Doug Wrenn
A Different Kind of "Two Americas" Evident In This Presidential Race
By Doug Wrenn
Sep 8, 2008 - 10:49:49 AM

Former Senator and presidential candidate John Edwards campaigned, and with abysmal results, on a theme that there are supposedly "two Americas," inferring to the "haves" and "have nots." It should be no surprise to anyone, including Edwards, as to why his campaign tanked. As Americans, most of us prefer unity, and not divisiveness. Divisiveness is naturally constrained, and unity, all-encompassing. We are, after all, a country divided by 50 states, but united under one flag. Edwards should have instead taken a lesson from President Bush, now wrapping up his second term, as he successfully campaigned on the ideal of being a "uniter, and not a divider." I don't know by what factual research, if any, Edwards ever concluded that the rich and the poor are monolithic voters, and the hypocrisy by which he has lived his own personal life should be even more proof that wealth or poverty aren't necessarily models of how individual people in those groups think, act, or even vote. Edwards did get one part right before his chances of higher office took a nosedive, even before the exposure of his marital infidelities to his cancer-afflicted wife who stuck by his side during the whole time that he didn't he didn't stick by hers. There are two Americas, but as the last remaining contestants of this presidential race are showing us, the division is not over money, but by mindset.

Long before Joe Biden joined the Obama ticket, if for no other reason than for the inevitable entertainment value, Barack and Michelle Obama gave us a bird's eye view of how they viewed America by word and deed. To review, the Obamas benefited from a sweetheart real estate deal with convicted felon, Tony Rezko. The Obamas were heavily involved in the Trinity United Church of (supposedly) Christ, under then pastor Jeremiah Wright, who traveled to Tripoli with racial activist Louis Farrakhan to meet with Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, and gave many a sermon, some now exposed, in which he profanely bashed America and the white race. The Obamas tried to backpedal from Wright when he was exposed, but the Obamas were married in Wright's church, had their children baptized there and heavily donated to it. Obama is also tied to domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, and is accused of having a much closer and long-standing relationship with Ayers than he wishes to concede. He also made several similar moves early on to become a part of the powerful Chicago political machine, and the contempt he and Michelle have for America has continued to flow, calling America "mean," and Michelle saying that this is the first time she ever felt proud of America, and criticizing rural Americans for being "bitter" and "clinging" to their guns, bibles, and being negative toward anyone who is different than them. Obama stopped wearing a flag pin, criticized others who did so, then started wearing it again and stopped again. He even publicly confused Memorial Day with Veterans Day, presumably because neither are very important to him. Michelle Obama, like Cindy McCain, co-hosted the TV daytime talk show, "The View," but unlike Cindy McCain, allegedly did so only after first submitting a list of taboo and prohibited subjects of discussion. Yet Michelle freely told us, the American public, what, and how many things her husband would "make us do" if he was elected. Barack Obama was also a student and teacher of the words and tactics of radical Marxist, Saul Alinsky in his community organizing days. Commenting on the events of the then ongoing Republican Convention, Obama quipped that the Republicans weren't talking about issues that they supposedly should be, even tough the issues he cited aren't even constitutionally federal functions. Obviously, the Constitution isn't very important to him, either. Sadly, later in the Republican convention, some of those same issues were discussed, but even then, with at least a more conservative outlook, emphasizing individual duties and liberties, and not a mandated socialist "utopia."

Then we have McCain/Palin. Sarah Palin, who carries more of a resume than Obama, including of execvutive experience and real decision making, as opposed to Obama's vacuous legislative record of writing no known significant and passed bills and simply and indecisively voting "present" over a hundred times, took on and with great aplomb, mocked the many deficits and warts of her challengers. The addition of Sarah Plain to McCain's ticket has energized the GOP ticket and given a booster shot to the recently withering cause of conservatism like a déjà vu of the Reagan years.

Since then, the left has broken all records in striking rock bottom and even going beyond. It has publicly attacked her 17 year-old pregnant daughter, dragged up a DWI arrest from her husband that was from years ago in his youth. They even accused Palin of having an extramarital affair and accused her daughter of giving birth to Palin's five-month old son, Trig, who has Down Syndrome. They even accused Palin of once fishing without a license. I'm just waiting for the ticket for spitting on the sidewalk and other such similar travesties to be raised.

