The End.

With Ohio and Virginia now being called for Barack Obama by a few different news outlets, the hope of a McCain victory is eliminated. Obviously, I am very disappointed, though not surprised, at the outcome. I’m trying to decide whether or not I’m proud of my country for passing the historic milestone of electing as president a black male. The easy answer is yes, for the vote appears to make it obvious that the United States is not, at it’s core, a racist nation. However, I haven’t believed that is has been a racist nation, at least not for some time. (That’s not to say racism does not still exist here — I’m not naive.) So, the election of Barack Obama was not necessary to prove anything to me, and thus it, in itself, does not make me proud. But perhaps I’m focusing too much on semantics. It is good that the United States has overcome an ugly part of its history, and has demonstrated to millions of Americans, who probably never believed it before, that they truly can play any part in the American story.

So, that’s the one bit of positive I can find in the results. Now for the negative….

I honestly am concerned for the future of my country. I am very much a believer in our system of government, and I do believe that, in the future, the pendulum will swing back — it always does. But I fear that as a society we’ve truly lost focus on the ideals that have allowed this country to be as successful as it has been. And I believe that the domination of the federal government by the Democratic Party over the next 2-4 years (at least), will push us even further away from those ideals. The founders knew that to be great, a people had to be as free as they possibly could be, and to guarantee that freedom was the sole purpose of the government they set out to create. That is why so much of the Constitution is devoted to laying out what the government could not do, and why it says that the government could not assume any power not specifically granted to it, by the states and the people, through their ratification of that document. Along the way, our society has lost sight of what makes us great, turning to government to protect and support us during tough times. And each time we’ve done so, we’ve handed over a little bit more control over our lives.

We now face the prospect of a federal government spreading its tentacles much further into areas in which government influence should be feared. We will see a health care bill with a significant federal role, we will see the government become much more involved in the way we buy our homes, we will see a renewed push for the government to control the direction of scientific research and individual behavior through manipulation of the tax code, we will see the government get even more deeply involved in how our children are schooled, and when and where. I know guaranteed health coverage for all sounds nice, but if it means that the government assumes the right to tell us how to live, what to eat, what procedures or medicines we can and cannot have, and if it means that the government has to control what specialties doctors may pursue, what drugs pharmaceutical companies may develop, and how much they can charge, therefore removing the aspect of true competition that produces the best doctors and medicine, is it really worth it? I know guaranteed preschool and more federal money in education sounds good, but if it means the government assuming an even greater role in deciding who can go to school where, and what they can learn when they get there, is it really what we want? And I know that it sounds great to have government champion worthy scientific goals, but if it means that we miss an opportunity to discover a truly revolutionary new energy source because some congressman wants research to focus on fuels made from corn, or that drug companies miss an accidental breakthrough on cancer treatment because they were pressured into not developing a cure for baldness, does it make sense? And when all of these plans fail to deliver on their promise, we will hear that it will only take a little more money, and a slightly more expanded role for the government, to make the system work. And with each additional dollar sucked out of the private sector, and with each new regulation and restriction, the chance for creative solutions being developed by private companies or individuals is diminished. And people will be afraid to say, no, no more money, no more power, this isn’t working — because as bad as the safety net might be, they will be afraid to give it up.

This is why I cannot be happy about this election. I would like for President Obama to prove me wrong. But I do not have much hope.

The Veep Debate – *Yawn*

I watched the first 45 minutes or so of the Vice Presidential debate, last Thursday. I found it pretty boring, and wound up turning it off. Supposedly, it got “good” in the second half — but I really doubt that. Both candidates basically stood up there reciting the talking points from their campaigns, which pretty much all politicians (yes, even Obama) always do. And really, I don’t fault them for quickly dispatching the moderator’s questions to then get back to whatever points they wanted to make. Limiting answers to 90 seconds makes it almost not worthwhile to bother answering the specific questions. I’d rather see a real debate about political and governing philosophy, anyway.

There were a few things that stood out, to me, about which I have heard nothing since. The first was Palin talking about a McCain administration supporting (essentially) equal rights for gay couples (without the label “marriage”). I’m not so surprised she would support civil unions — I do not share the opinion of her as some backwards religious nut. But I was surprised that she went as far as she did in laying out the specifics of what she and McCain would support and at how emphatic she sounded about it. I would expect the Republican candidate to be more vague, in order to let the “right wingers” believe what they need to make themselves comfortable. To me, her response seemed like more than would be necessary, if her goal was only to diffuse the issue.

The second thing that stood out for me was the way each veep candidate went about promoting their running mate. This had to be more of a challenge for Biden, who, with many many more years of experience than Obama, had to try to convince the audience that *Obama* has been such a great leader on various issues with which Biden has likely been dealing for a long time. Of course, it’s Biden’s job to do so, and I think he did a decent job. But it often came across as Biden touting his own “leadership,” with Obama getting credit by association.

But the one thing that stuck out most, for me, was a comment from Biden about renegotiating people’s mortgages. He made it a point to emphasize that an Obama administration would make lenders renegotiate not only the interest (bad enough), but the principal! How does this not get a reaction from anyone? Renegotiate the principal? What does that even mean? The man is talking about what amounts to taking money from lenders — just plain taking it and giving it to borrowers — as if this is a good and correct thing to do! I find this unbelievable! If a lender wishes to forgive a portion of a loan in order to secure at least partial repayment, shouldn’t that be the lender’s choice? But Biden was making a so-called populist appeal by saying, We’re going to make those greedy lenders give you poor borrowers money! That seems like almost a naked admission that they intend to buy your vote, and with someone else’s money.

Anyway, I can’t really say who won. I will say that, to me, Biden came off looking much more comfortable and confident (which is really no surprise), if also a bit slick. However, I do think the GOP ticket will get more of a boost from the debate than the Democratic ticket, mainly because the McCain campaign appears to have been struggling to have it’s message heard the past couple of weeks, and the debate, and particularly Palin’s reasonably effective performance, should help bring it back into focus.