Election determines
fate of nation
Published in the Daily Record on Oct. 6
By Mathew Manweller
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In that this will be my last column
before the presidential election, there will be no sarcasm, no attempts
at witty repartee. The topic is too serious, and the stakes are too
high.
This November we will vote in the only
election during our lifetime that will truly matter. Because America is
at a once-in-a-generation crossroads, more than an election hangs in
the balance. Down one path lies retreat, abdication and a reign of
ambivalence.
Down the other lies a nation that is
aware of it's past and accepts the daunting obligation its future
demands. If we choose poorly, the consequences will echo through the
next 50 years of history. If we, in a spasm of frustration, turn out
the current occupant of the White House, the message to the world and
ourselves will be two-fold. First, we will reject the notion that
America can do big things. Once a nation that tamed a frontier, stood
down the Nazis and stood upon the moon, we will announce to the world
that bringing democracy to the Middle East is too big of a task for us.
But more significantly, we will signal to future presidents that as
voters, we are unwilling to tackle difficult challenges, preferring
caution to boldness, embracing the mediocrity that has characterized
other civilizations.
The defeat of President Bush will send a
chilling message to future presidents who may need to make difficult,
yet unpopular decisions. America has always been a nation that rises to
the demands of history regardless of the costs or appeal. If we turn
away from that legacy, we turn away from whom we are.
Second, we inform every terrorist
organization on the globe that the lesson of Somalia was well-learned.
In Somalia we showed terrorists that you don't need to defeat America
on the battlefield when you can defeat them in the newsroom. They
learned that a wounded America can become a defeated America.
Twenty-four-hour news stations and daily tracing polls will do the
heavy lifting, turning a cut into a fatal blow. Except that Iraq is
Somalia times 10. The election of John Kerry will serve notice to every
terrorist in every cave that the soft underbelly of American power is
the timidity of American voters. Terrorists will know that a steady
stream of grisly photos for CNN is all you need to break the will of
the American people. Our own self-doubt will take it from there. Bin
Laden will recognize that he can topple any American administration
without setting foot on the homeland.
It is said that America's W.W.II
generation is its 'greatest generation'. But my greatest fear is that
it will become known as America's 'last generation.' Born in the
bleakness of the Great depression and hardened in the fire of W.W. II,
they may be the last American generation that understands the meaning
of duty, honor and sacrifice. It is difficult to admit, but I know
these terms are spoken with only hollow detachment by many (but not
all) in my generation. Too many citizens today mistake 'living in
America' as 'being an American.' But America has always been more of an
idea than a place. When you sign on, you do more than buy real estate.
You accept a set of values and responsibilities.
This November, my generation, which has
been absent too long, must grasp the obligation that comes with being
an American, or fade into the oblivion they may deserve. I believe that
100 years from now historians will look back at the election of 2004
and see it as the decisive election of our century. Depending on the
outcome, they will describe it as the moment America joined the ranks
of ordinary nations; or they will describe it as the moment the
prodigal sons and daughters of the greatest generation accepted their
burden as caretakers of the City on the Hill."
Mathew Manweller is a Central Washington
University political science professor.
