To lead people, walk beside them ...
As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence.
The next best, the people honor and praise.
The next, the people fear;
and the next, the people hate ...
When the best leader's work is done the people say,
"We did it ourselves!"
- Lao-Tzu

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I've just about had it with all the talk surrounding this past election. Look, I'm sorry that people were disenfranchised in Ohio but concentrating on and putting so many resources into the problems there is like the Republican perpetuated myth of people cheating the welfare system. Do people steal from the welfare system? You bet they do, but directors of corporations have stolen a hell of lot of money from people and no one is calling for the dissolution of the corporation. The welfare system effects you financially less than 1 flush of your toilet bowl per year and that's about the same effect that the "irregularities" in Ohio have had on the overall election.

The election is over. The person you voted for lost. Republicans did cheat, that's what they do and they do it well. They are the party of the belief that the means justify the ends. That's just another fact of life that your gonna have to get over. Suit up and get back on your pony because now we're going to battle and it's not just in Ohio. You can either mount up and move on or become what the conservatives have been calling you: "vacillating" or in the language of the common man "pussies".

The first step in the process of "mounting up" for battle is too be honest with yourself. Look inside, find the shortcomings and work towards remediating them. I have and what I've found I don't like. Honestly, John Kerry was not my first choice for a Presidential candidate. For me, he was a compromise that I'm never going to make again. I don't doubt for one second that John Kerry is a good man but he received my vote because I thought him to be the most elect-able alternative to Bush. That will not happen again.

Forget all that you think you know about this past election. It's all B.S.. Come on, do you really think that morals aren't a factor in elections? Who says to them self "you know this candidate of ours is just so morally deficient but I don't care, I'm going to vote for him anyway because he's going to get the much needed tax code reform passed"? Morals are always a factor in elections and yes they are tied in most people's minds to their religious beliefs. Big surprise there, huh? People don't vote for leaders strictly for their moral positions or their ideas, they vote for the person. Do you want to know what George W. Bush offers people that John Kerry doesn't? CERTAINTY. Yes, you heard right.

For most of you reading this you are going to have a hard time believing what follows. George W. Bush has vision, he has morals, he's decisive and strong and while you may not agree with everything he has to say, you should know that when he's faced with a problem and because he embodies these characteristics, he won't back down and he's going to do the right thing. No, The Indy Voice has not lost all his marbles. This is what people believe. These characteristics are the reason why George W. Bush won the election and they are shared by all leaders.

Look it doesn't matter what YOU think the reality of the personal characteristic qualities of Bush are. The reality for 61,000,000 people is that they PERCEIVE it to be reality. The real story of this election, that has yet to be told, is that it was decided SOLELY based upon the perceived qualities of leadership. Plain and simply, the majority judged Bush as being a more capable leader. That doesn't mean he is a capable leader, strong, decisive or moral. It just means that people perceive him that way.

Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Hussein, Qaddafi, Khan, Il, and Mao Zedong are all extremists that had the backing of the people. They were not moral people. They gained their power to rule from the consent of those that they were ruling. Any of these people could have been stopped at any stage on their rise to power by the opposition of the people. People followed them because they lead. You cannot run an opposition party and expect it to be successful by just opposing, line by line or issue for issue, what the other party's guy is pushing. You need to give people something to believe in. They don't have to agree with everything your saying and in the case of those above, the message doesn't even have to be one of sanity, but people need to believe that you have some kind of grand vision or direction.

The Democratic Party lost not because it went too far left but because it failed to go far enough. There is no certainty in the middle. Leaders aren't borne of compromise. George W. Bush doesn't try to hide the fact that he is a conservative Republican. Kerry tried to run from the label of "liberal". Bush wasn't elected because he has compromised or moved to the middle. In fact people voted for him because he wouldn't compromise.

People that voted for Bush believed he has vision. 61,000,000 people didn't vote for John Kerry because they perceived, accurately or not, that he had no direction. It wasn't November 2nd when John Kerry lost the election. It was when Kerry allowed commercials to paint him as a flip-flopper that the fight was lost. The made up lies of the Swift Boat Veterans had nothing to do with it. A well-run campaign headed by a resolute leader would have looked at that incident as an opportunity to show the ferocity and strength of a decorated combat veteran. The Kerry campaign hoped it would just go away. Leaders stand up for what they believe in, for what is right, and they are willing to indefinitely fight for what moves them. This is how you get people to walk along side you. Kerry didn't embody the characteristics of a leader and the only reason why he came as close as he did to the Presidency was because he was opposing the worst President in the history of the United States. But then again, that's just my perception.