This is a personal, unabashed appeal for voters to cross party lines, if need be, and rise to the inspired words in JFK's 1960 Inaugural Address: "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country." Unfortunately, there appears to be no shortage of people concerned about what the country can do for them and a paucity of those who would endeavor to do what is good for the country -- which defines the current worrisome condition of the body politic.

We are approaching the most important election of our lifetimes in which we can either choose the path to nanny-state socialism, promoted by Barack Obama and the Democrat party -- their paradigm being European socialism, now gasping for life -- or a return to a balanced, center-line, smaller, less intrusive government and free market capitalism that the GOP supports -- which, even with all its warts, built the most powerful nation on the planet, our multiplicity of social programs notwithstanding. As the election draws near we find ourselves divided and polarized as never before, primarily because of the Obama re-election campaign's aggressive and unprincipled two-pronged attack designed to secure an Obama second term. One prong has been to systematically degrade Mitt Romney's image with a deluge of lies and distortions impugning his character, motivations, and achievements - no easy thing to do because the man has an impeccable record as an entrepreneur and a private life and associations beyond reproach. The other prong has been a cynical, Machiavellian program of identifying, selecting, and pandering to special interest groups:

Gays by repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, by declaring support of Gay Marriage and by an executive order to not enforce the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), thus thumbing his nose at a national law passed by Congress and signed by Clinton; Hispanic voters by an executive order staying deportation of young illegal Hispanics; feminists by endorsing the HHS edict that Catholic institutions provide free contraception services to women while portraying Republicans who object to the blatant First Amendment infringement as anti-women; the teachers unions, the UAW, IAM, et al; college students regarding student loans; welfare recipients by gutting the work requirement from 1997 federal welfare reform legislation; the anti-gun lobby by supporting the United Nations Small Arms treaty -- which if ratified by the Senate would override and gut 2nd Amendment protections; black voters with the recent Executive Order "White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans"; the environmentalist lobby through a growing number of onerous EPA regulations, such as extreme increases in CAFE standards to 54.5 mpg by 2025, and by halting the Keystone pipeline and markedly slowing drilling for oil and gas on federal lands; the "middle class" by incessantly promising them no tax increase -- though Obamacare costs and taxes automatically negate that promise while hitting on the "rich" to pay their "fair share", as if the top 1% paying 37% of federal taxes is not fair enough.

If the reader leans toward the Democrat ticket he may well be in one of the groups successfully pandered to, which, if not the majority, at least constitutes a very large segment of the electorate. In such an event, please realize this: in this writer's opinion, Obama really cares little to nothing for any of these groups. His intent is to divide and conquer -- divide the nation into minorities -- pander to them, get their vote to win the 2012 election and then without another election to worry about proceed with his own agenda which may include wealth redistribution he rues the courts have never addressed. After a second term there will be no repealing of Obamacare - it will have comfortably metastasized into the economy, or it may have been morphed into Obama's ideal, a single-payer health-care system. Then we may have health care administered with the efficiency of the U.S. Post Office and the compassion of the IRS, but very likely at higher costs, as the new bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of an expanding bureaucracy (Oscar Wilde).

Next, and perhaps most ominously, Obama would have the opportunity to nominate at least one or more new Supreme Court justices. That is potentially nation changing -- because the U.S. Supreme Court will then decidedly swing left -- and our hallowed Constitution may be warped, stretched and distorted into shapes unimaginable. And even if the GOP might still retain control over the House, Obama will govern increasingly through executive order -- with growing impunity -- which may lead us into darker places than just killer drone strikes in faraway lands. Liberals: be careful what you pray for, you may get it.

This election, just this once, think not just of yourself and your personal interest, think of America and think of posterity. There will be other elections to pursue your personal interests -- but this election, rise to John F. Kennedy's inspired sentiment and do what's best for your country. I hope the following may give you deciding pause. Of all the statements and promises Obama has made, these two I believe he means unequivocally, which should set off warning klaxons to frighten you as they do me:

The first: "We are going to fundamentally change America."

The other: "After the election I'll have more flexibility."