The left is very conspicuously reacting from sheer terror. No one, right or left, ever saw Sarah Palin coming, or expected the impact she has had, not just with now galvanized Republicans of all stripes, but on this race in general. There isn't much to dislike about Sarah Plain, the independent, strong, confident, affable, successful, feisty, gutsy, yet conservative woman and feminist who has turned the previously attributed and venomous brand of feminism on its head. Palin is a high school basketball star, beauty contestant, successful former business woman, commercial fisher, broadcast journalist, "hockey mom," PTA, parent, city council member, mayor, governor, devout Christian, and loving pro-life, lifetime NRA-member mother of five children, including of one child with a disability and another one who is soon to be deployed to Iraq in gallant and selfless defense of his country. Besides all that, she rides snowmobiles, hunts moose, and eats moose burgers. You name it, and "Sarah," as many Americans are lovingly now calling her, has not only done it, but succeeded at it, including, last but not least, 20 blissful, loving and devoted years of marriage to her high school sweetheart, Todd. In politics, she has defeated an entrenched political machine, not just in her state, but in her own party, and she has taken on and defeated the oil industry, and in so doing, built a new pipeline that was stalled for years, and brought back revenue into Alaska state government that has resulted in $1200 rebates to each citizen of that state. She has also cut waste, and even cutting luxuries to herself, such as a state-funded luxury jet, which she sold on e-Bay, and the termination of an executive chef for herself.

While politically, I have had disagreement with several of John McCain's issues, no one can dispute his service to his country, and at grave cost to himself. Over the course of the convention, more was told of McCain's story by himself and other speakers, but clearly, like with the Palin's his is an American story, and one full of courage, independence, service to and love of country, sacrifice, and character. John McCain may have several houses, but he never had to seek financial aid from a criminal to attain one, and while Barack was attempting to create more Marxists on the south side of Chicago to further his political ambitions, Cindy McCain was extending Christian love and humanitarian aid on her own dime to the needy and oppressed in the third world, including one little orphan whom she and John adopted, and with little apparent care or concern to her cited affluent financial interest in the business of beer distribution.

McCain's speech at the convention, like Palin's, dwarfed the viewership of Obama's speech at the Democrat convention, and without need of phony Greek pillars, which portended possibly more than even originally intended about the pagans who worshipped their "god" before them. The GOP used the convention, especially on the first day, as a means to corral support for the Gustav-stricken Gulf area. McCain's speech, which showed the intended direction of the ticket, and ended with a rousing crescendo, evoked love of, and service to country, and emphasized the greatness of our country, and the people who make it; a far cry from the incessant whining of the misery-commiserating, anti-American, and anti-religion Democrats at their pagan festival. There are those who simultaneously campaign boisterously yet ambiguously about "hope" and "change," and then there are those who just silently implement it without grandiose and self-aggrandizing fanfare.

The two Americas are not divided along lines of parties, but rather, of ideologies. A large contingent of Americans belongs to no organized political party, yet despite their avowed independence, they nevertheless lean either right or left to varying degrees. Few if any of them are exactly dead center on the ideological spectrum.

In every day conversations with such, "liberals" and "conservatives," for lack of better terms, I continually see the same trends. Liberals tend to whine more, and want more given to them, usually by government. They don't accept blame, but rather, point fingers. Religion is for wimps and kooks. Soldiers are baby killers. Cops are Fascists, if not "The Gestapo." America is always wrong and responsible for all the evil and misery in the world, despite how much of it we have fought and alleviated, and often at great cost, in blood, if not just money, and seldom if ever with even a thank you in return. We are oppressors, and are not just satisfied with destroying the world, now we seek to destroy the planet as well. Hedonism and jealousy go hand in hand; let me do whatever I want because it feels good, and if you have too much of whatever, no matter how you got it, I want some of yours, too, because I think that's "fair."

