January, Inauguration Month

Barack Obama Michelle ObamaJanuary has long been the best month of the year for Florida.  For one thing, January gives Floridians a short reprieve from the heat and humidity, adding extra beauty to our landscape of palm trees and turquoise water with cooler days.

And our American traditions on the last night of the year are palpable as we celebrate as one, reminding me of these beautiful lyrics:

Oh beautiful, for spacious skies,
for amber waves of grain,
for purple mountain majesties,
Above the fruited plain…

Whether it be gathered around a small kitchen table in Alaska, a public blast in Time Square, a block party in Miami, or ringing in the new Year at a family gathering in California with the ocean in your back yard–for Americans, January 1st brings new opportunities to have a life, well lived.  January symbolizes a new beginning on our human calendars, a chance to start over and begin again.  In January I personally feel a palpable change.

Every four years, January 21st brings a day of cultural pride as history writes itself another page, when our President takes the oath of his office.   This year as we prepare to watch President Obama being sworn in for his second term, I don’t feel like waving a flag, or even watching, as he holds up his right hand, again, and swears to uphold the worth of our Constitution, again.

The following are the words President Obama will repeat for the second time:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Normally, whether a conservative from my party wins the Presidential bid or a liberal democrat is the winner who takes all, I rally my patriotism with an open outlook and optimism.  In other words, I give the guy a chance.  But, historically when a President takes oath, it is because he is either new to the position; he is an incumbent reelected because he did a fantastic job, or he is taking oath because of the demise of the President or a temporary change of power because of illness or surgery.

For me, none of the aforementioned applies concerning President Obama’s Whitehouse.

Amongst the cherry blossom-lined streets and fan fair of marching bands and American pride coming to Washington DC this January 21, 2013 there are sobering and solemn facts that keep my political enthusiasm at bay.

First, it appears fraud had much to do with the vote tally at far too many precincts, in Pennsylvania and Ohio.   According to the Daily Caller, “In 59 voting districts in Philadelphia and nine districts in Cleveland, not a single person voted for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Election Day.”

Storefronts are still closing all across my town and any town I have visited in the last year.  Clients at the small CPA firm I work for are still complaining about high taxes and an unusually elevated amount of tax audits.  To renew a driver’s license in Miami-Dade county it will cost you almost fifty dollars.  Feeding my family used to cost between $800-$1000 a month; now it costs at least $1,300 a month.  These are only a few of the accelerated costs of living, and there is no relief in sight.

I am not a survey analyst, but I am a political scientist with common sense, and President Obama has not done a good job.

Never let us forget these profound words spoken by our fortieth President, Ronald Reagan , may he rest in peace:

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream It must be fought for protected and handed on for them to do the same or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

So regardless of who takes oath in the next couple weeks, not only does January 1 ring in the freedom of a new year, with choice and opportunity, but we, as lucky Americans, get to wake up to these possibilities every day.

For now.

 

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