Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Relish and Fear the Excitement
Obama has a mandate and an opportunity. He is in a much better position to lead than Bush. He will be able to go against party precedent and push through a select number of major legislative changes before the inevitable squabbling sets in. I believe he is a smart man and that he will try to use this awesome power wisely.
I am suspicious of politicians with a mandate. While it is possible to overturn entrenched precedent, it is also possible to jam through poorly designed headline-grabbing ideas. Such as the Patriot Act. Abuse of power comes naturally to all human beings.
Apart from these general concerns, I worry about the following, since these ideas have, at one time or another, been part of Obama's expressed philosophy:
1) A return to protectionism, which will impoverish Americans and millions in developing countries. A major retrenchment in international trade will do more to lower the standard of living of humanity than just about anything short of global war. Let's hope he appoints and listens to Goolsbee (and Buffett and Volcker).
2) CardCheck and other facilitation of coercive labor organization. All this will accomplish is slower growth and/or more rapid offshoring, in complementary quantities.
3) Failure to address entitlements. The estimated present value of entitlements is several times GDP. These are simply promises we cannot afford. Neither party has expressed any serious ideas to change that. Since other countries are in even worse shape, demographically, we may not be able to import savings to pay for it. Obama seems to want to expand entitlements, which defies financial reasoning.
4)The tax base is a tiny slice of the electorate now. Further skewing of the tax burden will dampen capital formation and discourage or move savings out of the country. This will multiply our entitlements deficit as the national savings and productivity necessary to pay for them disappears.
5) The Nanny State. There are enormous temptations to legislate behavior for health reasons and even political correctness (call it creeping Bloomberg-ism). These can accumulate to be a larger impediment to freedom than social engineers seem to consider. Resist.
6) The GWOT. It is imperative that we remain both a credible threat to terrorists and thugocracies, as well as a forceful champion of liberty and democracy. We must also maintain a strategic presence in the Middle East to pull it off. This will require steadfastness despite weak-willed allies, and the courage to take casualties, stare-down the inevitable islamist spin and endure occasional blunders in military action. We now have a president with more goodwill to spend leading the West. May he use it.
I am very impressed by Obama and do not, by any stretch, suggest that these are his intentions, or necessarily the intentions of his party. Avoiding these pitfalls, however, will require discarding party and ideological baggage, as the country has now demonstrated that it has discarded so much racist baggage. Perhaps he is the one to achieve this "change we need". For the sake of my President and my country, I hope so.
5 Comments:
By 
, at
Wed Nov 05, 09:42:00 AM:
C'mon, Obama isn't the first black president, he's the first red president. You wouldn't buy a used car from some one you knew so little about.
Obama is the front man for a group that hates the US culture and THEY will immediately begin to destro that culture. First, all US Attorneys will be replaced, mostly ny Kwame Kilpatrick/Alcee Hastings types. Then, many military units.functions will be disbanded bu order of the CinC. Ships and planes will not be mothballed, but will be scrapped. By the end of 2012, look for a push to combine the military academies in a single new school located in Illinois.
Hate speech/thought EOs will be issued to be followed later by laws. This group, Ayers or his representative, will vet ALL judicial candidates. And, from the git go, all efforts to identify or challenge voter fraud pr illegal contributions will be quashed. In the first year, look for legislation that will repay the cash that was illegally donated to Obama; massive pay offs to unions, money to ACORN, money to media and money to lawyers.
As an indicator of black "stick it in your ear" racism that will develop and be encouraged, look for (by the end of 2009) new holidays,recognition of black culture, pardons of black criminals (Mumia) and a push for new kinds of affirmative action, e.g., improving racial diversity in neighborhoods now predominately white.
And, if you thought is was hard to find out information about Obama's past before, it will now be impossible and , maybe, even a federal crime (i.e., coverd by the hate speech legislation).
By 
Cardinalpark, at
Wed Nov 05, 09:42:00 AM:
By TigerHawk, at
Wed Nov 05, 09:59:00 AM:
Anon 9:42:
Take a Prozac shower. Make arguments on this blog, not bitter, paranoid ramblings.
By Chris, at
Wed Nov 05, 11:46:00 AM:
I'm not sure exactly what we are to base this hope upon. We know very little about our new President, and what we do know was pried out of the ground with peoples' teeth.
Those anonymous ramblings may seem bitter and paranoid, but they fit the sketchy pattern we have of Obama's past dealings with criticism and resistance.
By , at
Wed Nov 05, 06:26:00 PM:
Chris is right.
If you look at Obama's past reactions, past activities, associates, and words then there is little reason to think some form of tyranny isn't near.
He wouldn't have won on his record. But he didn't run on his record. He ran on HOPE.
In his own words, he is a mirror in which his followers see what they wish to see.
And he got a big boost from a crappy economy and widespread discontent. McCain seemed to offer more of the same.
He had enough followers. Some voted for what they wished to see, HOPE. And some voted on his record.
Let us HOPE he disappoints the latter.
