Left, right, don't believe the hype

[mindstalk]

So, yay! I got to vote for the winner for once. And as the LA Times said, when Obama was born, black people couldn't even vote in much of the country, and would be killed for trying. And people still remember when lots of small towns would kill blacks who stayed around after sundown.

CA re-banned gay marriage, but the exit polls I saw suggest that will change, with the youngest voters being massively against Prop 8. Notably, a similar measure wasn't on the ballot in Massachusetts, which decriminalized marijuana. Michigan legalized medical marijuana, and various abortion restrictions were defeated in South Dakota and Colorado. Summary. OTOH:

In Arkansas, voters approved a measure on the ballot to bar unmarried couples from adopting or taking in foster children. The referendum is intended as a constitutionally permissible way to prevent gays from adopting, supporters say.

Because the GOP is the party of liberty...


But a reminder to both sides to not get carried away. Obama's vaguely liberal. He's more conservative and right-wing than most of the people I know: opposes gay marriage, supports the death penalty, flipped on FISA, hasn't renounced signing statements, and his health care plans have been decided not universal, with no mandate. An ideal Obama Nation would be automatically barred from joining the EU, and wouldn't rise to the standard of collective care set by Thailand or Singapore, let alone Sweden. By world standards he's center-right. By US standards he's centrist-left, not obviously more liberal than Bill Clinton, or for that matter Richard Nixon on many issues. In the primaries, Clinton Edwards and Obama were pretty much on top of each other in political position maps.

So, to the liberals and left, be happy, but also be watchful, and keep in mind that even if he does everything he says he wants, we'd be disappointed both by not going far enough and by doing the wrong thing.

To the right and conservatives, please to be not believing your own hype. He's far left only if you think McCain and Palin are center. By US historical standards, his policies are ultimately banal and little we haven't seen before. That includes the Fairness Doctrine talk, which I'm not thrilled by but am less nervous about after reading Wikipedia; been there, done that, renting airwaves from the public may come with restrictions. There is little risk of us turning us into Sweden and raising our GDP/capita by $5000. He might be the most gun-hostile President we've had, but I'm not sure about that, and hey, Congress. Lots of pro-gun Democrats there. Those horrible horrible taxes come after Bush tax cuts that have inflated our debt to $30,000 per American, and will probably still be lower than the taxes of the 1950s and 1960s, that era of dreadful stagnation.

Links:
* Bush tries to cram things through
* Newsweek gives an "inside look" at the campaign, from more Palin shopping sprees to Obama's VP deliberations.
* Massachusetts kept the income tax, someone notes what this might mean for libertarians.
* Random legislature proposal in Somerville, MA.

Predictions for posterity:
http://johncwright.livejournal.com/199898.html
http://btripp.livejournal.com/886823.html
http://m-fallenangel.livejournal.com/509885.html
http://rhjunior.livejournal.com/431715.html
http://mistressannie.livejournal.com/172263.html
http://jordan179.livejournal.com/100836.html

Comments

[pompe.livejournal.com]

Mr Wright is calling homosexuality a "sexual deformity", I note. Classy.

Sometimes I wonder what these right-wing nuts would say if they saw real social-liberals or socialists and not social-conservatives like Obama.

[pompe.livejournal.com]

I'll say this in defense of Mr Bassior, however, that I actually agree on one count and do fear Obama if he goes for protectionist measures would make the world economy worse and make the recession a depression. Trade wars would be an outright disaster in the coming years.