Wednesday, November 5, 2008

My Optimistic Scenario for the Next Four Years

So the election has come and gone and as expected John McCain lost and Barack Obama won. I supported McCain and continue to have serious reservations about Obama, both in terms of the American economy and in terms of Israel. The Democrats now control the presidency and have greatly strengthened their hold over Congress and the Senate. The radical left is triumphant and no doubt they will push their advantage for all it is worth. That being said I am willing to be cautiously optimistic. For one thing, despite my disagreements with Obama, I respect the man; he has always struck me as a highly intelligent individual who, despite his personal liberalism, honestly desires to reach out and cut across the traditional ideological lines. Here is my optimistic scenario for the coming four years.

I do not believe that Obama is going to turn tail and run neither in the War in Iraq, specifically, or in the War on Terror, in general. Obama has nothing to lose and everything to gain from pursuing an aggressive foreign policy in the Middle East. If he fails it will be blamed on the Bush administration and if he succeeds he will be able to take the credit for himself. I suspect that the Left in this country and the European Union will be far more willing to support an aggressive foreign policy now that it is no longer the Bush administration taking the lead. Obama may, in fact, be better suited than George W. Bush to pursue an aggressive foreign policy because he will not be caught up in the us versus them in the liberal establishment trap; Obama will have no need because the establishment will be on his side. Just as it took Richard Nixon to go to China so to it might very well require an Obama to fight the War on Terror.

Personally, my number one reason for supporting Republicans is in order to make sure that strict constructionist judges are appointed and to stop Liberals from appointing activist judges who will reinterpret the Constitution to give Liberals everything they fail to get through the democratic process and call it a "civil right." The two best things President Bush did in his eight years in office was to appoint John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Obama defiantly will try to appoint activist judges. I do not think he will be able to too much damage. The only justice who is likely to step down over the next four years is John Paul Stevens, one of the courts most liberal members. We can assume that, one way or another, we will still have our four conservative judges (Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito) and one judge (Kennedy) who usually can be relied upon.

Hopefully, Obama can be relied upon to do something stupid that will not do too much damage but will help bring about a Republican comeback in 2010 and even allow them to take back the White House in 2012. I am thinking along the lines of him going back on his campaign pledge not to raise the taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year. I am really keen for him to fulfill his campaign promises to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which will enshrine Roe vs. Wade into Federal law, and support equal pay laws for women. These things should be enough to alienate the American center over the next few years, particularly as their anger toward Republicans cools.

Meanwhile, the Republicans can take the opportunity of this well-deserved defeat to take stock of their situation. This defeat may serve as a badly needed intervention to save them from themselves and maybe get them back to things like small government. I think there is little chance that the Republicans could ever have changed on their own without some disaster of Obama proportions. Of all the disasters that may have struck the Republican Party, I could imagine worse than an Obama presidency.

Hopefully over the next few years we can put together a Republican Party that we can be proud of.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Had some questions regarding the law.

What is the difference between a "constructionist" and "activist" judge? Who are some examples of each on the Supreme and Circuit courts?

Also, what are some cases which serve as examples of "reinterpreting" the Constitution to "create" a "civil right."?

How extensive is this problem of judicial interpretation? Is it serious enough to be a deterministic factor in weighing your vote for the Presidency?

Izgad said...

Thank you for your questions. My response ended up running a little long so I put it as its own post.

Miss S. said...

This is one of the most rational responses from the non-Democratic camp that I have heard since the results of the election were released!

Izgad said...

Miss S.
You may enjoy this article by Dennis Prager. (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=80719_)

Miss S. said...

Well I found the article interesting, but I have some issues with his conclusions regarding the following:

The Obama victory poses a serious challenge to liberalism and to the doctrine of black victimhood.

Well American society has many "victims"; including Blacks. Black Americans are not delusional for stating this, although they do tend to not approach solving the problem, just complaining about it.

The tune that modern society marches to is tempered by political correctness; which causes people to not publically admit their predjudices. But not voicing them and not acting upon them are two different things. In our society, Black people have to constantly and consistantly fight back very negative stereotypes. I have myself have been in professional settings where people felt no shame in asking me where I learned to talk "so well" or that "you're not like the rest of them". What is the basis for these comparisons? It is naive to think that those in the majority with real power do no also hold these baseless stereotypes.

Not that Black people are totally blameless however. We tend to fail over and over again in regards to modeling our actions after those who have a track record of success. Martin Luther King, Jr. knew to do this, and it was a key component of his achievements.

Izgad said...

Miss S.
I am glad that you do not buy into the model of saintly blacks as the victims of evil white folk.
That being said, you have a very expansive notion of what constitutes racial prejudice. As far as I can tell, no one has murdered you, robbed you, done you any bodily harm or even denied you a job because of your skin color yet you still think of yourself as a victim of racial prejudice. At the end of the day people from different groups are not always going to get along. They are likely going to have many negative stereotypes about eachother which have no basis in fact and which the people themselves may not really believe. I am perfectly willing to accept such a world.
I would recommend you read Shelby Steele’s White Guilt (http://www.amazon.com/White-Guilt-Together-Destroyed-Promise/dp/0060578629).

Miss S. said...

Thank G-d, any acts of racial predjudice made against me so far have not been serious ones. However I am more easy for White people to digest than the majority of other Black Americans in that in my formative years, I was never influenced from mainly a Black American perspective; but rather a first-generation American/Generation X/Revenge-Of-The-Nerds perspective; mildly "flavored" with some Black American and West Indian characteristics. At a very early age, I did not let my skin color define my personality. This is not the case with most Black Americans; nor should it be (I would not wish my childhood experiences on anyone :-( )

I added the book to my wishlist. To counter, may I suggest White Lies by Maurice Berger? The slant is very liberal (I'm warning you) but he picks up on the "politically correct" racism problem, as an insider, and verbalizes it pretty well. It was one of the only books on racism that I, as a "victim", read where I concluded, "wow, I think he really gets it...".

Izgad said...

It would seem that you have been the "beneficiary" of racism. Since people have low expectations of blacks, the fact that you rise above those expectations causes people to think especially well of you. You might not be as successful with people who are not prejudiced, because they will judge by a higher standard. This is a good example of the law of unintended consequences. Racism does not always equal harm to minorities; it can sometimes help.
Truth be told I think you hold up pretty well by any standard.