Wake up. It's 2008, the holidays are over, the country is back to work. It's a presidential election year and voters could change history.
In 2000, the country elected President George W. Bush. That changed history—for the worse. More than a year, a terrorist act and an invasion of Afghanistan later, the United States was at war in Iraq, where it remains today, more uncertain about its mission and its chances of success than on the first day that the armies crossed into that swamp of warring factions.
Under Bush's leadership, the country moved away from environmental protection and toward economic policies that have left the rich mega-rich and the middle class struggling to make ends meet.
It moved away from sensible financial controls on lending, which opened the door to unfettered speculation in real estate and to the worst national decline in housing prices since the Great Depression.
The country saw hope for real reforms in health care evaporate. Health care takes an enormous bite of business and family budgets every year. The American public spends more on health care than any other nation in the world, with poorer results. Though costs are staggering, we failed to fix a system that tries hard to cure disease, but puts little emphasis on prevention.
And only lately did it dawn on the administration that global warming is a problem worth any attention. The latest red flag just popped up in Italy where residents of a small town showed up with the first tropical disease ever found in modern Europe, a relative of dengue fever spread by mosquitoes.
However, all the blame for our country's misguided or missing policies can't be placed on the president or on special-interest lobbyists who shape political policy with lots of money. All Americans of voting age must accept blame as well.
Money or no money, connected or not, all can vote. Most can write letters or donate small amounts to organizations that lobby or to candidates who espouse their views. Yet, a majority don't do any of that.
One of the best bumper stickers around today says, "The world is run by people who SHOW UP." We would add to that, "and who PAY ATTENTION."
People running for public office wake up every day and ask themselves, "Who will vote?" All the money and connections in the world will not get them elected unless people want to vote for them.
Voting is power.
Americans who want a better world must pay attention for the next nine months. They must read candidates' position papers, readily available on the Web. They must listen, think, contrast and compare. Then, on Election Day, they can change the world—for the better.
