Cheryll A. Bellamy graduated from Cleveland State John Marshall Law school. She is an attorney, an ordained minister under Christian International, and a former assistant prosecutor. She is also the founder of Hannah's Heart: A Place for Every Women, which is an international healing ministry. She has traveled extensively ministering the Gospel to thirteen nations including Hungary, Italy, Israel, and Africa. She has written several training manuals and is the author of the book, A Home Without a Father, which has been translated into Hungarian and Italian. The Clashing of Swords: Christianity, Race, Politics - A Time of Change and Reawakening to a Greater Cause has been just recently published this year of 2009.
Both Cheryll and husband, Dr. Robert Bellamy, are founders of DeZine for Success, an entrepreneurship program for high school. A Rainbow appeared after the Massachusetts Election
Cheryll A. Bellamy, Attorney and Pastor
Many Americans are now raising their voices and demonstrating their discontent against government in Washington. The surge of anger and impatience from Independent voters became apparent during the campaign of Scott Brown. It was not about the health care bill. The repeated fears of the voters were based on the notion of big government, distrust of governmental institutions, and the economic woes that are continuing to drain the American dream. The Massachusetts vote on January 19, 2010, was not just a repudiation of Obama's political agenda but all of Congress. It was said by the media: The sixty vote majority was defeated by Scott Brown, a Republican who is now “number forty-one.” This defeat caused the dreaded return of the filibustering process - the Republicans' punitive bully pulpit. It was a much needed wake up call for the Democratic Party and a reality check for Barack Obama.
What type of reaction should there be in the face of defeat? The Democratic leadership must stand as a united front and recapture the confidence of the American people. Please, do not cave into the wishes of the Republicans that now gleefully report on the media radar that the health care bill is dead. It is one thing to scale back the health care legislation. It is another to do nothing at all. Thirty million uninsured Americans are watching this President and the Democratic Party to see if they will fight for universal health care and not be afraid to stand up to the insurance industry which has spent billions of dollars to defeat health care reform for this nation. Obama, like David, shall defeat the giant, the Goliath of special interest groups, the insurance companies.
There is a rainbow in the mist of this political storm. The Massachusetts political upset, to use President Obama's own words, became “a teachable moment.” Now it is time for Obama to recalibrate and step back to see what went wrong and go forward with full gusto to the agenda of creating jobs. He must not forsake the importance of communicating what and how he plans to create jobs for the people. President Barack Obama must be that leader, who, like a basketball player, scores points with the ball of Jobs in the court of mainstream America for this year of 2010 and beyond.
Creating tax incentives and jobs programs means spending monies to effectively generate more jobs. It is a very simple economic formula. Ask any economist. The irony of more jobs requiring spending strikes a contradiction with lower taxes and less spending. One hears angry cries of more jobs and in the same sentence too much government spending. If this formula is not explained to ordinary Americans, then the Republican Party will relentlessly pursue the American public with false information. One doesn’t have to hire Sherlock Holmes to have him investigate the Republicans’ attributive biases and political motives on behalf of America.
The ultimate goal of the Republican Party is to retrieve their political power and status quo. We have already seen this party take great measures to achieve their underhanded agendas for the purpose of discrediting President Barack Obama at every turn over his policies.
President Barack Obama must restore practical ways on how to turn the tide of frustration and once again recapture voters' confidence. It is not the time for blame or to give the American people, “No, we can't.” The Republicans accused Obama and his administration of operating with arrogance as one reason for their Massachusetts defeat. How can the Independent voters believe in change under the Republican watch when every American knows that their deliberate strategy was to maintain partisanship so the failure of Barack Obama would be a political scoring point for them? It should be no surprise that after a year of the Republicans obstructing every move this President made Independent voters continue to be frustrated and distrustful of their political leaders.
It is better to be on a side of a President doing too much than on the side of the Republicans who have done “nada” for the American people. What needs to be said by the voters to the Republican Party is never complain about anything you won't attempt to solve. Voters have every right to hold their political leaders accountable, including the President.
The Massachusetts voters spoke and gave the seat held by the late Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy for forty years to the Republican candidate, Scott Brown. Brown’s emulation of the charismatic persona of Kennedy and his political savvy enabled him to tap into the fears and anger of Independent voters. He became the people's choice by connecting himself to the majority of hardworking, white middle class voters. Brown promised his voters that he will change Washington, kill the health care bill, and return fiscal responsibility to his state by tax cuts.
Blame and fear-mongering were and still are the continued tactics of the Republican Party. The Independent voters forgot one thing: Rome was not built in a day. No man, whether he be a Republican or Democratic President, can undo the previous tsunami of our economic woes and problems of eight years in one year. The Independent voters, like so many Americans, want jobs, security, and health care. One thing has to stop - the continual anger and fear-driven politics from the far right. In the aftermath of the Massachusetts’ election, the voters sent a message without ambiguity; they are tired of the political machine of special interest groups and big government.
However, it remains disingenuous for Independent voters to approach politics like McDonald's fast food with a, “I want it now attitude.” How unrealistic were the voters in this past election? No one is disagreeing with their frustrations and the many issues of what this nation inherited due to irresponsible behavior of financial institutions. Independent thinkers in America's political stream do not always align their votes with common sense.
The Independent voters of Massachusetts cast their votes and blew the trumpet of victory for all to hear on January 19, 2010 not knowing the very next day, January 20th, the empowerment of voters would be nullified by the pivotal swing vote of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. The Supreme Court case sealed the deal that allowed corporations to make unlimited contributions toward the election process. Obama made this comment about the decision as reported by the New York Times: “A major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power everyday in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.” This decision by the Supreme Court deepened the fears of those who distrust the government. The voters of America again got steamrolled under the suppression and control of corporate America.
Many Republicans known for aligning themselves with Wall Street and the corporate world expressed exhilaration at the court's decision. They justified their support by saying that corporations have the same First Amendment Rights as do individual citizens. Corporations do not have voting rights and that becomes a hard pressed legal prescription to buy.
The love of money is the root of all evil. Americans have already been victimized by the greed of corporations through the loss of their jobs. The conservative court by a 5 to 4 decision gave corporate America legal rights to own the political process and every political candidate. Of course, that is not to mitigate the fact the corporate lobbyist's hands were already tainted by buying out some political candidates. Your political leaders will continue to be bought by special interest groups which feed the interest of corporations. Will the Massachusetts voters trust Scott Brown to deliver on his campaign promise? Or will Brown agree with other Republican/Democratic politicians that he can be bought and sold by corporate monies? Don't hold your breath too long. Secretary of State, Linda McCulloch, who runs elections in the state of Montana, called the Supreme Court's decision a "cattle call for corruption." She also noted that the dissenting minority decision from the Supreme Court pointed out the possibility that “multinational corporations run by foreigners could now sway elections in this country.” Does that mean China?
The potential catastrophic future outcomes of this law will be a political page covered by a dark cloud in American history for all to read. Psalm 46:1 says that God is a present help in times of trouble. We are in those troubling times.