Even ten years ago I would not have believed that the United States would have an elected black president in my lifetime. I thought that someone like Colin Powell - a moderate conservative with a great military record and a lot of good exposure - might be able to make a run at it. But I would not have expected a win.
Now, Barack Obama is the winner of the general election, and after the electoral college meets he will be the president-elect.
On January 20, 2009 he will take over the reins of the most powerful nation-state in the history of mankind. What does that mean?
Left-wingers see unicorns and rainbows. I saw some woman on the news telling the reporter that if Obama was elected that she would not have to worry about her mortgage or putting gas in the car.
Right-wingers are wailing and gnashing their teeth over the collapse of the United States. They seem to believe that Obama will immediately outlaw conservative broadcasting and commentary and change the form of government to a Stalinist Communist thing. I even heard a couple of co-workers last month discussing whether Obama was more of a Stalinist or a Maoist.
All of these people are idiots.
Obama will be a solidly leftist president, more like LBJ or JFK than Clinton. But he is not Lenin or Mao or Marx (Karl, not Groucho). His voting record supports that, and there is no good reason to believe that he is going to change all that much. He will support increasing the size of the federal government in terms of social programs, he will push for increased taxes on people who earn the most money. He supports, and will continue to support, some sort of socialist health care system. He will likely increase protectionist trade policies and slow down the rush toward unfettered free trade. He seems to have a Washingtonian view of foreign entanglements and adventurism - we can expect a roll-back in the use of American forces overseas.
He will not be instituting taxation for imputed income. He will not putting the United States under Sharia law. He will not be instituting mandatory abortion. He will not be turning over control of the American military to the United Nations. He will not be paying your mortgage for you. He will not be merging America with Canada and Mexico to form a North American Union.
He is inheriting a terrible financial mess, two wars, and a deeply divided electorate. I think that the biggest challenge he will face is the divisions in American society. The American economy is essentially sound and will settle out if it is left mostly alone. The wars are there and have to be dealt with, but they are not really that much of a political challenge. However, the legacy of the last 16 years of right-wing efforts to divide this country and label the other side as the enemy and as traitors is going to take a huge amount of work even to begin to repair. I sincerely hope Obama is the guy to pull it off.
I think Biden was right - President Obama will be tested - hard - probably within the first 6 months he is in office. How he responds will determine the success of his foreign policy for the rest of his term.
A new day is dawning. Let us all hope and/or pray that there is more to Obama than empty rhetoric and pretty speeches - and that he will be up to the challenge of leading the United States deeper into the 21st century.
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"The American economy is essentially sound and will settle out if it is left mostly alone."
I definitely agree. Sometimes things look ugly when they're shaking out, but messing with them just prolongs the ugly.
"However, the legacy of the last 16 years of right-wing efforts to divide this country and label the other side as the enemy and as traitors is going to take a huge amount of work even to begin to repair."
Not surprisingly, perhaps, I see some left-wing efforts along those lines. Not so much labeling as enemies and traitors, but more as heartless, incompetent, morally inferior, and not the real America. I'd like to think people can look past the cynical sound bites, but then I think about the number of people who confuse Palin with Tina Fey and it makes me wonder.
"I saw some woman on the news telling the reporter that if Obama was elected that she would not have to worry about her mortgage or putting gas in the car."
I do think that Obama will find it next to impossible to meet all of the expectations people have of him. He didn't help much with his rhetoric about looking back and seeing that his election was when the sea levels began to drop and the planet began to heal, or whatever it was. But I saw that woman on YouTube, and my impression was that she was saying she wouldn't have to worry about the gas and the mortgage, as in, the economy will get better and things will ease up and be less stressful for her. For those who think Obama has the right idea about what to do for the economy, that's a reasonable expectation. Since he's the one who grabbed the brass ring, I sincerely hope she's right.
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