While listening to President Obama's inaugural address the other day, I quickly googled former President Ronald Reagan's first inaugural address with the intention of comparing the two. President Obama has said in the past that he looks up to Reagan, primarily for taking the road less traveled. When looking at former President Reagan's address, one portion of it stuck out significantly in my mind. He said: "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price." Note its applicability to today's situation. Note its differences not only from what President Obama preaches, but also from what the Republican Party preaches.
The Republican Party has lost its way, and no longer represents traditional conservatism. They may say they do, however they are only harming themselves - people are now scared of "conservatism," even though what they have actually had over the last eight years and had been so afraid of was "liberalism." And, it can be said with near complete certainty that the Obama Administration will continue the same failed, big government, liberal policies of the Bush Administration. However, now is the perfect time for the Republican Party to heal. It can only heal itself by looking back to true conservatism, to what Ronald Reagan said and doing a complete 180 from where it is today. Should it continue on its current trend, America will most certainly fall not only as a world empire but also perhaps to the extent of military, socialist dictatorships that exist today and have existed previously.
We have four years, probably eight years, to make this turn. We should not focus our efforts on changing the White House, as the White House will not change. We must focus our efforts on changing ourselves, on changing the Republican Party, so we can win back the government and the people in the way the Founding Fathers and Constitution intended. Should we choose not to do it, our demise as a nation representing freedom and liberty worldwide is inevitable. However, I am disheartened my claims will almost certainly fall upon deaf ears. Americans today are not scared by the threat of military dictatorship, socialism or communism - they are scared by the political fear mongering spread by the media. That what we have to be afraid of is ourselves, not the government. In fact, the media tells us we must be afraid of the Constitution - the only document separating our government from turning into the government of North Korea or comparable nations. Should we continue to allow our elected representatives to amend and change the Constitution, the document will become inherently meaningless and there will be nothing separating us from nations ruled by dictators and socialistic nations across the world today and in the past.
We do not have to be afraid of what the media tells us to be afraid of. We have to look at reality and be afraid of it. For the last eight years, we were afraid of reality. The reality we were afraid of, however, was liberalism. Former President Bush expanded the size of the federal government at a rate unparalleled by even some of the former presidents regarded as being very liberal, yet the media and many of the hungry-for-any-cause-that-looks-like-fun "progressives" have accepted that as well. And, we have just elected another liberal to the White House, to continue the same liberal policies. And, unless the Republican Party returns to traditional conservatism and actually gives the people of this country a choice that will actually do the country good in four to eight years, we'll elect another liberal next time and continue to inch closer and closer to our demise. The time for change is now - and this change must come from within. Change from within the Republican Party, but most importantly change within the people of this great nation.
Kateln Hurley, Sophomore, Kogod School of Business
