Shoe on the Other Foot?

Turning a new page in American politics -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Some nine days before the 2008 Presidential election, I’m being reflective about it all. I've ended up supporting Obama, though he wasn’t even my 3rd choice among the Democratic nominees. Too much is at stake – we have several geriatric Supreme Court justices. Can’t let that slip away.

I’m detecting as much bitterness among diehard Republicans as there was among Democrats when Bush won in 2004. They like to claim that the financial meltdown is as much a Democratic as a Republican fiasco. It’s true that home loans should not have been extended to poor prospects in the 90’s. Point taken. But the GOP had the presidency the last 8 years, and both houses of Congress 6 of the last 8 years. Democrats had a paper-thin majority the last 2 years, which was inadequate to overcome vetoes or much of anything else. Republicans rode the wave of Reaganomics from 1980 until it crashed on the shore of over-promoted derivatives and credit default swaps.

My previous blog entry, Ayn Rants, is a little bit obtuse and wordy. But here is a major point I probably lost in all of my George Willian verbiage. A policeman is not a dictator – he doesn’t tell you how to live your life. All a policeman does is enforce the laws of the land. One hopes that the laws have been crafted by a democratically elected legislature.

Many Republicans are laughably crying “Socialist” at the prospect of an Obama presidency. Socialism calls to mind the corrupt and lethargic GOSPLAN committees of the old USSR, working out their 5-year collective farm objectives. There is some irony that this criticism comes from the W. Bush party that just partially nationalized the banks and stuck U.S. tax-payers with a one trillion dollar bailout bill.

No, there won’t be any socialism. Some of Obama’s most strident supporters are California venture capitalists who have greatly enjoyed the freedom of our economic system. What Obama might do, along with Congress is decide how the commandment “Thou shall not steal” needs to be written and enforced in the echelons of high finance. At Northpark Mall, the boundaries and rules are obvious. Here is the store, here is the merchandise and here is the alarm system. It’s not so clear on Wall Street where all the boundaries are. We have murkiness about “store” “merchandise’ and “adequate alarm” as well as “legal transaction”. When the terms have been laid out by agreeable parties, there will be enforcement, not socialism.

Is this somehow tragic that we might end up with a liberal president and a Democratic congress? How could it be more tragic than the complete break down of our credit and financial system? Think about it some more, and be glad that there are checks and balances even if it has to happen via the electoral process.

© 2008 blogSpotter