In the final hours of this long election cycle, everyone is reflecting. Piecing together trend pieces and the last of the poll numbers, the reflections of this very long race and the inability for the current administration to focus on their legacy.
In the past eight years we've seen two wars rage, the melting away of our national reputation and the prevalence of age old market driven economic policy - shatter. The wilting of civil liberties, the nationalization of Wall Street, the rise of mega corporations, and finally the longing of days when giving the President a blow job, was grounds for impeachment.
The housing and Wall Street boom, which created wealth for very few; which only trickled debt to the impoverished, while widened the divide between the middle class and the entry level rich and the ability to attain the American Dream (house, car, kids, vacation). The culture produced restaurants that relished $750 Kobe Steaks on their exclusive menus, from cows massaged with care by Japanese herders. The catering of lavish parties. The ability for high-end designers like Gucci (under the guidance of Tom Ford) to sell $4,000 plus pet beds.
Finally collapse, because the leveraged wealth and the marginal trading on the backs of the poor could not be sustained. In truth the free market does work. Yet as Adam Smith reminded us, it needs to be managed. Or I'll add, nature has a way of doing it for us. We see this through our nations infrastructure, or approach to poverty, the administrations many attempts to pretend Global Warming and the shipping our nations wealth overseas, does not matter. It does. This is the great gift of the Bush Administration.
The nations voters are energized, the Democratic Party has found a candidate with backbone. Bush has whittled away the powers that bind the President with great affect. Now that power - will hopefully be handed to Obama, someone, who as Colin Powell states - has great judgment.
We are all starting to understand that we are interconnected. In the south they fly confederate flags and proudly display lawn signs with Barack Obama's name. The electorate is educating themselves as the founders had envisioned.
Even the pick of McCain as the Republican nominee, caused ripples through the party, he has drifted far from his former self. Yet in at one point he flirted with being a Democrat. He considered Joe Lieberman as a running mate for a good long time.
If the Republicans loose, which I hope they do. They will need to become inclusive. For the moderates in this great nation, have found, that their vote truly does matter, that they can affect change and provide us with hope by getting involved.
This is the great gift of the Bush administration, that apathy has fallen by the way side; citizens are once again active in government. This is George Bush's legacy. It might not be what he was hoping for, yet this is his gift to the nation. He's our Herbert Hoover. Because, without Hoover we could've never had Franklin D. Roosevelt.
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