Political Equinox

Grown tired of the phrases “failed Bush economic policies” and “the last 8 years of this administration” have I, or at least my inner Yoda rebukes the continual repetition of these soon to be cliche phrases.

Even as we, America, rush to force our President of the past decade out of office, we must pause and take a moment to reflect and examine Mr. Bush’s administration. We must look deeply and analytically to discover the true gift has Bush’s presidency has offered our country and President-elect Obama. The current situation, the state of our country, most notably our economy is not the fault of George Bush, it is not the fault of the Democrats, the Republicans, the Libertarians, the bankers, or Bill Clinton. Our current crisis is a symptom of the lifestyle and choices, we America, as a collective group have made. The state of the system is America’s fault and ours alone.

However, because of the gracious gift Bush has bestowed upon us we now have the opportunity, the privilege, to correct the error in our ways and meet the new challenges of tomorrow with a better system, a better country, and a better people. While an easier transition from our past behaviors to our yet to be determined manners, values, and societal functions would have been much appreciated, oftentimes when we face great challenges caused by major lapses in judgment, strong warnings are needed to force the necessary action of developing excellent solutions.

The Gift Bush Gave America

The financial crisis gives us the opportunity to change the way our core economic unit, the family, operates financially. The American economy has been churning fast at the expense of the financial condition of American families, which has been deteriorating rapidly due to the vast overuse of credit. The Great Depression was caused in large part by an overuse of credit, which is why we must take careful steps to ensure that this lapse in judgment does not fall into another depression. Nevertheless, this crisis serves as a wake up call to American families to get it in gear and live within their means or suffer the consequences that are being felt by those who purchased more than they could afford, who bought homes they were not ready for, who bought cars they could not pay for, and who trashed their financial lives at the expense of living well today.

However, the crisis also gives us the opportunity to evaluate our financial system, identify it’s weaknesses and develop a core foundation from which we shall build the new American System. However, with this financial crisis caused by faulty policies that have been in place for decades and the failure of the American people to police themselves, we have been gifted the chance to alter the regulations and underlying “rules of play” for our financial system. We must take this opportunity to build a strong foundation from which we can rebuild this sector gone astray.

The financial sector isn’t the only industry we have been alerted to an immediate need in shift. With oil costs soaring out of control, at least before our economy took a tailspin, our country pushed the energy movement into high gear. The escalating price to fuel to more than $4.00/gallon was a wake up call for an increase in innovation in the energy sector. It became apparent to America that oil needed to be replaced. We must hope that spiraling oil prices does not dim the progress made in this department. For more than 30 years we have promised energy independence, and for more than 30 years we have failed to deliver on that promise. We have extended the deadlines, decreased the goals, and said “We’ll deal with it tomorrow far too many times.” The time is now, it has come upon us, and we must take the opportunity.

We’ve heard the cries for several months now about Universal Healthcare, we’ve seen more plans proposed than varieties of cookies. We must now, as a nation, put our heads together and grasp hold of the situation that has been presented to us. We must declare a War on Healthcare. The system we have designed over the course of our history would not be redesigned by any sane policy maker. It has crept up on us with each mistake magnifying those behind it and leaving a looming crisis, which we have now reached. These problems in the healthcare system have been a long time coming, we set ourselves up for this trouble and now we’re going to have to solve the problem. The increasing costs of healthcare has given us the window to develop a new American healthcare delivery model, instead of the applying bandages to an irreparably broken system.

The Right Man to Do the Job

Instead of carrying the gift along telling us how wonderful it will be, our next President must tear open the wrapping paper and unravel our door to success and take note of our past mistakes so that we may learn from them, yet not forget them. Have we elected the right man to do the job? I’m not sure. Many certainly seem to think so, but the right man to do the job isn’t always the one we agree with. The real question is, will Mr. Obama grasp hold of the opportunity President Bush has given America.

We shall know soon enough if Mr. Obama is up to the challenge of creating the New American System, it will certainly be a long road. Nonetheless, whether you agree with his policies or not, we Americans have a duty and an obligation to put our best foot forward and create an workable environment that places our country in perfect position to capitalize on the gift President Bush has given us.

Failure turned Success

A successful presidency is one that everyone hopes for, one that makes the world enjoyable. However, sometimes a failure can be our greatest gift because with that failure we may find our faults, pick outselves up again, and begin a new path to greater success. Yes, a successful Bush presidency may have been enjoyable, but a time of failure may have been need to push us forward to the next stage. As Harvey Dent said, “The night is darkest just before the dawn.” We must remember that phrase, let it echo in our minds, as we see that Bush’s greatest success may have been his ability to develop policies that forced America’s largest problems to show themselves.