The ultimate reason why this presidential election is one of such great value revolves around the events of the last eight years, and how we as a nation will recover. Although it is within the tradition of the United States to overcome such circumstances, the last two presidential terms have not lived up to such expectations. Instead, they utilized the tool of fear - a misleading, overwhelming blanket the American people were swept under - in truth bringing them closer to the real horrors of American failure.
This sadistic strategy began a week after Sept. 11, with the introduction of the Patriot Act, a lengthy document that included countless infringements on the civil liberties of Americans without any respect to maintaining checks and balances, elements this country is not supposed to carry on without since the writing of the Federalist Papers. Because of the level of vulnerability felt in light of Sept. 11, the government's actions came under little if any scrutiny, leading President Bush to sign the Patriot Act into law on Oct. 26, 2001.
Very soon after the Patriot Act's signing, the nation was hastily introduced to the Bush Doctrine, opening the door for aerial bombings of Afghanistan as well as the opportunity to do the same to any nation we felt harbored terrorists. Had this tool of fear been used by the Clinton administration, we would have bombed Michigan for harboring the infamous Timothy McVeigh. We soon forgot our principles, steadily sinking into the Bush administration's pool of intimidation without regard for the actual problems that needed to be addressed to protect us from such future attacks.
These actions were followed by the acceptance of the Iraq Resolution, a compilation of lies including the inappropriate link of Iraq and 9/11. The world watched as President Bush changed our reason for being in Iraq a minimum of three different times. His rationale was accepted and regarded as a means to overcome the fear of terrorism, despite that through this blurry vision of panic and trepidation, our government was steering us away from any means of relevant protection.
It did not matter that the economic gap was growing, that we were headed in a direction that has now brought us to an unemployment rate of over 6 percent. This was all negligible in the face of the War on Terror the administration was mishandling. They had an agenda to protect us, and if we were not with them, we were with the terrorists.
This wave of stigma and divisiveness is now higher above us than ever, and it is up to us, the American people, to prevent it from crashing down on our country. The policies of the McCain-Palin ticket are the same as its predecessors.
They are already instilling fear into this term's voters, with false threats of Obama taxing America and surrendering in Iraq.
They are scared to change the tax policies of this country, of modifying the structure of health care, of gluing together the shattered pieces of the American dream.
Fear puts us at risk of not only continuing political corruption and misjudgment, but of creating an even scarier United States than we have seen since the Bush administration took office. We are at a point of making history - the only question lies in what kind. If we once again give in to fear, we will remain under a dark current of stubbornness and irrationality. Should we overcome this false sense of dubiousness, we will succeed with this country's true traditions by ending an unjust war, focusing on the true threats of terrorism, giving tax breaks to the people who need them, protecting our civil liberties and creating a more positive economy for the everyday citizen. Do not let fear sway you away from choosing the Obama ticket, for it will only give you a true stigma to worry about: four more years of George W. Bush's policies.
Dan Josephson is a senior majoring in political science and legal studies. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
