In a recent discussion with a friend, he was shocked that I did not support the President of the United States regarding his plan to enact socialised health care in this country. The issue at hand was not the pros and cons of the plan – these issues are a discussion in and of themselves. Rather, the point under discussion was my refusal to support the President on this health care issue.

“You just want to see him fail”, said my friend.

His assessment was in fact true. I was not surprised that my friend did not wish to discuss the health care legislation itself. This friend commonly avoids the issue at hand and would rather discuss me and my alleged faults instead. What did surprise me though was HIS surprise at my lack of support for the President. This discussion could have taken a turn toward citing examples of times when he did not support a former President, but I wished to stay on my main point of being surprised.

Why is it shocking that someone may not support a particular agenda of the President? It is not as if I do not support the President and his office in general, but I do not support certain actions in particular that he wishes to take. It is quite accurate to say that I wish to see him fail in his goals of bringing socialism to this country. I wish to see any politician fail in their efforts to do things that I disagree with. I wish to see politicians get voted out of office if they do things which I am against. This is the democratic process in its very essence.

While I am happy to discuss my reasoning and analysis of current topics such as health care reform, I am also interested in hearing well thought out counter arguments to my position. This is how we learn and how we grow. What I do wish to stop though is the suprise, shock and outrage that I may not support the President of the United States. If he does things with which I agree, then he will have my full support. I would not expect it to be any other way.