Summary of Election 2008

To My Liberal and/or Socialist Friends

Congratulations. Barack Obama ran a brilliant campaign, he is an impressive orator, and highly intelligent as well as very hard-working. In many ways, he earned the Presidency.

Now you can move on to another blog, as the rest of this particular post is intended for someone else.

To My Conservative and Moderate Friends

First, the bad news:

The Democrats have control of Congress. But it should be noted that this is despite Congress' abysmally low ratings. Why is this? Obviously the American electorate wanted to send a powerful message to those who reign: "It's the economy, stupid." And apparently our current crop of voters don't understand that they aren't changing the face of Congress at all. What they believe to be 'change' is more of the same.

Control of Congress and the Presidency means that the Democrats have the ability to alter the face of America even more, with little-to-no checks and balances. We know that 'change' is not always a good thing and there will be many instances of change in the wrong direction as well as the right one.

We now have a racist for a President.* It's as if we suddenly woke up and found David Duke at the helm. In addition, we have a great deal of documentation to show he's unethical, as well. It doesn't bode well for our relationship with Israel. And it remains to be seen what it may do to us internally.

So what is positive in all of this?

The Economy is Bound to Get Better in the Short Run

That doesn't mean that Obama would have been any better at leading the nation than McCain would have been. But we will be riding on the wave of enthusiasm that comes with any change of administration. The fact that Obama is so different than Bush is bound to create a powerful sense of change. At first.

We Will Get Out of This War

The majority of us believe that the war's dragged on too long, with too little gain and too much expense in dollars and (more importantly) lives. Yes, we're doing better over there, but it came too late in the game.

We are not the World's Policemen, and we are not paid to be. It is time to get out.

We Will Have National Health Care

Many conservatives are scared of national health care. Although I understand the reasons, I don't agree with them. I do believe that national health care is needed, and I do not believe that the new administration will be able to create a program that will be an absolute failure.

Neocons (and even conservatives) have been trumpeting the terrors of socialized medicine for a long time, so it's natural to be afraid. But Big Business has run the show for too long, and many of us have suffered at its hands. Although this will negatively affect insurance and perhaps pharmaceutical companies, it is in the best interest of the people.

I lived in Sweden for a time, where they have national health care. I was actually hospitalized there (for free) and was very impressed with their kindness and competency. I do believe it is possible to make it work. It is not perfect, but no system is. And, it's been embraced by so many other civilized nations. If it didn't work, it wouldn't be in place. I grant you that it may not always work well, but I do believe it's better than our current system.

The Supreme Court

At this time we should remember that our Founding Fathers did build in a Supreme Court to supposedly serve as a speedbump to them taking great strides in a socialist direction. It is not supposed to be subject to voters' whims (although it is, indirectly, as all justices are appointed by the President). For now, it is likely that it will not undergo much change, and with any luck, that may make a slight difference.

A More Educated Electorate in Four Years

Over the next four years, we will all be at the mercy of a very left-leaning Democrat party. For many of us who remember the Carter years (I was a young child then) it's a scary thought. But those who don't know history are bound to repeat it and we will see new lessons learned over the next four years. This may shape the nation into a more educated electorate and may open the doors to a better system in four years.

The News Media

Although the news media has been slavishly devoted to Obama, we can hardly blame them after years of George Bush bullying them into servitude. To have a truly free press, they must be unfettered. And we need a free press to tell us the various sides of the issues out there. I hope and believe that Obama will allow the press to have more access to him and his administration, whether he agrees with their agendas or not.

This isn't to say that we shouldn't be alarmed about the looming return of "The Fairness Doctrine", which is a dichotomous term at best. We can get into that discussion at a later time.

Conservatives Get to Re-Group and Re-Vamp Their Parties

The Republican Party has grown far away from its constituents. So many have become disenfranchised that they have either gone Independant, gone to another more conservative party, and/or crossed over the line to vote for Obama out of spite.

Many conservatives were urged to vote for Barack Obama to send a wake-up call to the Republican Party. Although I didn't agree with this extremist view, I would have done it if Hillary would have been at the helm, since she was less left-leaning than Obama.

Why is the Republican Party failing? A new breed arose in the Republican party called neocons and these neocons became what the Democratic party was in the 70s - corrupt, influenced by the almighty dollar, in thrall to Big Business, with an increasing deafness to the voices of the people.

If the Republican Party has learned their lesson, they can win the White House back in four years. But if it remains as it is or grows even more liberal, it will never have any influence in America again.

* Obama is anti-Semite: His Muslim friends report this unanimously and we have additional independent reports that back this up, as well. He sat in Jeremiah Wright's church for over twenty years, as Wright preached racial hatred against white people. There is no room for racism in national politics, no matter what color you are. We can only hope that he will be able to rise above these base feelings.