consent

A while back i did a piece that discussed the use of consent instead of consensus. i have long had problems with the idea behind majority rules and the anger of the minority which is never really addressed after an election. The loser is made to feel demoralized while the winner goes around thumping their chests.

i'm revisiting this idea of consent because the data at Real Clear Politics shows McCain got 46% of the popular vote and Obama got 53%. This means 66million882thousand230 people voted for Obama and 58million343thousand671 voted for McCain.

That means we now have 58million343thousand671 very unhappy Americans.

There were aspects of both platforms wanting change that American citizens didn't consent to. The fault for that lies in the way our leaders are elected. At no time was there a national conversation about what each of us objected to in these new leaders. All we did was discuss how one would be a better leader than the other. We used personality defects, guilt by association, adherence to socialism or capitalism, warrior versus peacemaker, fear, color of skin and a host of other aspects that had nothing to do with actually leading this country. We watched a sales job in action on both sides of the campaign.

i wonder, did any of us sit down and make lists of our objections or our agreement, McCain in one column and Obama in the other? Did we independently examine what they intended to accomplish in the future and why we might object to it. Or did we just adhere to each parties conservative or liberal ideology, read the blogs and e-mails and cancel them out based upon that? What exactly did we object to about each man and what exactly did we learn about each man? How would we do this differently in the future?

When we start talking about our objections we can prevent people from avoiding responsibility for the outcome by being silent. We need to discuss what everyone thinks about each man, what our objections are and how we can resolve them. There will always be more than one qualified individual to take on any job including President of the United States of America, but having more Americans consent to that man or woman taking on that job might make governing a whole lot easier.

If we spend time examining all our objections and concerns it would give us room to resolve them and make a better decision. If we take the objections seriously we could then try to focus on resolving them which in turn will build a better country. Some of the objections for both men were based upon fears that were never really examined by either side throughly. They were put out there to make the populace fearful in order to get you to vote a particular way...but maybe if we had examined them further we would learn that we really shouldn't be afraid. That we shouldn't let ideology trump reality.

58million343thousand671 Americans voted against Barack Obama being President of the United States.

This many unhappy people is not an environment where much can be accomplished but maybe this new administration can do something about it.

What are their objections and how can we work to resolve them or at least minimize the fear? i've sent a letter to Obama addressing this very real problem. Please write him with your objections and fears. Now is the time to let him know what you fear or what you might object to with his style of governing. He will be your President in January. He can be reached at:
http://www.change.gov/