After the Euphoria

“Poor people have been voting for Democrats for fifty years and they’re still poor.”
Charles Barkley

So, history has been made. The first black man has been elected President of the US. Joining him are overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress. Together they form the most left wing government ever to preside over the country. Sure, there have been times when the Democrats held both the White House and Congress. LBJ had it and brought forth the “Great Society”, a massive expenditure of money and social programs enacted to wipe out poverty.

It didn’t.

He also escalated the conflict in Vietnam started by Jack Kennedy into a full-fledged debacle. He wisely decided not to run for reelection.

Carter had Democrat majorities in both houses following the Nixon disaster and managed to make a muck of just about everything. Reagan tossed him out on his ass after one term. Though Reagan had a Democrat Congress to contend with, he was immensely popular and adept at taking his case directly to the people. He cut taxes, stifled inflation and brought on a generation of prosperity. He handed off the Presidency to Bush 1 who foolishly broke his “no new taxes” pledge and pissed off the Republicans. They broke ranks and voted for third party candidate, Ross Perot. That gave Clinton the White House and a solid Democrat majority. Bill and Hillary over-reached with tax increases, gays in the military and an attempt to take over the health care system. Two years into Clinton’s first term, Newt Gingrich engineered “The Contract with America” and swept the Democrats from power in the House and Senate.

From 1996 until 2006 The Republicans held Congress and with the election of Bush in 1998 had for a time complete control. They messed it up, abandoning their own conservative principles, spending money like drunken fools and shipping home pork. The Contract with America was forgotten in the hope of hanging on to power. The Democrats regained the House and Senate in the 2006 elections. But, with Bush’s veto and enough Republicans in the Senate to maintain a filibuster, they were able to hold off the worst impulses of Pelosi and Reed. Now that faint restraint is gone.

Any Republican would have had an uphill battle in this election. In the early going the country had grown tired of the war in Iraq and very tired of George Bush. As the surge succeeded that issue fell off the table only to be supplanted by the economy. While the bursting bubble of the housing debacle and the consequent financial fallout cannot really be blamed on Bush, he takes the heat. It’s normal.

Despite these obstacles, I think McCain would have won except for one simple fact: Obama is black. Of course, he is a gifted orator and clever at evading tough questions. But, had he been white and espoused his socialist claptrap, he would have come under greater scrutiny. The media, enamored with the narrative of a black man as President, ignored his flip-flops, gaffs and questionable associations with radicals and racists. They were completely disinterested in his massive and questionable fundraising. They ignored his close association with ACORN and chose not to investigate his missing birth certificate, school or medical records or those missing years in his biography. Consequently, the US has just elected, as Tom Brokow admitted on the Charlie Rose Show the other day, ‘a guy we don’t know’. Gee Tom, whose fault is that? You pompous assholes in the MSM were so busy with tingles going up and down your legs that you couldn’t vet this guy? It’s a bit late to worry about where he’s taking the country now.

Naturally, minorities turned out in massive numbers to vote for the black man. No surprise there. College students and the young also registered and voted for the first time. For the young and idealistic who toil over textbooks and ideas and not as taxpayers yet, Obama represented a celebrity. “Hope and Change.” Hope for what? Change to what? Doesn’t matter. In our You Tube culture he is the perfect candidate. White liberals and moderates who could demonstrate their lack of prejudice and assuage white guilt by lining up and voting for this charismatic black man joined them.

One of my three faithful readers emailed me today and said he was troubled by the adoration shining on the faces in the crowd as they listened to Obama’s acceptance speech. I agree. Since we do not really know who this guy is yet and what he will do, it seems a bit early for hero worship. After the euphoria wears off and the Democrats begin to “fundamentally change America” we will see if there’s any buyer’s remorse. And, Barkley is right….. The poor will still be poor.