The Mandate of the People

President George W. Bush, having been issued a mandate by the people of the United States to bring freedom and democracy to the world and to continue to competently function as the Commander in Chief of the military, is using his political capital to institute a regime of Faith Based Initiatives that are unconstitutional and tear at the very fabric of freedom and democracy in America. The precedent was set long ago that would set the American citizenry on a course to make the Presidential election of 2004 about the war in Iraq; present-day American voters followed in the footstep of hundreds of millions of previous voters by re-electing their "war-time President". George Washington was the first to be re-elected during war time and not a single president since has lost a re-election campaign while his nation's sons and daughters were in combat. The expansive agenda of this president, who won the office by the narrowest of margins, is not indicative of the sentiments of the American people. George W. Bush wants to put in place legislation that fundamentally undermines the ideals on which this nation was founded. While he sends our citizens overseas to bring western ideals to non-democratic nations, the President has stated a desire to institute programs and laws in this country which will ultimately restrict American freedom and pull at the underpinnings of this democracy.

America's voting trends suggest that they are willing to sacrifice the possibility of a change for the better if they feel that their current leadership is anything other than abhorrent. Presidents throughout history (George Washington, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, etc) are a clear precedent for the re-election of an incumbent president during war-time. The American people issue their current Command in Chief a mandate, insisting that he continue with his leadership of troops on foreign soil in such a manner that will bring them home safely as soon as possible as well as accomplish the mission which he set out to do. In the case of President George W. Bush, his narrow margin of victory speaks to the fact that he hasn't earned a mandate from the people to do much of anything else. The American people voted for the leader they knew versus the leader they didn't know while their family members and friends were in harm's way. For this President to presuppose that he has such an expansive moral mandate after such a narrow victory suggests that he is much farther removed from the common man than his spin doctors would purport. The essential goal of this administration should be in keeping with the sentiments of the people; to conclude their activities in Iraq and to bring home the troops whom they have kept there too long already.

In an attempt to please himself and his wealthy constituency, the President announced the establishment of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The goal of this office is to make sure that grassroots (religious) leaders can compete on equal footing for federal dollars, receive greater private support and face fewer bureaucratic barriers. This is neither the will of the people nor the mandate that has been issued. Within his administration there are the signs of an historical change coming. A paradigm shift in American values so extreme that this nation may soon exist in a form that would be unrecognizable to its forefathers. The Christian Coalition is once again abusing the fragile state of the American conscience to subversively further their non-secular agenda. An agenda, that by all accounts, is unconstitutional. Overturning Roe v. Wade, prayer in school, the Defense of Marriage ActÐ'... these are the whisperings of a party who won the presidency by a margin so narrow that some might suggest they have no mandate whatsoever. "He received 51% of the popular vote, and only 34 more electoral college vote than his challenger. This tiny edge is no mandate, and underwhelming political capital for an incumbent." This nation under God may, in fact, soon worship the King James Version of the Constitution if Republicans actually have the political capital that they suggest.

"The [Defense of Marriage Act], as proposed by [Senator] Allard, would add these two sentences to the Constitution: Ð''Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.'" For only the second time in this nation's history, a special interest group with the ear of the President may actually succeed in limiting the rights and freedoms of American citizens through constitutional amendment.

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