Deciding The Decider Is A Dunce

What does it do to our national psyche to have this man, this bumbling idiot, this “decider” of all things, as the President of our country?  Not only is he an intellectual lightweight, he appears, at times, to be mentally challenged.  I fear that the message we are sending to the rest of the world is, “Yup, this is the best and the brightest that we have to offer.”  Isn’t that what the Presidency should be?  And if it is, surely watching this man speak has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that, as a country, we are suffering from low self-esteem, and not just slightly low, but scraping the bottom of the barrel low.

So, what is the cure for national low self-esteem (although the more I study Bush Jr., the more I wonder if it’s actually national self-loathing)?  Should we look in the mirror and chant daily affirmations?  Or perhaps the answer is what psychologists and motivational speakers tell individuals, believe that you are worthy and you will become so.  There does seem to be an awful lot of that going on, but up to this point, I’ve been chalking it up to arrogance, self righteousness and ignorance, but maybe these faux patriots are on the right track, even if purely by accident.

If we pretend that we are the America that we were raised to take such pride in, we can actually become that again.  But the flag waving, yellow ribbon wearing, “America lovers” that we see every day are just imagining that we are the country we love, and are missing the critical step of behaving as if it were true.  To become what we believe in, we must back it up with action.

We can pretend to be patriotic and love our country, but in order to become authentic patriots, we have to behave as if we already are.  Support our troops with proper equipment and training, provide for their families while they are away, give them clear objectives and leadership that is competent enough to carry it out.  We can pretend to be educated, but to become truly educated we have to behave as if we are.  We must look at all sides of an issue before choosing a side, we have to read, listen, learn and think about things rather than simply dig up facts to support our already firmly entrenched views.  If we want our country to be great, we must behave as if it is, and that means using the tools of our democracy to make it so.

The only way to feel better about America is to act as if we are better.  We cannot allow one man, one radical vision, one delusional ideology to destroy who we are.  To use more psychological jargon, the first step is acceptance.  We must accept that this President does not represent us, that he is not the face of America that we want scowling at the rest of the world on our behalf.  That acceptance is settling across the land, and now those of us that have already accepted that truth must lead the way in our actions.  There has to be a price paid for embarrassing our country, for dragging down our morale and making us feel less than we are.  This man, this idiot, this sad excuse for a leader must be removed from the helm.

Rendering him impotent is not enough.  As long as we are forced to watch his stumbling speeches, his mangling of the language, his reverse Midas touch that turns everything to shit, his disastrous policies that bankrupt us financially and morally, we will continue to feel bad about ourselves.  We do not have the leadership we deserve, so let’s stop acting as if we do.