If Wishes were Horses.....

Be very careful for what you wish, for you may get it. The President wished for total control of the machinery of government and he got it. But in the euphoria following the victories at the polls should come a sobering thought. Total control brings with it total responsibility. The Republican Party now owns all of the levers of power and it also owns all of the problems of America.

When a farm family watches its crops wither in the drought and its dreams blow away on the wind, it will be to the Republican Party they look for assistance. When machines grind to a stop and the factory doors close behind the newly unemployed, it will be to the Republican Party the displaced will look for sustenance. When the retirement plans of a generation evaporate in a cloud of corporate corruption it will be to the Republican Party that they look for redress. When a man and his wife must choose either life preserving medicines or a life preserving diet it will be to the Republican Party that they address their pleas for help. The President and his party must either respond to these and a multitude of other voices or resolve to stifle them. The President and his party achieved their fondest desire on Tuesday, November 5th but it brought with it the heaviest of all burdens – accountability.

The Democrats have a burden as well and one almost as heavy as that now borne by the President’s party. It is the burden of once again providing a voice for today’s forgotten men and women; for those who have produced with their hands the wealth that the powerful wield as weapons; for those whose pleas have been obscured in the noise of 30 second spots and ten word answers. That voice must be earnest, it must be focused and it must be clear. It must call for solutions that build America; that strengthen our foundations and framework from the ground up so that the top floors do not collapse under the weight of winter’s first storm and bring down America’s economic tower.

The Democratic voice must speak to the moral fiber of America; to our common obligation to build a floor beneath which no American will be permitted to fall; to care for those of us who have by reason of age or disability become unable to care for themselves; to stretch out a healing hand to the afflicted and comfort those who are lost in despair. That is the Democrats’ burden. That is the burden which America imposes upon a loyal opposition. It is the obligation to be vigilant in the service of the people; to provide an hopeful vision of America in which all Americans can share.