Curmudgeon's Corner

What Will November 7th Bring?

Posted by Al Campbell on Oct. 1, 2012

U.S., Political, Economy, Employment, Quality of Life

I find myself wondering what four more years of the current Administration would be like in the event that President Obama is re-elected.  As you might suspect, that would be a difficult outcome for me to accept, but I’ll have little real choice if that is the way in which the majority want this country to proceed.  I can’t move out of the country.  I can’t simply crawl into a burrow somewhere.  I will have to continue to be a responsible citizen, to pay my taxes, to attend my church and to generally carry on my daily life.

Major questions exist for me, though.  If the President is re-elected, what will be our position on Israel and the whole Middle East situation?  Will the world be plunged into even greater conflict than exists today?  Will we be favoring more debt to ease our economic and employment woes without requisite tax changes?  Will taxes increase on the ‘wealthy’ that are defined as such at relatively low levels of income from partnerships and S-corporations contrasted with the truly wealthy, the real 1% that earn their money from investments, not earned income?  What will that do to investment in new businesses in this country?  Will the entire government be unilaterally driven by those who are pretty much the opposite of my beliefs? What will happen with our economy?  Will hiring pick up to the point necessary to sustain more or less ‘full employment’?  Will the military be reduced further?  Will social spending become the most favored place for tax dollars?  Will we continue to pour more money into the favored energy initiatives that have not appeared to work out so far?  Will we become a completely divided populace that ends up pitted against itself as seems to be the direction being taken at the moment?  Will more unelected, therefore unaccountable, czars be appointed to run the country no matter what Congress tries to do?

Those friends who are of the Republican/Conservative persuasion think this outcome simply cannot be permitted to occur, and are hoping against hope that the Romney/Ryan ticket will win by a point or two.  They seek out the most recent poll showing the potential outcome they would desire while dismissing the polls that show the opposite.  They can’t make themselves believe that we, the voters, could possibly be thinking of returning this president to office for four more years.

Those friends of the Democrat/Liberal persuasion (yes there are some of those, too) seem certain that this race is all over but for the shouting just like in 2008, and are looking ahead to the next four years during which President Obama will be able to finish the work he has started.

I find it difficult to depend upon us people who vote given past experiences.  What seems so cut and dried to me seems completely foreign to others.  What makes me concerned seems to make others even more confident in the future under this Administration.  We seem to be nearing that point which has been predicted to be the end of democracy…that point where we know we can just vote to get more money, more benefits…and that we do so until our country simply folds up under the pressures that creates.  The line in the sand is finally crossed and we come to understand there is no way to walk back over that line.  I fear that Europe is very, very close to crossing that line, if it hasn’t already.  We watch as that unfolds in real time, and yet we don’t seem capable of recognizing that we could be next in line.  We borrow more than we can hope to repay in several lifetimes.  We limit our economic engine by taxation that is compelled by over-spending.  We ‘unfriend’ our long-time friends and play diplomatic games we seem unprepared to be involved with.  We intentionally create rifts between segments of our own society for political gain.

I can hardly wait to learn what my fate and that of my family and friends and fellow citizens will be.  And I pray for us all.