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.

Unlike Dubya in either 2000 or 2004, Obama really seems to have an electoral mandate. Voters are supporting changes, possibly even some that will be painful. Most seemed not to be fearful of "socialism" or "redistribution of wealth". Rather, they were angry about the economy, and the results of 30 years of laissez faire capitalism, unfettered by regulation, anti-trust controls, or caps on what amounts to simple greed (financial gains achieved at the expense of those less fortunate than oneself and who are unable to do anything about it.) Before the wealthy start shrieking about having their taxes increased, which is probably inevitable, let me remind them that they've had nearly three decades of continued tax cutting to feather their golden nests, ever since Reaganomics first held sway and the notion that tax cuts for the rich would fuel the economy took hold. We've already HAD "redistribution of wealth." It has been redistributed in FAVOR of those already wealthy, at the expense of those who are not. The gulf between poor and rich has widened significantly. The number of people in the middle has declined significantly. The percentage of the population without health care protections, without retirement protection, and who do not own homes has been increasing. Meanwhile, the wealthiest percentage of the US population have increased somewhat in number, but hugely in terms of the amount of capital and real property they control. A revolt was inevitable, and it has come. Live with it.

This election seems likely to represent a watershed, perhaps even as large and significant as the one that put Franklin Roosevelt in the Presidency back in 1932. The repercussions of the housing collapse and subsequent restructuring, the loss of consumer confidence, the possibility of actual deflation rather than inflation, all are going to continue for months, quite probably years. The new administration and new congress will have to deal with these issues, as well as addressing the horrendous damage done to the US image abroad by the arrogance of the Bush government. Energy is still a major problem that requires immediate attention, too. At least Mr. Obama is conscious of the fact that wrecking the environment in search of more oil is not the answer. Increased efforts for renewable, green energy sources and energy-saving restructuring of the economy and lifestyles are essential, and we will have to put our collective funding behind them in order to accelerate gains in those areas.

There is, of course, a worm in the cherry pie. The continued and stubborn support for anti-gay amendments and legislation that often amounts to codification of simple intolerance and hatred was appalling. California, Arkansas, Florida, Arizona! I'm talking to you folks now. There is absolutely nothing that recognition of gay marriage or civil unions, or the adoption of children by gay couples or individuals, can do to "threaten" the stability of society, or "denigrate" your (possibly second or third, eh Mr. McCain?) marriage. Fortunately, younger voters opposed these hate initiatives. Even if they have to wait for a generation to die off, they will eventually put those changes in place. It's a shame that you are so narrow minded and bigoted that you couldn't let change take its course now. Canada survived it, and lightning bolts did not come down from heaven to purge Ottawa or turn anyone into pillars of salt. Scandinavia and the UK managed it without any terrible "destruction of the family" or decline in morality. Even a country as notably resistant to change as South Africa has been able to take same sex marriage in stride. What is the matter with the US?

Fortunately, just like civil rights for blacks, and before that, voting rights for women, I expect the tide will turn on this issue as well. It's inevitable, and the foot dragging of older generations will end one way or another. Myself, I'd rather see a new world while I'm alive than have it improve only because I've finally croaked. But I guess that's your choice, isn't it? Too bad.

Comments

[jmaynard.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

You have my sympathies.

[flaredragon.livejournal.com]

And what of the people who work their asses off to make ends meet and are rebuked by the system at every turn? Better get ready, because now you'll get to experience what some of us have had to live with for years.

We'll both keep on pressing, I'm sure. But I'm afraid you'll find no sympathy here when it comes to bemoaning your fates when you've already had it good by your hand or otherwise.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

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

[daikitsune.livejournal.com]

Look, I don't know why you think Obama coming into office will destroy your job, but I'll take that at face value. I'll also take that you made your own way in the world through your own wits and skills at face value.

If these are the case, you should be able to thrive in any administration. Chances are, you even have enough money to go without working for 6 months or more (just a guess) in savings and investments. Most of us have never and will never have that. And I'd wager some of us have struggled just as hard as you have to make a life for themselves.

Just recently, a friend of mine ran into some medical trouble, and his HMO messed around with him until he was out of a job due to sick leave. Since then, he has struggled to get a job because he still has to go to the hospital now and then, and they basically take ALL of his money.

A return to the capital gains taxes of a few years ago isn't going to kill you. If you're making over 600k per year, chances are that 8% won't kill you either. If that's the case, you make many times more than I do, and I live a very comfortable life, putting a large percentage of my salary into savings and investments.

In summary, you will not only survive in the coming years, you will thrive, if you have represented yourself correctly here. And further, your job is more likely to be impacted by the crappy economy brought on by the last 8 years of bumbling than from anything Obama will do.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

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.

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

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.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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

[schnee.livejournal.com]

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

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well-stated, as usual.

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I can't try when it comes to things beyond my control, I can only hope.
So, I'm taking that optimism over to where it will live a little longer. :-P

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

Again and again and again I hear that mantra... Obama will destroy my business! Um, where ever did this come from? Are our businesses in Canada being destroyed? Is everyone in Europe out of a job? Can someone please find me a relative comparison of taxation levels between the US and a few other industrial nations? Why why why is this phrase constantly spoken as a given! Again, we are doing fine up here! We can easily afford universal health care, our unemployment is low and we have had eight balanced budgets in a row! I really would like to know what positions Obama has taken that will have a ruinous effect on American business. Nobody is going to punish you, in fact you will have more business and more customers because they will now have more money in their pockets.

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

Well, it's like this. They figure Obama will make them pay more taxes, which might happen, but no, it won't bankrupt them unless there's something fishy about their cash flow anyway. Or they figure he will make them pay their employees and give them benefits, again, see above. Or they figure he will make them do an honest job for a reasonable price, again, see above.

Now can Obama really force all that on anyone? Not without the help of congress, no. Unless they are already in violation of existing regulations, the executive branch has no power over them. If they ARE in violation, then... I figure they've got it coming to them.

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

Again, it's all relative. America already has some of the lowest business taxes in the world! If American businesses are healthy then they can stand to have their taxes raised a wee bit. Again, how can you go down down down and down again forever? Is the eventual goal to have none whatsoever? What's realistic? I'm in super-busy mode here right now what with winter coming on, photography for the holiday season, a million things, but I'd love to see a side-by-side comparison on basic figures, America vs the rest of the world's industrialized nations.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

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.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The US has very low taxes, both personal and business, compared to most industrialized nations. Again and again you will hear "No nation has ever taxed itself into prosperity," but that hangs on your definition of "prosperity." I consider Sweden and the Netherlands pretty comfortable and prosperous, and they have been so for a long time in spite of higher taxes and more (gasp) "socialism." They also have more healthy and happy citizens, but of course that doesn't matter to US conservatives, whose sole interest is their own personal comfort and wealth and to hell with everyone else.

They simply fail to see that they are putting themselves in the position of the parasite, who lives well only as long as the host is healthy. When they drive the host to sickness and death, they will collapse with it anyway.

[jmaynard.livejournal.com]

I guess you missed my post quoting the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's conclusion that the US has the most progressive tax system of any country in the world already.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Not progressive enough in my opinion. Sorry. It's been cut and cut since 1980, and never should have been.