Barack Obama: the necessary change this country needs

The United States of America and its unparalleled influence will usher in the 44th President amid economic turmoil, an ineptly executed and imperialistic war, and leadership concerns held by the majority of the citizenry.

The presidential election is monumental, and the future hangs in the balance. Politics, imperfect and partisan, will never answer every problem facing America. The contrary is audacious at best. Left in a quagmire of hopelessness, America needs a leader to restore hope to the nation. Hope, the word that has been hijacked and redefined this election by Obama detractors in linguistic derision, can be restored.

The messy endeavor of American Democracy is fraught with religious, class, and social disparities that are not going away any time soon, nor should we want them to. Our diversity is among the greatest characteristics of our society. Political efficiency and social ‘unity’ is the domain of fascists. But, with the nation’s economy shaken up the way it has been of late, the quagmire of the Iraq war and the vitriolic exchange of religious strife, all converging on the dialogue of the public sphere, we now find ourselves approaching a tipping point.
McCain, taking for granted the archaic premises of a revisionist past, is not the one to pull us back from it. What Americans need now is to be empowered with a new vocabulary; one we can’t get from Sen. John McCain.

McCain’s history is full of clumsy ideas informed by an idiom constructed from the corpses of dead metaphors that have been crushed under the weight of the concrete realities that define our times. It is likely that McCain’s sleazy smear campaigns have been prompted by his own realization of this. However, Obama is very clear about what he wants to do. Ultimately, Obama’s motives have nothing to do with plans and policies that will change our country. They have everything to do with convincing ordinary citizens that they cannot believe in him; that they must believe in themselves. The power to save America from its past foibles doesn’t rest with the president, but with the people. True American patriotism goes beyond salvation of a country: it’s about the will to act, the altruistic love to help us help ourselves.
At this point, in the aftermath of the Bush administration, America thinks she needs a Superman. Reflected in the mirrors of history, the eyes of the world look upon American voters hoping to see the ascension of a leader strong enough to undo the damage of the past eight years. Obama’s willingness to engage in diplomacy with our nation’s enemies is a better strategy than McCain’s ‘might makes right’ rhetoric. Who else should we negotiate with if not those who we call our enemies? Exhausting assertive diplomacy with regard to each country’s interests before the use of force is crucial to rebuilding our global credibility.

Obama also supports a superior health care plan that brings us toward providing every American with the adequate health care coverage. McCain’s plan, which would tax your health care benefits to give you a tax credit by which to purchase health care muddles the healthcare debacle even further and according to the journal Health Affairs, would result in five million more Americans uninsured within five years. Though not perfect, Obama’s plan would utilize government subsidies to provide insurance for low-income workers and reduce the number of uninsured by 18 million in 2009 and by 34 million in 2018, according to a report by the Urban Institute/Brookings Institution.

Sen. McCain, the self-proclaimed maverick, made his riskiest decision to date with his political-suicidal selection of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska to join him on the ticket as the vice-presidential nominee. The tidal wave of facts showing Gov. Palin’s ineptitude concerning the vice president position has had a chilling effect on McCain’s electability.

McCain’s troubling temperament has a worrisome inevitability when in the middle of a crisis situation. Obama’s on the other hand is much more reassuring. Difficult decisions must be dealt with delicately and definitively, and Obama’s cooler head prevails in this election.

The editorial board at UVU Review feels that Sen. Barack Obama can give Americans the confidence they need in the face of these crises, and the effectual hope and change that can carry this country during the next four years.