicia Benamon is a conservative columnist who writes from a political perspective, but occasionally deviates to write about other concerns facing her country. A patriotic American, Felicia hopes to motivate others to be more conscious of the current state of affairs in America, and to hold true to the wonderful traditions that make America great.Felicia comes from a military background and is proud to support the men and women who put their lives on the line daily to protect American citizens and who reach out to help those in need across the globe.
Write to Felicia at: FeliciasDesk@aol.com
amfortas said,
Know thyself, said the old sages.
But…. ( I know. I am a bugger with the ‘buts’…). I can only speak for me and what I observe. I barely know my own thoughts, my own mind. I sometimes have to ask myself, ‘where did that thought come from?’ and spend hours sometimes, harassing it until I get some sense from it. Some bits are easy - is it true, is a good winnowing question and usually up front. Often I just don’t know. I chase thoughts down paths to see where they go and often teeter on the edge of deep drops into a tangled patch of thorns a long way below. Others wend up steep paths past crags and fragile surfaces liable to slip and landslide and I get tired. I sit and rest and another damned thought drags me off elsewhere.
I would hazard that few people do any of that. Think? That’s not what their heads do. Their heads are there, by gratuity of Mr Darwin, to keep their ears apart.
Know my own mind? I am unsure that it is even mine, sometimes. It does things which astonishes me, frequently. You’d think that after six decades I would know how the friggin’ thing worked by now. It’s brilliant. I can spend all day fiddling with bits of it. Its as though I have found an old Jaguar - well a futuristic Jaguar with warp drive and a cloaking device - in a field. Who’s it is, I don’t know. But right now, I have my hands on it. Great! I feel privileged, but just a little guilty for playing in it.
Most people do not, in my observation, know what they think, their own mind or anything of importance about themselves. They don’t even bother to enquire. I know quite a lot about elephants but ask me just what the CGTAs in my DNA are, surely an intrinsic part of me that is much more relevant to me than elephants, and I could not tell you. OK, the names. But what do they refer to? I have no idea. Yet they are my blinking blue-print and manual. Do you know, by the way?
“We forget we are individuals with a mind of our own who are capable of making important and rational decisions.”
You, maybe. A bright, intelligent woman. Me, too, perhaps, with all my failings. But ‘we’? Most of those comprising ‘we’ are as thick as two short planks and don’t care. Most could be confounded with a choice between Co-co Pops and Rice Crispies. Emotion and ‘the moment’ drives most people. Desires that fly past. Rational thought? What expectations you have of others. What a nice person you are.
You ask - “As we come fresh off the Martin Luther King holiday, how can we support the type of viewpoint Bill Clinton holds in regards to race and gender when Dr. King talked of judging a person by his/her character and not his/her skin color (or gender)?”
Most will not ask that nor will they answer you. They haven’t a clue about Character. Many, a large many, have pretty awful characters. The ‘content of their character’ is like extras in a war movie, masses of them with dirty faces and grim expressions, trudging down roads in rags as refugees from rationality; or those cowboys in the old movies that were always sitting quietly in the saloon nursing a beer or a whisky until an arguement starts between the real actors and then they all go beresk for some reason and smash the chairs they were sitting on. Others with poor or frankly evil character appeal to them. The Oprahs with their beaming rah-rahs and the Billy-Bobs with their flys open know who their followers are.
Democracy was never a workable scheme. Yes, it has appeal. But like a lemon, the peel is a tad tart and makes you grimace.
Tell you what, Felicia, You seem a smart Lady. Join my Cabinet. I’ll give you some very smart cuff-links.
VoTe #1 Amfortas. The Gnome for Dictator.
January 28, 2008 at 3:37 am