You Won, America

Last night was a bitter pill to swallow, but I forced myself to take it all in. I even forced myself to watch Obama's victory speech in Chicago. All of the pageantry and stagecraft came to the fore. The crowds, the flags, the huge video screens, the music, the choreography. The only thing missing was the balloon drop.

But, you won.

You won pre-existing conditions. You won free birth control pills, insurance exchanges and adult children on your employer's health insurance. You won a clear road to cap-and-trade (a clearer road than some of those  on the Jersey Shore have after Sandy), you won expanded oil and gas exploration (yeah, right) and you won lower taxes for the middle class (uh-huh). You won more green energy pushed down on you from Washington instead of up from the market. You won the ability to lay higher taxes on businesses and wealthy individuals (ask the luxury boat industry how that all worked out) and you won the right for more marriage equity or whatever you call it. You won 10-12 Trillion dollars of more debt before the next President is elected.

Everything that Barack Obama was not able to 'accomplish' in his first four years will probably get shoved through Congress under the guise of 'reaching across the aisle'. New bills that will be absolutely necessary for the functioning of our dysfunctional government will have riders and amendments that will sneak in policies that wouldn't pass the sniff test in the air of open government.

They say that the Democrats won the "ground game". The ground game? What is this? College football or the NFL? Actually, it is. Rooting for a football team is all about emotion. Something as meaningless as what city you live in or what college you graduated from determines which team you root for your entire life. Is that what our political life has boiled down to? Emotion, and "we won, you lost"?

Yes, it has.

But what of the future? Do Republicans need to play a better ground game to have a chance of winning anything in the future? Must we develop our own cult of personality in order to draw in votes? Is this the new normal?

Business owners in this country are at a crossroads. Do they put their head down and push ahead, spending huge amounts of mental and physical capital to make a go of it, only to have more of their hard earned (and I mean hard earned) money extricated by the threat of violence from a government intent on distributing these ill-gotten gains to those that choose not to work as hard or as smart? Or, do they just roll over, line up for benefits and become one of the 50.33% who decided last night to hitch their star to the guy giving free stuff away?

What would you do?

So... the game is over, and you won. Like the dog that finally catches the car, what are you going to do with it now that you own it? It is all yours. Now you have to make it work. This was all your doing. But, don't look to me for help. You are the future, you are the hope, you are the brains. Show us... the new 47%, how it is done. Make us proud.

You won.

Comments

Robert said…
Sad day for freedom in America. You neglected to mention how America's military is going to be gutted. You neglected to mention how people will continue to receive unemployment benefits for the rest of their lives. You neglected to mention how our 2nd Amendment will be declared null and void.

The only positive thing I can say is at least we won't be having rioting in the streets because "racist" America failed to elect a minority.

I do like the term "the new 47%" you coined there. I only hope this 47% has the strength to carry the US.

November 7, 2012 at 9:46 AM
Max P said…
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.
- Alexander Frasier Tytler

The US is approximately 237 years old and I'd say we've passed apathy and are very close to dependence. Won't be long now.
November 7, 2012 at 9:57 AM
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