 "Photo: Prakash Ramya")
On May 29, when word finally surfaced about the sketchy stepping down of Rick Wagoner, General Motors CEO for the past 8 years, saying that the government had asked him to essentially - given it was governmentally issued - abandon post, heads around this democratic country of ours, well, traditionally, just didn't quite notice the implication. Naturally.
I'm not the first to say it and I certainly won't be last, but facts are facts and here's one to chew on: Americans are bandwagon fanatics. It all started from the beginning with the whole notion of democracy. Everyone was on board, even amidst the almost assured death penalty punishment that their European overseer would enforce were they to be caught. But that thought was put on the back burner because as Americans, we crave freedom, we crave the exploration of the unknown and we crave attention. So, thus, we join bandwagons, not because of its near anonymity within a powerful force, but because of the power those forces have when in compliance. All for one and one for all, as they say.
Of course, all bandwagons have their drawbacks. For example, who really won independence when the treaty of Paris was signed? Not I, for one.
Yet, again and again Americans fall into this luring black hole of a trap, if you will, and we lose all sense, all guidance, all logical thought. It happened in World War II with the decision to not join the war. It happened in the '60s with the governmental testing of drugs. It happened recently with the ignorance of facts and the constant emphasis of being emotionally satisfied through reparations of 9/11. In each of these cases, the bandwagon we created backfired: Pearl Harbor, Charles Manson, George Bush and a war we all hate.
But it hasn't been until now that a bandwagon of manifest destiny proportions has taken over the states, one citizen at a time: Obama-ism.
It started with his swanky speech, his perfect smile, his novelty. Our televisions radiated raves of near Nazi-German-sized obsession. We watched, we listened, we fell in love and then we voted. My friends, we all jumped on to the bandwagon.
Alas, it's time to jump off.
The line separating democratic and totalitarian is thin at best, near non-existent at worst. If we continue to go down the rallying-around-Obama road that bestows the notion of, "He can do us no wrong," we will end up in Iraq trying to boost personal, not national, economic benefit through oil and calling it "war."
There is this cringing feeling in my gut telling me that we are having the wool pulled over our eyes, much like what happened in 2001. Granted, the economic times are different, and they are tough, believe you me, but with a powerful position comes powerful authority. And with authority on that scale, we are about one sly move away from George Orwell's "Animal Farm."
Sure, Obama's hand in General Motors may help the company, but it's been a long road for America to keep private and public separate. Presidents from all backgrounds, more accurately the white male background save one, have for centuries tried to combine the two either through religion, oppression or economic strife. Yet, Americans have held fast to their very original bandwagon and have stood their ground and have let their voices be heard.
We will not lose our democracy. We will not lay down to the easy solutions and compromise our national identity, especially the one that makes us a nation to be proud of.
Democracy may be going out of style in the 21st century. If America doesn't bring it back full force, who will? Governmental gain of our private sector will ruin what our ancestors have built. Perhaps a General Motors acquisition won't be the end of the world, or the world as we know it, but it's better to stop things where they start, and stick up for the bandwagons we believe in. Democracy is one bandwagon I hope no American ever plans to forgo.
Tracey Wallace is a senior English major.
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