By The Cranky Housewife -
I've had something happened to me a couple of times now while driving and try as I will to shake this feeling, I keep having the same gut reaction. You know, I've got one of those Romney bumper stickers on my car and twice I have had drivers maneuver their cars in front of mine to proudly exhibit the Obama 2012 decals featured on their back windows and I'm absolutely flummoxed. I just don't know what to do with such a display. Whatever in the world do they mean to show me? I'm sure it isn't what I actually see.
Understand. I realize that there will be a good number of people who will vote for Barack Obama in November for whatever reason, but tell me please. Who in her right mind still wants to advertise that truth given the disaster this presidency has been? Who actually wants to go on record as saying, "Hmmm, unemployment over 8%, gas prices hovering around $4.00, trillion dollar deficits… yeah, baby! Sign me up for four more years of that!"
Certainly, you've got your committed Leftists, I suppose. The people who watch E! on a regular basis and the people who don't believe that they should pay into their own retirement plans…but other than the teacher's union, who else is there that still points to Washington with pride?
I'm kidding. I jest. In any case, the minute I see that Obama bumper sticker, I intuitively seek to change lanes for my own protection, because I just don't believe that a person who is still voting for Barack Obama after everything that this country has been through can actually drive a car without government intervention to work the turn signals or has the slightest regard for anyone or anything that can't give her something for nothing. And about that, I am not kidding. I wish I were.
Perception…it was once said that all of our knowledge is the offspring of our perceptions. We know that there are many people who voted for the blank page that we call the Obama candidacy of 2008 because they were filling that page with their own perceptions of a man that they didn't know and didn't want to know.
Be it folly or naiveté, the event was almost understandable because a fairy tale can be a powerful motivator when the alternative is the drudgery of responsibility. The election of Barack Obama was like a midlife crisis, in fact. And a crisis of this nature is most certainly a bad idea but humans are flawed and sometimes these things happen. Maybe they buy fast cars that they can't really afford because they are looking for excitement or meaning in their otherwise hum-drum lives. Maybe they undergo Botox treatments to hold on to some stage of life that is rapidly passing away. These are examples of silly human foibles or vanities which can be understood and almost pitied. Not to worry. We pick ourselves up, move past the frailty and begin again, but what if the midlife crisis turns ugly – if it morphs into a determined and highly motivated self-destruct, if it also seeks the destruction of others. Is that a momentary weakness or is it an insight into a level of self-absorption that should not be ignored?
Forget the official dictum of the Obama 2012 sticker. If all of our knowledge truly is the offspring of our perceptions then what does the Obama 2012 sticker actually say to us? Four more years? Of what? Good golly. Or have I learned that the person in front of me likes an administration which declines civility with regard to my unalienable rights? With that in mind, shouldn't I assume that she will act just as savagely in all other aspects of life as well? If she has no respect for my income and believes she has the right to take whatever percentage of my hard earned money that she can get her hands on because that's more fair, will she act differently when it comes to driving… suddenly right and wrong matter to her?
Face it. Barack Obama is no longer a blank page. He has filled an entire warehouse of books with his vision of America and four more years means nothing more for our future than a lame duck president who has little to lose by using any means available to achieve his vision. Unfortunately, the Obama 2012 sticker and this presidency have changed my perceptions about the world around me and the people who are in my community. I used to think that we all wanted the same thing but maybe had different ways to achieve the shared goals. I honestly did. Now, I am wiser.
In spite of a persistent recession and loss of value in our homes, the teachers in our communities are demanding higher property taxes to pay for more entitlements or they will strike. I see the torn up, half-finished roads, pot holes, barriers and lane obstructions that were all supposed to be part of the infrastructure that would be improved if we just passed a stimulus bill and put people back to work…two to three years of chaos on these roads but nary a construction crew can be seen actually finishing anything. Every single day I read in the news of the number of children killed in drive-by shootings, flash mobs that wreak havoc on local economies, the growing violence which was not supposed to exist because of – again – the stimulus package which would hire more firemen and policemen and make our neighborhoods safer. Just yesterday, I read that GM intends to slow production of the Chevy Volt and retool the plants for the production of cars that people actually buy. Remember the Chevy Volt? Build it and they will come? We were forced to finance that cluster. Remember?
You know, I'm not writing about the people who unwittingly voted for the blank page presidency of Barack Obama the first time around. As I said before, we can honestly chalk that up to a midlife crisis. They bought into a fairy tale. They made a mistake and we can just move past it to correct the problems brought about through implementation of Barack Obama's vision of America. None of that worries me because when we work as a nation to achieve the American dream, who can possibly stop us?
My change in perception is toward the people with the Obama 2012 stickers proudly displayed on their cars…the people who want more of what Obama has to offer, those who actively work against my ability to achieve the American dream. The people who never thought twice about the debt they were heaping upon my children and grandchildren as long as they could have a free pension and a free abortion. They are the worry that plagues me. Thanks to the message of the Obama 2012 sticker that has cut in front of me, I now know that we don't all want the same thing and what are we supposed to do about that? That won't go away if Mitt Romney wins in November.
