An urgent need for change in midterm elections

By Jesse D. Hamilton
Senior Staff Writer
November 1, 2006

Our country, after six years of absolute Republican control, is in dire straights, and it is time for a change. Incompetent officials are being appointed to public office. Our national debt continues to rise beyond economists’ wildest dreams. Finally, every day, a government vehicle pulls up in front of a home, a uniformed service member gets out of the car, walks up the walkway past a tree with a yellow ribbon tied around it, knocks on an American flag draped door and informs a family that their son or daughter has been killed in Iraq. All of this must change.

With every vacancy that opens in our federal government, our president is unfortunately given the opportunity to appoint another close, personal friend to public office. This is why we’ve been dealing with incapable individuals such as Michael D. Brown, the infamous ex-head of FEMA, whose prior job was director of an Arabian horse association. And who can forget about Harriet Miers, Bush’s personal lawyer nominated for the Supreme Court, despite the fact she had no prior experience on the bench. Thankfully, she was considered too moderate for a radical Republican majority to confirm. We must ensure that no more inexperienced cronies of the president are confirmed to public office.

Each day, our country tumbles deeper and deeper into debt. Republican-initiated tax cuts continue to make the rich exponentially richer than their fellow citizens in the middle and lower classes. The Bush Administration has brilliantly obscured the future damage of these tax cuts: damages that our generation will be forced to mend. Our current taxation policy – designed by the rich, for the rich – needs to revert back to a more fair system for the majority of taxpayers, and one which will not harm our future economy.

Most urgently, the war in Iraq grows more and more violent as each day passes. Our soldiers are paying the price. It is imperative that the United States government devises a timetable for a large scale withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. Our government has afforded the Iraqis more than enough time to show some scintilla of progress, but very little, if any, is being made. Continuing to do their jobs for them will not only lead to a more dependent Iraqi government, but will lead to more flag-draped coffins. The Iraqi people, living in a fully democratic society, must learn to fight with their words and pens, not with their rifles, and they must learn this with minimal help. The administration’s current policy does nothing of the sort. Therefore, it must change.

Unfortunately, we have two more years with Bush blindly leading our nation further and further down the road of disaster. Other than a miracle resignation or an impeachment with a conviction of our current president, our country has no choice but to stomach the presidential meal of incompetence we have been served for the last six years. We can, however, still evoke change.

We must not allow the Republican myrmidons to retain control of Congress and religiously follow the blind lead of the inept Bush Administration over the next two years. We, as Americans, must use our constitutionally-given right to vote and initiate a return to normalcy, where the United States can be fruitful as opposed to inefficient, and respected as opposed to despised. Change is needed, and the time is now: Nov. 7, to be exact.

hamiltonj3@lasalle.edu