Don’t Worry, Be Happy

I hope everyone realizes life will go on no matter who becomes the next President.

This doesn’t mean that the outcome of the next election isn’t important. The courts, the war, the economy, the culture—these will all be influenced by the person who succeeds George W. Bush in the White House. Making the wrong Presidential selection will lead to the embarrassment of the country, and the weakening of the free world. A decision made in haste will result in years of pain.

Yet that pain will not be permanent, and the country will survive no matter what. Honest conservatives know that Bill Clinton’s election was not the end of the world, and honest liberals know that Bush’s victory did not presage the downfall of Western civilization. The country is strong enough to survive a President’s mistakes; America would have collapsed long ago without such durability.

Look at what America has endured during the last century alone. The country remained strong even after FDR’s hardheartedness towards Japanese-Americans, JFK’s foreign-policy woes, LBJ’s ineptitude, Nixon’s criminality, Ford’s lack of vision, Carter’s backwardness, and Bush 41’s ideological inconsistency. Clinton’s prevarications and Bush 43’s mistakes haven’t diminished the country’s spirit: the actions of our next Commander-in-Chief won’t either.

A commitment to partisan ideas doesn’t justify unrestrained anger when a politician one likes fails to become President. As much as I want John McCain to supplant Bush as President, I won’t take to the streets in fury if the White House returns to Democrat control. I’ll be disappointed, not only for myself but also for taxpayers, soldiers and unborn children who will be negatively affected by Democrat policies. However, I won’t be angry.

I’ve never understood the logic behind being so livid over the results of a Presidential election that one begins to hold the winner of that election responsible for all the problems in the country, or in the world. Clinton coarsened the culture with his actions in the Lewinsky case, and showed cowardice in his handling of the Elian Gonzales matter, but it would have been ridiculous for someone to hold the Clinton administration responsible for, say, the Oklahoma City terrorist attack or the Columbine massacre. Bush should have had this war won years ago, and should have shown much more skill in his handling of domestic affairs, but his failures do not justify the ridiculous rhetoric of such figures as Cindy Sheehan and Kanye West.

If there’s one thing Americans love to do, it’s bash their President. Clinton caught hell years ago for supporting NAFTA and welfare reform; Bush catches hell now because people think he’s somehow responsible for the skyrocketing gas prices. It would be one thing if we criticized our Presidents for logical reasons—but we have a sad tradition of criticizing our Presidents based on emotion.

It’s easy to blame the President when something goes wrong in our lives; it’s far harder to blame ourselves. We have this mentality that the President is our caretaker, someone who will remove all ills, all injustices, all threats, all dangers. We have been led to believe that the President is a Jesus figure—and when he does not deliver the promised miracles, we become political atheists.

What we as individual Americans do is far more important, and far more relevant, than what any President does. While we should criticize the President when he makes wrong choices, we should not hold him responsible for everything we don’t like about America. There is a dangerous trend in this country of Americans regarding themselves as victims of Washington, pieces on a giant game board controlled by the President. Too few Americans have the mentality that they can succeed in this country in spite of what the President does; too many seem to think that they cannot succeed because of what the President does.

I didn’t like Clinton, but I never thought for a moment that I wouldn’t be able to achieve a goal because he was sitting in the White House. I can’t understand the mentality of those who have spent the 2000s thinking that they couldn’t accomplish anything because of Bush. I don’t get the thought process of those who believe that the election of a President they don’t like will destroy their lives.

No matter who wins this fall, America will go on. A President can hurt the country’s greatness, but a President cannot single-handedly force the country into mediocrity or worse. Americans should remain hopeful no matter who emerges victorious on November 4. It won’t be the end of the world if your candidate loses…just the end of a campaign.