President Obama re-elected and vindicated

Election 2012 is finally over. The American people have spoken, and I am quite confident that the correct choices for this country have been made.
    I am proud to be among those who cast our ballots for a good president who has survived vicious and mean-spirited assaults against him, a man whose religion and nationality has been subjected to the most scurrilous attacks, often by people who have acted only out of hatred and ignorance.
    Yet, decency has prevailed, and this good family man – who is a CHRISTIAN, by the way – has been rewarded with another four years.
    Republicans had better get the message: Your contemptuous refusal to work with this president has brought you only ridicule and defeat. “Working” with Obama doesn’t mean agreeing with him; but it does mean that you put aside your ideological obsessions long enough to get something done for the American people.
    Mitt Romney, like Obama, is a good and decent man with true family values that we should admire and respect. I suspect he might have had a better chance to win had he taken his right-wing party by the collar and said, “I’m a moderate; your best chance to win so you’d better get behind me and realize that you have marched too far to the right.”
    But he didn’t do that. Instead, he relentlessly pandered to the worst elements of his party. He had never been “severely conservative” in his life until 2012.
    I take no pleasure in Romney’s personal defeat. But there are many people who lost on election night who got exactly what they deserved.
    Rush Limbaugh certainly lost, and no one deserves it more. He has gotten filthy rich by dividing this country with his hatred and his bitterness. Ditch diggers command more respect.
    Donald Trump and his “birther” nonsense lost, too, and I hope we can finally take him off the list of people to whom we should listen.
    Franklin Graham and his “Obama is a Muslim” stuff was also defeated, and that’s good. I feel sorry for the aging and sickly Billy Graham; sometimes, the apple does indeed fall a great distance from the tree.
    To “Christian conservatives,” well, what can I say? Like the president, my faith is as important to me as anyone’s. But to a lot of you, neither one of us will ever get credit for being “a real Christian” simply because we’re Democrats.
    Read Scripture; don’t just be led around like a sheep by your pastor. Read what Jesus actually said and did. You’ll find that he was not a hedge fund manager who lived in a mansion; he had no money and constantly warned about the perils of wealth.
    He told us to love one another and to help the poor at every opportunity. He wasn’t political, and he never mentioned abortion or homosexuality. Some people need to humble themselves, think for themselves, and discover what true Christianity really means. There’s nothing “conservative” about it.
    Finally, I’d like to congratulate my fellow Lynchburg College alum, Jason Johnson, Class of 2005, for winning the school board seat in district two.
    I didn’t want to mention him before the election, fearing that some voters might reject him for being friends with this “Godless liberal.”
    On many occasions at LC, I would bound up the steps of Hopwood Hall, convinced I’d be the first person in class, only to find Jason sitting there already.
    He excelled at Lynchburg College and later did the same thing at Virginia Tech. He is an extremely intelligent and capable young man. Knowing him, I can assure you: He will be a great credit to the Bedford County School Board.

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Rick Howell, a Bedford native, can be reached by e-mail at NewCenHowell@aol.com.