One Christmas, my parents placed miniature diecast Red Baron biplanes in our stockings. Mine lasted halfway through Christmas Day, when my sister said, "Hey, Brandon, give me your plane and let's see if it will fly."

Remember, these were diecast, meaning they were likely to fly as well as a Matchbox car. I knew that, and it took my sister a good 10 minutes to pester me into handing over my plane, which she promptly tossed into the air like it was made of paper.

A heartbeat out of my sister's hand, gravity took over and pulled my biplane to the floor, where the plastic struts holding the wings together broke apart and turned the flying machine into a twisted mess that only superglue would fix. My parents had to resolve the squabbling that followed, telling Sara to give me her still pristine plane while she would have to keep the battle-damaged one.

This was how my mum and dad handled things with Sara and me: always trying to keep things fair and equal between us. As a result, to this day, I hold tightly to the conviction that life should be fair for everyone, even though I'm under no illusion that it is.

My parents admitted to me recently that they felt their conflict resolution methods were a mistake, that they tried to make things too fair. I disagreed, telling them that true fairness is something that should be striven for, despite its impossibility. The world should be a level playing field for all, and their tendency to keep things equal between Sara and me (albeit in ultimately insignificant things) is the reason why I'm so strong a believer in liberty and justice for all.

I try to live by that conviction, try to base my opinions around it, political parties be damned. It's why I could no longer support the Bush administration's push for war when I approached my 18th birthday in 2003. It's why I believe the government should take over healthcare. And, it's why I've just about had it with the Obama administration.

Go ahead. Gloat. Drop some cutesy line about hope and change not working out. I expect it, have put off this column for some time because of it, but staying true to my convictions, to say what I really think and feel, requires humility. If our politicians did likewise, being honest with the American people instead of sticking to their guns come hell and high water, maybe we wouldn't be as utterly messed up as a country as we are.

I don't believe I was wrong to vote for Obama. He offered the solutions I felt the nation needed: healthcare for everybody, alternative energy, closing Guantanamo, reversing so many of the creeping abuses of executive power that Bush put in place. I voted for those things, and that vote was not a mistake.

Rather, the fault lies with Obama, for not living up to the trust that so many millions placed in him. He has not fought the battles he promised to fight. He let healthcare reform become watered down. He opened up new coastline for offshore drilling. He ordered Guantanamo Bay's closure, then failed to enforce his one-year timeline.

In short, I marvel at the neo-conservative, birther Tea Partiers who seem to honestly believe the President is leading us down the road to some sort of socialist, communist, fascist nightmare world (or something like that). Because I stand here from my quasi-socialist corner and don't see Obama coming anywhere close. In fact, he's far too worried about working with the other side of the aisle to ever forcefully push policy in this direction.

Or maybe I'm another disillusioned liberal. I watched Bush co-opt Congress's war powers, torture detainees for information and allow Wall Street to get away with highway robbery. By 2008, I desperately wanted to believe in America again, wanted to hope that things could change.

Hope. Change. When did those become so derisive? If they have, then maybe we don't deserve to survive as a nation, because we've lost all sight of ourselves.