OK, with Ohio gone I’m ready to concede the presidency to Senator Barack Obama. I offer well earned congratulations to those of you who worked so hard to get your candidate elected. Now, it is my hope that reason and sense will prevail among his advisers and him, and even with the specter of a Democratic majority in both houses of congress, Obama will avoid the temptation to oppress the country with a loony left liberal agenda. This goes against common wisdom, since as a senator, he really never reached across the aisle. However, as President, he better know that a plethora of liberal legislation would put a stranglehold on growth.
The prospect of a shit-pile of liberal legislation passing is daunting. How about a $10 minimum wage? Let’s have abortions for all! Tax, spend, and redistribute! Shut down conservative talk radio. Allow unions to strongarm their way into every business. Oh, and keep the teachers’ unions strong so the dastardly erosion of our public education system can continue.Tax corporations so heavily that they run for cover overseas. Penalize success. Reward indolence. Further the erosion of individual responsibility. Appoint activist judges with “empathy” instead of those who will try cases fairly and let them legislate from the bench. Pull out of Iraq before our goals are attained. Give everybody including illegal aliens health care so we have to further ration the already scarce services. The litany of potential liberal legislation goes on and on. Congressional liberals will want to expand their base by buying votes with all this legislation and more at the expense of the good of the country as a whole.
Will good sense prevail or will the spending floodgates be opened? At this point I don’t know if there’ll be a super-majority in the senate, but thank God it looks increasingly like there won’t be. Regardless, Obama’s role must absolutely be that of a moderating influence on an out of control Congress led by radical lefties Reid and Pelosi. Lord help us if they can ramrod their legislation unabated! One big problem I had with Bush is that he failed to wield the veto pen to stop the proliferation of profligate spending bills that crossed his desk. Obama needs to do better. He cannot allow Congress to spend our way to bankruptcy.
Problem is, we don’t know enough about Obama to predict whether he’ll be a moderator, a uniter, or a divider. We can only hope. He pretty much has a mandate here to do as he wants. Will he govern the country for all of us or just those who think he’s the Chosen One? No one knows what “Change” means now, but in a few months, we’ll begin to find out.
I am hopeful that we can avert a descent to the socialistic morass. I think a lot of far lefties will be disappointed. Meanwhile, the Republican Party must take this loss seriously—as it apparently didn’t in 2006—and reorient itself to being the party of small government and strong values. A makeover is a dire need, right here, right now.
Earlier, I wrote some comments to a reader that bear repeating here. So, here they are.
We’ve always survived cyclical socialism in the past; however, each time we leave a socialist phase, some vestigial programs remain behind. Through several generations’ increasing expectations, we as a society have come to rely more and more on handouts, as perceptions evolve from necessary evil to everyman’s entitlement. Everybody increasingly has the hand out and expects something for nothing. When that becomes the central theme of a society, it will ultimately collapse under the weight of decreased productivity, stagnant economy, and the already overfed public clamoring for mo’ money. The fragmentation inherent in this societal entropy sows the seeds for demagoguery and dictatorship.
I’ll do my part to restore my party’s greatness after the damage done by Rove, Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfield. We need to get back to being the mainstream party of the people, which is our rightful, historical position. If we can heal this society and make it strong again after Obama’s four years (assuming there are no major surprises tonight), we can get rid of the splinter groups that have screwed the party by their association with it.
If we lose big time, it should be a lesson. Of course, Category One voters are idiots and tend to vote against something more than for it. By the time four years of realization that socialism is oppressive has sunk in, I hope the lemmings turn away from the cliff and come back to Papa.
So, let us look forward to January 20, 2009 as a testimonial to the greatness of this country as exemplified by the peaceful transfer of power from one party to another and let us hope that those to whom the spoils of victory go remember what made this country great and how we got here. It didn’t happen by rampant pandering to a bunch of Category Ones. No, let’s unite this country with good, solid, moderate leadership that does more than just paying lip service to reaching across the aisle. Do you think Obama & Co. are up to it?
I hope the Obama Administration does not turn out to be another Jimmy Carter earn-while-you-learn program. History has been made tonight. Let that remain untarnished. President Obama will be my president as well as yours.
Let’s all breathe a sigh of relief that the campaign ads are over and we can get back to watching less annoying commercials for Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra and real news about Casey Anthony’s illicit attorney hugs. I wish you all brief and painless post-election hangovers.
The Mouse will return from time to time with comments from his soon-to-be opposition sofa, unless the congress shuts him down with the Fairness Doctrine.
