Obama Has Brought Me Hope and Change.... But Not Change I Can Believe In

Obama proclaimed during his campaign that he was bringing hope and change, change that we can believe in. I thought it was a nice catchy phrase. I prayed about our presidential election and exercised my constitutional right to have my say at the ballot box. Yes, Obama brought me lots of hope and between November 4th and January 20th, I embraced hope like I've never embraced it before.

I hoped that the sinking feeling I got when I first learned about this man and when I saw him as a new US Senator from Illinois would not be confirmed. I hoped that the scepticism that I had about his radical ideas about this country would be tempered by his genuine love of this country and a concern for the American people as a whole, not special interest groups. I hoped that he really would not run the country from the far left, a position that he staunchly adhered to while serving both in the Illinois and the US Senate.

I hoped that he would continue to lead this country in such a way that it would remain the great world entity that it has always been, a beacon on the hill. I hoped that he would put American interests above personal ideology and above the interests of corrupt countries. I had hoped and hoped and hoped. But I certainly should have been alerted that he wasn't really offering hope when early on "hope" took a back seat in his campaign to change. And he did promise change.

Change is surely what we got.... a fundamental change of our American way of life. That's exactly what he promised just four days before the end of the campaign. Well, he has brought change which is reshaping our country into something that is almost unrecognizable. He has brought change that is costing us more than the trillions upon trillions of dollars that he's printing and paying to special interest groups and using to pay for programs that aren't well planned or well executed. He has brought change in our governmental structure and its balance of power. He has brought change in the government making it one that is invasive, if not intrusive. He has brought change of our constitutional interpretations to more socialistic interpretations. He has brought change to every nearly of our lives -- except one.

I speak for myself here. He hasn't brought change to my personal liberties. That is to say, he hasn't brought change to my freedom of thought or my personal spirituality or my relationships. To the things that man cannot alter or take away, he hasn't brought change. The change I look forward to now is in 2010. And that, friends, gives me real hope!