Have Americans Finally Seen the Light?

There's only one more day until the mid-term elections begin, and in two days we'll know the outcome except in districts where non-trackable electronic voting has failed. Will my faith in the American people be restored? The suspense is killing me!

I don't blame Americans for being fooled about our invasion of Iraq. We are a trusting people. We truly believe our leaders would not lie to us on a topic so consequential as a decision to go to war, or about the status of that war or the country where we are now engaged in battle. Our trust is a lasting trust; it takes clear evidence to shake it. We want to believe our country is doing the right thing because, by and large, we are a righteous people. But the evidence is now overwhelming. We were fooled into supporting the Iraq war, and we've been deceived since the day our victorious troops stood by, dumbfounded, as the infrastructure of Bahgdad was trashed by the Iraqis they had just "liberated". Will the voters continue to stand by those who have so foolishly squandered our country's young men, our treasure, and our standing in the world?

I don't blame Americans for not understanding that debt, not tax cuts, has fueled whatever economic recovery we are now enjoying. The fact that our national debt has increased 45% under the current administration is not headline news. But the truth is that every American owes $7,000 more to creditors of our goverment than they did in the year 2000, and our country is far more subject to economic blackmail by our enemies than we were six years ago. Will the voters decide to reject this administration because its financial Katrina is overflowing our economic levees?

I don't blame Americans for supporting those who profess the religious beliefs that many think underlie our country's freedoms. Underneath all the simplistic theology that evangelicals blindly accept is a deep concern for the values outlined in the Ten Commandments. They prefer that the recipe for a proper life be laid out in a straightforward manner, no "pinches of this or that", no optional adjustments for differing flavors or textures. Have they come to realize that the leaders they elected for religious reasons are no more genuine than Ron Haggard? Will the voters reject supporters of the George Bush whose hired gun, Karl Rove, uses "false witness" as his primary campaign tool?

I don't blame Americans for thinking a goverment of one party could finally enact new laws to solve the looming issues of Social Security and Medicare, and to simplify the labyrinthine tax laws that support a huge but inefficient industry and drive us all crazy at the same time. Will the voters strike back because their candidates bypassed these substantive issues in favor of pushing "loser" laws regarding gay marriage, abortion, and flag burning?

As President Bush famously said, "You can fool me once -golly, how does that go again?" Have Americans got to the point where they realize the Republicans are trying to fool them again? My antennae tell me that the time has come for true realization, and that the people will speak clearly in this election. They will speak out against a fraudulent war, spendthrift economics, phony religion, and do-nothing debates in congress. If they don't, they will have been fooled twice and deserve whatever carnage the new "old" government will certainly inflict on them.