THE FALL-OUT 

In addition to my policy concerns about an Obama presidency, I have other concerns about the outcome of this election. Many of the messages I feared would be sent have been, and it’s not a pretty picture.

First, although I voted for only one Democratic presidential candidate in my lifetime and lived to regret it (Carter) I do think a strong two-party system is healthy. But over the past ten years or so the radical fringe has taken over the Democratic party. After the elections of 02 and 04 I had hoped the GOP would enjoy at least two more strong election cycles, forcing the Dems to moderate both their positions and their tone in order to win again. Although I no doubt would have voted against them, at least someone like a Bill Richardson or Evan Bayh would have been tolerable. Now even moderate Dems will likely turn left, because the radicals control the money and get out the vote machine. You’d better not cross them—just ask poor Joe Lieberman..

A second concern is what we can expect from future campaigns. After the 2000 campaign the Dems embarked on a strategy of criticizing Bush’s every move, opposing everything on his agenda and blaming him for every bad thing that happened. If something good happened (e.g., catching Saddam Hussein), Bush got no credit, it was all just coincidence. There’s not enough space in a blog to list all of the names and hateful accusations leveled at Bush, Cheney, Karl Rove and all the Republicans in Congress. I believed it would backfire, but obviously I was wrong. Now there’s already discussion of whether our side should employ the same strategy, and the talk show buzz is that it certainly worked. Whether our side goes that route or not, you can bet the Dems will continue to use that strategy, precisely because it did work for them. Get ready for endless attacks on the rich, oil companies, and evangelicals—then once the hatred has been ginned up, they’ll make sure and point out that those groups are loyal GOP supporters. Anyone who thinks the rhetoric is going to cool is smoking something illegal.

This election will also cement the importance of money more than ever. Obama was able to outspend McCain four to one by foregoing limits on spending (after he’d promised he would agree to them), then proceeding to raise obscene amounts of money from sources we’ll never be able to trace. A future Republican candidate would be foolish to agree to spending limits, so we can look forward to even more influence peddling, nastier TV ads than ever and more of them.

And Hollywood, don’t you just love them? Their rhetoric will probably cool for a while because their guy won, but if a Republican ever succeeds at getting into office again, Hollywood now knows that if they turn out enough propaganda in their movies, TV shows, and CD’s or post videos on You Tube ranting against the president or re-treading beloved TV shows (shame on you, Opie!) they can influence public opinion. And one has to wonder if Oprah is already deciding who to anoint in 2016. 

We’ve also learned that mediocrity can be rewarded, but only if you select someone who speaks well and looks good on the cover of People. Make sure you select someone with a blank slate who can’t be pegged for his or her voting record. We may be looking in the wrong places with people like Palin, Jindall, and Huckabee. They’re already known merchandise. Let’s wait until 2010, find some freshman senator who looks good and speaks well, advise them to vote present as often as possible and immediately begin running for president. Hire people to write songs, produce dance movements and videos extolling this person and post them on the internet. Make sure that people who have no faith in a God believe that this person can work miracles, transform lives and save the planet.

Finally, there’s a certain frustration in knowing that while so many of us have been depressed over the last few weeks, parties have been going on in the homes of Michael Moore, George Soros, Keith Olberman, Chris Matthews, and Rosie O’Donnell. It just doesn’t seem fair. And for eight years I’d been hoping that people of their ilk would make good on their threats to move out of the country!