As a proud grandmother, I have been thinking about the impact of this election on America's children. Normally, such a thought might be taken for granted; or else it would appear to be a "no brainer;" but not this year. For starters, just consider a few issues that Obama wants to talk about: global warming, health care, and education (including a program, attacked by his opponents to help protect young children from sexual predators). The McCain ticket doesn't focus on any of these things.
From the Republicans, we hear a great deal about Family Values, and it is difficult to imagine that anyone opposes this concept. However, if we examine the conduct of this year's nominees in the context of values that most Americans would say they hold, we are presented with a stark contrast.
We teach our children that Honesty is the Best Policy and liars are not to be trusted; yet even the most charitable journalists finally are calling out McCain-Palin on the numerous lies and deliberately distorted attacks they have employed in this campaign. Against the backdrop of Bush-Cheney's eight years - in which lying has been elevated to a science - what message will children internalize if, once more, the liars win? Do we really want our children to come away from this election with the conclusion that truthfulness and decency are for losers?
Consider the concepts of teamwork and fair play. A win-at-all-costs mentality has produced athletes who abuse drugs - and lose their medals. Karl Rove's playbook - which John McCain now has embraced, even though he was its victim in 2000 - may be brilliant; but it also is criminal. Should a Rove-driven victory be the model for our children to emulate? I think not.
So what are we missing here? How has the clever use of Orwellian language and lies so distorted the political debate that many of our well-meaning citizens - caring mothers, fathers and grandparents; aunts, uncles and cousins - actually believe that a McCain-Palin ticket is good for America's future? John McCain wants to bomb Iran and finish the job in Iraq - no matter how many of our young men and women are sacrificed in this war that never should have been started, and no matter how many Iraqi children have been its victim. Sarah Palin talks about a war with Russia. War should be a last resort, not a political football that, if initiated intentionally or by accident, could deprive more parents of their children and many children of their parents - not to mention implications for the entire planet.
It's time to wake up and smell the flowers, while the environment to sustain life itself still is possible. It's time to ensure that our leadership going forward will focus on expanding SCHIP and making health care affordable for all families who want and need it. It's time to provide sufficient incentives for those who want a college education to be able to afford it - even if some member of the family is ill or has lost a job. And it is time to practice what we preach: Family values should not be confused with spin and brass knuckles politics.
While not naïve enough to think that any campaign is likely to remain polite and civilized, I nevertheless retain enough idealism to believe that many dedicated parents ought to be more than a little bit worried about the possibility that John McCain may be elected President based on a nasty, dishonest and shameful campaign strategy. John McCain cannot still claim to be a maverick; in this campaign, that John McCain has compromised a once admirable reputation for service to this country - his most respected trademark. The confused old man we see on the campaign trail seems to have lost his way; he no longer can promise, with a straight face, to be the President some once might have wished.
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