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Because it relates to the failed efforts so far to change environmental policy, as well as to implement true economic reform and healthcare policy reform, it is time to state the obvious:
Barack Obama is a fine gentleman, and has excellent self-control, but is lacking as a leader.
This lack of leadership has had the effect of allowing defeats, with only very slight improvements, in the three major policy areas that his administration has approached. And the lack of leadership has now enabled a reactionary mob to regain a foothold in the United States federal government.
To understand this point about Barack Obama and leadership does not require a great deal of thought and research. Obama has at times been compared with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as both presidents were elected at a time of significant economic difficulty, and were brought in under a promise of Change. But I would like to highlight the difference in approach of these two individuals. While our current president continues to speak of working across the aisle (i.e. with the Republicans), FDR in 1936 and on other occasions, made his approach perfectly clear. Some of his words were:
Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me – and I welcome their hatred.
I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master.
The reader should know that confidence in its government is one of the key determiners of happiness in a nation's citizenry, so proper leadership by government is vital to happiness and societal health. Failure in true leadership also undermines clarity of thought in an entire nation, and may lead to poor democratic decisions in addressing environment, economics, and healthcare, to name a few major areas.
The attached video has some static images, but more importantly has the audio of most of that 1936 FDR speech; the text can be found here. The emotionalism, the generosity, the righteous anger, and the absence of moral relativism are exactly what we need today to effect change, but we are not getting that. Only with the high level of charisma demonstrated in 1936, and used for positive ends, will we as a nation take proper action to curtail climate change and to reverse gradual environmental decline.
I hope all my readers, after listening to the soundtrack on the video or reading the words, will consider the effect of speaking the truth with one's whole being. Speaking truth can change the world.
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Fossil Fuel
