Now the hard work begins

[altivo]

I admit I'm pleased but surprised at the results of yesterday's election. I've been confident of an Obama win for a while now, but I expected it to be close, perhaps even close enough for the kind of judicial shenanigans we saw eight years ago. I'm glad we won't have to go through that obscenity again, certainly

Comments

[jmaynard]

Obama will destroy my job with a small business within a year. Wanna buy an airplane? No, I'm not rich, but he thinks I am; he thinks my employer certainly is.

Don't forget that several prominent economists, includeng Nobel prize winners, recently published a paper that showed FDR prolonged the Great Depression by 7 years.

[altivo]

Several "prominent" economists also promoted Reaganomics and other idiocy. I'm not impressed.

You have lived a privileged life, Jay, compared to most of us.

[jmaynard]

Privileged? Insofar as that's the case (and I'd certainly argue the point), it's because I made it for myself. I don't have family wealth to draw on. I made my own way in the world, on my own abilities (and with the handicap of not having a college degree), and making my own mistakes and learning from them. Yes, I work in a field where the good are paid well, but I succeed in that field because I work at it, and I've had major setbacks along the way. I'm also not rich by any standard that matters: when Obama destroys my job, my standard of living will likely be severely and permanently damaged.

I certainly do not live the kind of privileged life that George Soros and Ted Kennedy and Steven Spielberg and Al Gore - and yes, Barack Obama - live.

Our lives are defined by the choices we make. I chose to succeed. I'm about to be punished for that choice, by those who did not.

[drakocrowley]

You have my sympathies.

[schnee]

It certainly will turn eventually, but in the meantime, I feel sorry for those who're seeing their rights curtailed again now by hateful bigots.

Whatever happened to the notion that being that was a bad thing, anyway? :P

[altivo]

Bigotry is alive and well in the US, and always has been. It went into hiding for a while after the Vietnam war or thereabouts, but has re-emerged stronger than ever since about 1980.

I'm convinced that there's a direct connection between "fiscal conservatism," "social conservatism," and what some people perceive as a free license to hate, discriminate, and belittle anyone different from themselves.

[schnee]

Could well be, yes. There certainly seems to be a correlation, at the very least.

[saythename]

This is a clear win, there is no ambiguity here.

Its not a Nixon or Regan style landslide, but no one
can doubt the will of the American people here.

Will Obama radically change things? Perhaps, but
if so it'll be slowly. Like a huge ship, a superpower
dosen't turn on a dime.

I was never like those that said, "Bush is not MY President!"
so I will accept the win and hope for the best.

But plan for the future.

[altivo]

You're right that change isn't going to be instantaneous. On the other paw, it only took eight years to turn a federal budget surplus into the largest deficit ever. Odd that it happened under the leadership of the GOP? Not really, they are experts at that. History has shown it time and time again. They promise one thing, but do quite another.

[dakhun]

Fortunately, younger voters opposed these hate initiatives.

People often change their minds as they get older.
You should not confuse a slope in age demographics with change going forward.

It may work out in the end, but... I refuse to hold out any hope for the US anymore. Sorry. Not my fight. Never was. And now I've stopped caring. I'm only going to hold out hope for the countries that deserve it - and there are plenty of others that do.

[altivo]

Younger voters who supported women's suffrage in the early 20th century, and who supported civil rights legislation in the mid-20th century, did not change their minds as they grew older. Instead they prevailed and put those changes in place. I see little difference between those issues and this one.

I think you're giving up hope for the US a bit early. This election indicates to me that while the giant is slow to awaken, he's not dead yet. Four years ago I was about to give up hope, and now I have it again.

Of course, as you say, it's not your battle. Canada has its own issues, different ones to be sure, but issues just the same.

[dakhun]

I could argue, but basically, it boils down to the fact that hope isn't logical. You cannot make a prediction that is based partly on hoping for something to happen.

[altivo]

Hope isn't making a prediction. It's holding out and trying, rather than bailing out and failing.

[atomicat]

I'm still astounded that anyone could vote for a ticket that had Palin on it. The woman reeks of incompetence. And once again, our Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, nobody gave a shit, really, and our society didn't collapse. In other words... Gay Marriage = Big Fucking Deal

[altivo]

Alas, people have funny definitions of "competence." More often, though, they care only about one or two big issues. McCain's mistake in choosing Palin was apparently that he thought her anti-abortion, pro-gun, evangelical Christian attitudes would fly well. In fact they did, with some people, but those same attitudes plus other issues such as you suggest turned more people away than he gained by putting her on the ticket. He might have done better with Joe Lieberman, who is hard on defense, the military and the war, and could have been used to play out the "we'll keep you more secure" approach that seems to have won it for Bush in 2004. Lieberman wouldn't have done much for him on abortion, guns, or religion, though.

[atomicat]

It's kind of scary to think of what might have happened had he made a better pick. With this bizarre winner-take-all electoral college thing you've got it might have been the tipping-point in enough states to put him in office! Heh, selfish thought... A McCain win might have been good for Canada.... we would have gained a LOT of good intelligent people up here. Immigration to Canada from the US has doubled since 2000, spiked big-time in 2004.

[altivo]

Unfortunately, it's not easy to emigrate to Canada unless you have money, stellar job qualifications, or are pretty young and healthy and happen to speak French. ;p

Believe me, I've looked into it.