Though President Barack Obama has said that he was not influenced by the sermons, preached messages and teachings he received from the Reverend Jeremiah Wright in the South Side of Chicago in the twenty-some years he sat in the pews of Wright’s Trinity Church, it appears as though message has finally sunk in.
On Friday, President Barack Obama told his supporters at a campaign rally – inside a public high school, no less – to vote for revenge! That definitely sounds like something the Rev. Jeremiah Wright would say, comparable to the infamous “Godd—- America” quote and other phrases that he delivered to his masses when Barack Obama was in the audience instead of standing before the masses delivering his own type of hate.
Never have Americans heard a president tell his constituents, just four days before a national presidential election, tell Americans: “Voting is the best revenge!”
It’s true. It happened at the Springfield High School in Springfield, Ohio. The notion that the president of the United States would even think – let alone verbalize – that the nation should go to the polls and vote to get revenge is incredibly outlandish.
On Tuesday, Americans may well very well go to the polls to vote because they believe it is their civic duty. They may be going to vote for the candidate that they believe can best address the needs of the nation for the next four years. But, voting for revenge is something Americans most likely hadn’t considered – not until the president provoked the though, anyway.
People may vote for GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney because they want to change the direction of this country, because they don’t like the current status of the economy for the nation or for their personal lives, because of the 7.9% unemployment rate throughout the nation, because they don’t believe the Affordable Care Act is the right move for the nations, and because of many other reasons. People voting for Romney are voting for change, hoping for a better America – not out of revenge.
President Barack Obama cannot expect to get people to get to the polls to vote for him based on his record of the past four years. Maybe that’s why he’s trying to rally his vote support by suggesting his followers get out and vote for “revenge!”
Voting is not for revenge. Voting is for making an informed, intelligent decision based on the realities of how the nation currently stands, and then getting to the polls to have the voice that counts based on that informed, intelligent decision. Again, voting is not a vehicle for revenge.
About Scott Paulson
Scott Paulson writes political commentary for Examiner.com and teaches English at a community college in the Chicago area. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.
