Shopping for Leadership
12 comments May 15th, 2008
At Tuesday night’s Voters Panel meeting, we broke into small groups to discuss several “pocketbook” issues and what the government’s role in managing them is.
One decision my group made was unequivocally unanimous: NOTHING the candidates are saying on pocketbook issues is resonating with any of us.
The Mighty Dubya’s call to action (oops, I used the D word…someone is going to criticize me for being disrespectful to POTUS)….anyway, Dubya’s call to action, “GO SHOPPING,” hasn’t helped. While we’re eyeing that logo-clad Coach handbag while fondling an oh-so-British Burberry scarf, our creditors are rubbing their hands together in anticipation.
The personal debt many of us are racking up pales in comparison to the mountain of foreign debt this administration has managed to accumulate. GO SHOPPING! Oh, yeah, baby! Let’s see what a trillion borrowed dollars can do for America. Bombs and humvees and machine guns, oh my! But wait….sorry….!….we just have to draw the line at giving our Iraq veterans the care they were promised. That’s just way too extravagant.
What we members of the Voters Panel want to hear is a challenge, a call for sacrifice, a dare, even, for us to come together as one nation, under God, and — you guessed it —indivisible, to put this country back on track.
And if WE can sacrifice together for a shared purpose, so should our leaders. Let’s hold them to a higher standard. When they say “Go shopping,” let’s tell them to “Get packing.”
Audrey HaynesÂ
