The Audacity of Hope and Packaging

I wasn't going to post today...I'm sitting here in my living room watching cartoons (I'm loathe to turn anything else, lest I be reminded of last night).

I'm bitter, but I've earned the right to be. I'm angry, but I'll get over it. I'm frustrated, but frustration will soon become fuel for thought. I'm disappointed, but not so much in myself as in the (national) Party, as a whole for it's inability to convince the public that this election had nothing to do with Bush.

But, as George Harrison eloquently put it back in 1970, "All things must pass, All things must pass away", and my bitterness, anger, frustration and disappointment will, too, pass.

So, my audacity of hope? Here goes nothing:

Hope.

Up until today, I believed, as most conservatives did, that this buzz word, adopted by the Obama campaign, was just that..."buzz". Little did I know then, this may just become the conservative rally cry for the next four years.

Hope.

Bitterly clinging to hope yesterday, I went to bed bitterly disappointed.

Not in the outcome of the election so much as in the collective...may I say "ineptitude" of the American people to have real vision. They cling to hype and hyperbole and elect the first president (in my lifetime) who has absolutely no practical experience to do the job expected of him.

Hope.

Hope that Obama's policies do not bankrupt our great nation, both financially and morally.

Hope.

Hope that Obama realizes that his "softball" approach to foreign policy doesn't get Israel blown off the map. Hope that he doesn't spend the next 4 years undoing the great work of our military in the middle east, essentially making the sacrifice of our military heroes (who didn't return) meaningless.

Hope.

Hope that over the next 4 years, the false hopes of the multitudes will be dashed by Obama's inability to deliver on the many promises he has made during his campaign.

Hope.

Hope that in the next 4 years, the very young, idealistic voters who voted Obama into the White House, will look at their paychecks (that is, if they are lucky enough to find a job that pays a living wage) and see that they are, indeed, paying more taxes than they should be, just to support the social programs of their president. Yes, "their president"...the one whose policy on wealth redistribution will eventually create the biggest welfare state this country has ever seen.

Hope.

Hope that in 3 years, this country will be fed up with a president whose inexperience will likely make the United States the laughing stock of the world...whose failed foreign policy will cause turmoil and strife worldwide, whose inexperience and "pollyanna" attitude will may be responsible for our country experiencing another terrorist attack...this time, with more devastating results than the attack on 9/11/01.

Hope.

Hope that this election was not just about putting a black man into the white house.

Hope.

Hope that our party can take this as a lesson. A lesson that we need to rebuild, and rebuild into a newer, stronger, brighter party...one that doesn't cling to it's losses and whine, but who says "what did I do this time that I can't do next time?". One that accepts the fact that we, as a whole, are lacking something, somewhere, and need to quickly come up with a solution that makes our Republican party great again.

We need to engage younger Americans with a real message that will make them listen, not the same old rhetoric that we've been hearing for years, the rhetoric that sends young voters toward the other side.

The Republican Party has to evolve...not so radically that it becomes something completely different than it was meant to be back in 1854 when it was founded, but, one that adapts to the times without losing the ideological foundations that makes our party great.

We need a facelift, pure and simple. But, we need to only change the package, not the product. We're "selling" a great product...it's just that our packaging sucks and people aren't buying.

HOPE.

Hope that this rings true with an Obama presidency. Statistically, only one in three new products introduced to the public succeeds, despite pretty packaging and advertising hype.

Last night's election results are proof positive that if you wrap a lousy product in a pretty package, you're bound to get some people to buy it. And last night, the price was right (little do they realize that the payment plan is at least 4 years long and not so easy). Unfortunatly, the return policy usually takes 4 years.

Hope.

Hope that, in 4 years, the American people exchange the "pretty package" for a new and improved Republican product...one that works, is reasonably priced and is more reliable than the one they have been using.

Until this happens, I can only hope.

B.