I'm not as hopeless as many others seem to be. I for one am pretty confident that President Obama will be as lazy and useless as the last Democrat president was, and accomplish no more or less in office. I'm not saying that's a good thing, but it's not going to be as bad as many expect. (And I didn't expect much from McCain either.) Nothing has really changed in Congress. The majorities are larger, but the minorities are still large enough.
These things are cyclical. I'm disappointed, but it's not the end of the world. I think the wholesale change message was merely designed to get votes, and it worked. Even McCain distanced himself from President Bush as much as possible. The whole reason McCain was nominated is because he was the one Republican that a Democrat might vote for. That might have worked if he was running against Hillary. But I called this one as soon as Obama won the nomination. I hoped, but I was ready for this. We've been fed a steady stream of Bush bashing from Hollywood and SNL and Comedy Central and the entire MSM for so long that we voted for "change". Whatever the hell that means. Nobody could explain exactly
what they want changed. The war was a big one at first, but the Democrats have definitely backed off on that.
Even in his acceptance speech, Obama hinted that
"it may not happen in one year or even one term". In other words,
"All that BS I promised? Yeah... that's not really gonna happen. I'm just like all the other politicians. I just wanted your votes. Thanks, suckers."That's what I'm telling myself, anyway. We'll see how bad it really is soon enough. The worse it goes, the better for Republicans in 2010 mid-term congressional elections. Unfortunately the Democrats will take all the credit for the stock market's inevitable rebound, just as Bush had to take the rap for it's decline. That will be a problem for the Republicans.
I was kind of surprised at Obama's mention of gays in his acceptance speech. That might be indicative of his agenda, or it might just have been an obligatory shout-out to the pink mafia who he knows were big supporters. I suspect the latter.
And FOCA is obviously a big concern. But (maybe someone can enlighten me on this point), perhaps it will pass only to be challenged, and the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Roberts will kill for being too broad and far-reaching. They might not be able to roll back the evil that already exists, but evil may not be able to advance any further.
Finally, the obligatory religious message about keeping life in perspective:
My wife and I have a greater mission, to my mind, than President-elect Obama does. We have these three boys who need a family. They need someone to love them, raise them, teach them, and bring them to God. Everything else pales in comparison.
It strikes me how little these politicians see their families. Even people higher than me in business frequently have terrible family lives because they are so focused on worldy success. Politicians probably justify their pursuit of worldly success by saying that their cause is so great that it's okay to make their families suffer. Wasn't that the main argument against anyone who questioned Sarah Palin's political ambition with a special needs baby at home? - Her cause was great enough... The country needed her more than her family did. A "higher" calling. I don't want to resurrect that whole argument, but part of me is happy for Trig today. (Of course, I would vote for her again if she runs in 2012, but it's way too early for that kind of talk.)
Fr. George Rutler warned on EWTN's The World Over a couple of weeks ago that we should not get too hung up on worldly matters. God still sits on His throne. We just celebrated the feasts of All Saints and All Souls, and that should help us to remember that we are in this world but not of this world.
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