Stand By Your Man

The Importance of Supporting President Obama

by Diane Wilson

President Obama arrived at his office at a most unpleasant hour, when the economy was a shambles with credit frozen, banks failing, companies faltering, and people losing homes and jobs. President Obama assumed his high office with two wars well underway, and terrorists on the doorstep. Moreover, he took office with a middle class under seige and a political divide threatening the country's greatness.

Today's Globe and Mail characterizes the current state of American politics: liberalism versus libertarianism or put simply, Glenn Beck versus Rachel Maddow. Obama vs. Palin or Cheney, take your pick. The Globe carefully articulates the history of the current culture of paranoid speak, indicating it has a long history south of the 49th parallel.

Given this current state of meanness and paranoia, one could almost forget that Obama was airborne upon his arrival. He brought fresh thinking to a government yearning for ideas and clarity and morality. He assembled a fine group of people around him, and they have not let the country fail. Far from it! They have injected money into the system and they have boosted the economy. The stock market has come back. The President and his team have thought long and hard about wars and committed more troops to Afghanistan. They are taking homeland security seriously. And, they are about to create some sort of national health care system, which is the most important new legislation in decades.

This is the work of a progressive western democratic nation of which all Americans should and could be proud. It is not perfection. The current level of American debt is scary. However, we rarely hear any positive ideas from those who seek to diminish the current Presidency. How would the critics win the wars at home and abroad? President Bush didn't find it so easy. Why do Rush and Glenn pretend otherwise?

Clearly, there is very legitimate pain among those without work and those without homes. More work must be done. However, it is inconceivable that Americans would seek to diminish the stature or the work of the current presidency out of animosity alone, thus undermining America.

America proudly elected Barack Obama and change one year ago. President Obama saw the opportunity for greatness in the darkness of America's night. Today, America must stand by its collective decision and support President Obama in a constructive forward thinking manner. That kind of rededication is sorely needed because without it, America risks losing its star status as the strongest nation on earth.