Conservatives won't always give a hand out unless truly appropriate, but rather, usually a hand up. What the left sees as cold harshness, we view as elevating, if not maintaining human dignity, especially for the unborn and the infirm, who the left just assume conveniently dispatch. President Kennedy, a 60's Democrat, who would be viewed as a conservative by today's standards, rightly espoused, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." It was a different country then, at least in some geographical regions. The stories of John McCain and Sarah Palin exemplified JFK's way of thinking, and their speeches, while not quoting JFK's words, said pretty much the same thing. The results of how that message was received is now a matter of public record, and without dispute, no matter how much spin the Democrats try, or how much false mud their soulless surrogates try to sling. There is still very much and truly a "heartland" out there in America, perhaps less so on the west coast, in the northeast, and in the core of some of our big cities, but there is a heartland, frothing over with proud, strong, yet tender-hearted American values that never went away, but was only temporarily lying dormant and in despair, waiting for someone to open the door and give it a regenerating gulp of fresh air. This past week, that door was opened, and "America," the real one, that is, is back, and is once again as vibrant as the red, white, and blue on Old Glory, herself.

That is the America that "can do." That is the America that no matter what obstacle you throw in front of it, "will do." That is the America that when you try to impede it, will defiantly, confidently, and proudly look you straight in the eye and say, "Oh yeah? Watch this!" That's the America that embraces heroes, fights evil, fixes what's broken, solves the unresolved. It creates, invents, shares, and cures. It's impassioned to freedom, yet ruled by law. It welcomes all foreigners, but while only adding to our culture, not diluting it. It is proudly diverse, yet sagely sovereign. It feeds the hungry, clothes the poor and hugs the hurting, not by government, but by love. That's the America that does it, not because the government says so, but because it's the right thing to do. That's the America that runs the government to support, defend and preserve opportunity for its families, and doesn't support the government to run the lives of its families.

Then there is that weak, equivocating, whiney, whimpering, depressed, excuse-making, angry, jealous "America" that doesn't seek to really feed the poor, but to fuel the machine that stands on their backs while promising to feed them, and then doing so, just enough to keep them enslaved to the dole, while disguising such actions under euphemisms of "freedom" and "compassion." That is the "America" that is the very antithesis of such ideals and virtues. That "America" will tell you that matters that are pretty much black and white, and based more on brave decisions from core values and truth, instead of teetering on ambivalence and uncertainty from a foundation on sand and built with lies, immorality and moral relativism, are, in their lexicon, "complex," or "nuanced." Such is not the case. Reliance is not a gift in a free nation of a strong and charitable people. It is a predatory carnivore, camouflaged in satin and lace wrapping while lying in wait for its unsuspecting and vulnerable prey to take the bait. That is the "America" that weakens America, and love has nothing at all to do with it. It is rooted not in morality, but moral relativism, and seeks moral equivalence to good and evil, freedom fighter and tyrant, and then sanctimoniously thumps its chest as "reasonable" and "objective" for applying its band aid solutions, delaying the inevitable and pompously and naively sacrificing itself to its enemies.

In the past two weeks, Americans saw both "Americas" on display, side by side, with a less publicized transfer of military control and stewardship in a province called "Anbar," in a foreign land, and a more publicized visit from a hurricane called "Gustav," here, on our own soil in between. One America didn't want you to know about our success in Anbar, and another America took Gustav by the horns and kicked him in the backside when the other pagan "America" was still clueless and gloating over its Greek temple and fifteen minutes of illicit and undeserved fame and fabricated grandeur.

In less than 60 days, Americans will choose which "America" they want; the one that has always existed since our national inception, and has been the very reason of that inception, or the one to which the fifth column from within, that strident minority of angry and narcissistic naysayers, elitists, powerbrokers, charlatans, cowards, and America-haters of the wrong road, the one not paved with gold, but with lies, misery, and darkness, continually try to swoon others toward. Of those two Americas, one is the real deal, by, of, and for Americans, and the other America is a created mirage that only serves its selfish master and like-minded minions. I think I have at least an inkling of which America will rightfully emerge victorious after Election Day, and may God always continue to bless her.

Oh yes, I almost forgot, goodbye, John. You may go now. After all, you don't want to keep your $400 barber waiting. As you will now need to seek new employment to keep that sprawling mansion going in your version of "America," you should look your best. Meanwhile, my regards to Rielle.

Then again, never mind. Just go, and take your pagan pals with you.

Doug Wrenn