The Office Of the Presidency
Deborah Venable
06/09/09
It is with wisdom and conviction that leaders should take the reins of power – conviction that they can direct their nations toward a more prosperous future as they leave behind an honorable past. They must all know that none are ever perfect in the eyes of the citizens they lead nor in the perceptions of those who will look back on history, but they must constantly strive not to sully the reputation of their offices. It is the legacies they leave that must withstand all the scrutiny of time – past, present, and future. These legacies must be painstakingly built with humility and wisdom that only they can convey.
George
W. Bush once said, “The office of the presidency is always greater than the
occupant.”
I
think he meant that and I think he understood it far better than some of the
other “occupants” of the office of the presidency.
We,
who are conservative, individualist, constitutionalist, lovers of American
liberty, have not gone quietly into the night of recent defeat of all those
things with the election of the present holder of the office of the
presidency. We cannot. It isn’t because we are “sore losers,” the
favorite accusation from our political adversaries. This wasn’t a game to be won or lost to us. This was a test to see if America could
triumph or if we would fall down into a failure that none of us have ever
known.
We
no longer have any champions of our way of life within our government
representing us. It is just as simple
as that.
The
office of the presidency, whether it is the White House and Oval Office or even
Air Force One, for that matter, has been recognized the world over as the
shining symbol of hope for freedom demonstrated by the strongest, most united
people on the face of the earth. It has
little or nothing to do with the individual who occupies the office, but
today’s media and those most responsible for ensconcing the current office
holder have done all they can to promote the office in the name of Obama
instead of the other way around.
This
country has never sought dominion over any other country, never wanted to
displace anything good with evil imperialism, and never destroyed anything that
we did not rebuild many times over better than it originally was. Obama, in his apologies for our supposed
arrogance, is not representing the heart and soul of America nor representing
Americans through the office. He is
instead elevating himself above that office as the savior to the world of some
perceived American cruelty and wrongdoing.
He
is trying to define the “occupant” as greater than the office. There is no humility or wisdom in this
attempt at legacy building. No good can
come of it.
The
man is of mediocre intelligence, in my opinion, despite the overall attitude of
so many on both political sides of the aisle that he is brilliant. His rhetoric is redundant and uninspiring,
but is portrayed as nothing less than masterful throughout the crumbling halls
of the Fourth Estate. He represents the
epitome of political manipulation with strings attached to his every action and
motive. Truly horrifying is the speed
with which he is attacking every foundation upon which America was built.
The
office of the presidency is in trouble – and that trouble is the occupant.