Post Election Analysis

So here we are - the day after. The election went as expected. The media people are as happy as larks. And who should be surprised? Most people hate George W. Bush and this was a good reason to sock it to the Republicans.

We can't blame this all on GW. The Republicans in general ran a pretty shitty campaign. Liz Dole lost in North Carolina for criticizing her Sunday school teacher opponent as being Godless. Not too smart.

Andy Harris ran ads that never told you anything about himself. Every ad was about how his opponent is too liberal. Well, Andy, perhaps you're too conservative. In a heavy Democratic state, right-wing conservatives rarely win. Moderate conservatives win.

So what should we expect now? If the Democrats are smart, which they are not (and neither are Republicans), they will not go around saying that they now have a mandate from the people. The Republicans made this mistake 8 years go and they may be paying for it for a long time. Partisan mandates do not endear the majority of voters who fall in the middle of the political spectrum.

Harry "Radical" Reid and Nancy "Pork" Pelosi will start ramming through radical liberal programs and will go against the beliefs of half of this country. But don't worry, they're perched at the top of their tree and there's nothing we can do about it.

The economy will recover as it always does and Liberals will take credit for it. And they can because Obama will make companies hire more people. And Obama will make people spend more money. These are the 2 things that get you out of a recession. From my tongue-in-cheek point, the government does not have THAT much control over the economy. It goes in cycles. Always has. Always will. But it's nice and convenient to be the party in charge when things get good and Obama will probably be there.

We can expect Gay Marriage to be addressed. I honestly couldn't care less either way. Gun control will take a turn for the worst. Criminals will get more guns. Honest citizens will find it more difficult to get guns. Troop levels will be diminished in Iraq, but we will still be there at the end of Obama's term. We're still in Cuba. We're still in Germany. We're still in Korea. We're still in Japan. Heck, we have bases in Great Britain and Spain and we weren't at war with them at the time. Imagine if China wanted to put a military base in California? Barb Boxer and Pelosi probably wouldn't be against it, but I could probably find 350 million others that would be. And Joe Biden could find 100 million middle class families that are against it.

Obama will reach out to other countries. I am happy with that. I did not like the arrogant "if you're not with us you're against us" attitude of the Bush Administration. However, I do not want to see us seeking consensus from France and Belgium about what our national policies should be. Keep them involved, but we should ultimately decide what's best for us. Our destiny should not be determined by the Euro crowd.

Taxes will go through the roof. They pretty much have to if Obama wants to reduce our deficit and increase the social programs. Obama has already pledged to raise taxes on what he defines as rich. Capital Gains taxes will double or triple. For those of us "middle class" people, we'll be screwed. Obama claims that the wealth will be redistributed, but watch. It will go to social programs, not cash distributions. That's not quite the redistribution that his proponents are expecting.

I'm sure a Supreme Court Justice will retire. Antonin Scalia and Anothony Kennedy are 72. Radical Liberal David Souter is 69. Extreme radical liberal Ruth Ginsburg is 75 and has cancer. Odds are at least one of them will die and a couple will retire. Obama will claim to rebalance the Supreme Court and appoint all very-liberal thinking justices. Of course, since the Senate is mostly Democrats, all will be confirmed.

Obama will claim to work on fixing health care, but in the long run nothing will change. The same goes for Social Security reform. However, you can't escape from the fact that soon there will be more recipients of Social Security than there are contributors to the program. Benefits will have to be cut and taxes to fund it will need to increase dramatically. This is change.

So what do you think an Obama administration will mean? What do you think will change?