Opinion
Obama’s election is historic, but it does not change the nature of the beast
Barack Obama’s election as president is an historic event for the United States after 232 years marred by issues of race. Obama’s election proves that it is possible for anyone to transcend those issues and to achieve one’s goals.
However, his election changes nothing about the nature of politics or the fundamental nature of the differences between the people called “conservative” and “liberal.”
Obama represents a political ideology that believes that the government-huge, overwhelming government-is the solution for everything that might trouble the United States over the next four years. His administration and Congress already propose borrowing almost $2 trillion before the $2.4 trillion of tax revenue collected for fiscal year 2009 has even been spent, and nearly all of that money is going to be spent on government in one way or another.
Frankly, if the various surveys on the subject are correct, large numbers of Americans either reject that kind of government outright or believe that government spending should be severely curtailed. People who believe that government should be limited in its size and scope are going to oppose Obama because they dislike his politics as much as others disliked George Bush’s politics before him.
The next four years promise, in many ways, to look a lot like the past eight, as a result. The only difference between then and now will be Obama. How he chooses to handle the inevitable nature of politics will define a different kind of history, the legacy that every president must endure.