The State of Disunion

In a nation where image has become far more important to most than substance  the idea of giving Obama a complete make over doesn't seem all that far from reality. Of course who's reality is the question? When I was in the Marines one of the t-shirts that I often saw being worn by my fellow Marines had a saying on it that seems to sum up the attitudes of a lot of people in this country. "Kill them all and let God sort them out!" Straight to the point and devoid of all the true complexities that come from living in a complicated world. In all honesty If I could live in such a world where problems were as easy to solve as the the phrase implies I might just do it. Unfortunately problems are not resolved by simply saying they are. The past year has been a rough one for most of us and although a lot of us are still unemployed but looking, working at jobs that pay far less than we are worth or are in school trying to learn new skills the underlying truth is we just don't believe in own own government any more. Those that voted for Obama are frustrated that he hasn't been able to meet all their expectations immediately and they are angry at the Republicans for appearing to have no other agenda than to see him fail. While those who were convinced that he had no chance of accomplishing anything in the first place continue their mission to create a bogus grass roots organization that makes them rich, preys on peoples fears, and spreads lies and cancerous rumors that prevent truly constructive dialog from ever happening. It's not all that surprising that in a country where people will celebrate the success or loss of a sporting event by rioting and that Sarah Palin is popular because she comes from a disfunctional family like the majority of us, is photogenic unlike the majority of us, panders to an image of America where slogans solve problems and talks in a folksy way without saying anything that we become impatient with a president when he hasn't fix what was broken when he got the job. To make matters worse when he attempts to do anything the first response people have is to say is that it won't work.  I voted for Obama for a lot of reasons and I did it knowing that he was not the overall solution to problems we face. In the long run if we are not willing to figure out some way to work together it really doesn't matter who the President is. Slogans and speeches are great but we all know that actions speak louder than words.