Not the hope and change we wanted

Our Democratic Party is headed for electoral disaster in November, and we should call for Barack Obama to do the courageous thing and announce, as Lyndon Johnson did in 1968, that he will not accept his party’s nomination in 2012. He can take the buffoon Joe Biden with him. Our party can then draft Hillary Clinton at the convention in August.

What has happened to our party? Who are these people controlling the party of FDR, Truman, JFK and even Bill Clinton. Why has our party ceded major areas of policy to the Republicans?

Take the economy. Why has our party become the anti-capitalism, anti-free enterprise party? It was Kennedy who cut marginal tax rates deeply in 1961 and gave the country robust growth.

Ronald Reagan simply followed the Kennedy model when he cut taxes on income and investment and gave us the boom of the 1980s. Today Barack Obama wants to raise taxes in the midst of economic malaise, which is considered insane by anyone who understands basic economics.

What about national defense? FDR led us to victory in World War II. Truman contained the spread of global Communism. Kennedy defended West Berlin and drove the Russians out of Cuba. Bill Clinton committed U.S. power to stop genocide in Bosnia and Kosovo. Today Barack Obama announces our withdrawal date from Afghanistan (then believes the Taliban will negotiate with us), does nothing as the Syrian government slaughters its citizens, and watches helplessly as Iran marches toward building a nuclear weapon. Yes, Obama got Bin Laden, but Homer Simpson could have given that order.

And what about the quintessentially American desire to dream big? Kennedy led us to the moon within a decade. Today Obama grounds the space shuttle while expanding the welfare rolls. That’s not the hope and change we wanted.

Samantha M. Marino

Plano