2008: The Year of the Lose-Lose Election

As November nears, it becomes increasingly obvious that whoever wins the American Presidential election this year, Americans themselves will lose.

Should Barack Obama find his bid for the highest office in the land successful, he will be supported by a majority Democratic Congress. The size of the majority is still open for debate, but it seems extremely unlikely in today's political climate that there will be fewer seats controlled by liberals in January than there are now. Should the advances of the left be large, it could well become nearly impossible to prevent them from uniting with their new leader to fully implement their platform. Given Obama's vaguely stated agenda, we can only guess at the proposals and programs he will advance, but certain known facts serve to educate our guess.

Illinois' junior Senator has a circle of friends more suited to a gangster movie than the White House. There is William Ayers, a radical, homegrown terrorist who sought to destroy his own country and, to this day, regrets only that he was not more successful in his efforts. Or the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, whose blatant racism and hatred of everything America stands for are somehow characterized as celebrating the love of Jesus Christ. Syrian-born Antoin Rezko is more reminiscent of The Godfather than a respected business and community leader. And these are only the stars of the Obama show - the other strong political influences in Senator Obama's cast of characters include Saul Alinsky, a radical left-wing revolutionary, Frank Marshall Davis, labor activist and member of the Communist Party, and many others of a similar ilk. These are not the ideological mentors most of us would choose for ourselves or our children - what possible reason could there be to choose them for our President?

The few glimpses of the Obama Doctrine that we have been able to deduce promise higher taxes in the name of fairer distribution of resources - from each according to his ability, to each according to his need. It didn't work when Marx proposed it - a system which removes all incentive to produce never will. He has hinted that he would unilaterally seek to disarm our Nation as a gesture of goodwill to a world which, if we believe what he and his wife tell us, harbors us no good will in return. He has promised to sit down face-to-face with the leaders of nations that are actively seeking our destruction, apparently believing that his rhetorical gifts alone will overcome maniacal religious beliefs and tyrannical pursuit of power. Can't we all just get along?

The list of reasons why it is absolutely unacceptable for this man to be elected to the most powerful office on the planet is long, and has nothing to do with the circumstances of his birth or the color of his skin - as Dr. Martin Luther King might have said, it is the content of his character which renders him untenable.

Surely the American electorate will realize this? The outlook is bleak. Americans, as a people, have become so complacent and uninformed it is nearly criminal. His supporters, more often than not, can give only one reason for their blind worship: change. He promises change. They are investing in him their own responsibilities - he has promised them that he will change the things they don't like. Which things they don't like? All of them, of course. How will he do this? He brings hope and has new ideas. What has he ever done to show that his ideas will change anything in your life for the better? The silence is long...finally, a muttered platitude: Well, he gives such great speeches! Great speeches. Pretty words. Giving the followers a blank canvas on which to paint their most beautiful dreams. Invoking good will in the masses - the same technique he plans to use on those rogue leaders. There's just one problem: the rogue leaders are paying attention and know that there is no substance behind the rhetoric...the ultimate paper tiger, with flowers in his hair. It will be the downfall of this and many other countries should this vacuous man emerge victorious.

However, even if he loses, our country still cannot win. Few are excited about John McCain as a President, but those of us who are paying attention know that there is absolutely no comparison in how he would govern. We would likely spend four years fighting bitterly against policies that are anathema to many of our strongest beliefs. We will win some of those fights, and lose others, some of which may be costly. But, in our hearts, we know that Senator McCain will always fight for the sovereignty of our Nation and would give his own life to protect her citizens. While we cannot exactly regard this as a complete win, neither can we call it a total loss. We can be confident that we would not have socialized medicine or massive taxes for the producers with generous gifts for the indolent, and our military would remain strong and able to furnish us the protection which is, after all, the first responsibility of our government.

So why is this still a loss?

For the last eight years, our citizenry has been deeply divided politically, in no small part due to the bitterly contested 2000 election. While every measure has shown, in retrospect, that the election was correctly settled, millions of our citizens, nearly all left-leaning, still regard it as an illegitimate election. They remain deeply wounded by this perceived injustice, and every controversial decision made by the Bush administration has, in their view, been wrong to the point of pure evil. This hatred and sense of injustice has grown in these people, feeding their almost living, breathing, desire for...change.

So desperate have they become that they have lost whatever critical thinking skills they may have once possessed. There is no amount of hard evidence that can penetrate the aura of the chosen one who will lead them out of their misery. They will follow him blindly, without regard for the reality that he will bring to their lives, because it is life's blood to them - finally, after all these years of personal suffering, there is hope! He is Prince Charming, the Messiah, even Santa Claus, come to fulfill their long oppressed dreams.

Were he to win, their illusions would quickly be dashed. The reality of his failing policies would snowball within a few months after his inauguration, making it impossible for them to continue to believe and leaving them hollow and disappointed as they watched their country decline.

But should he lose...

If he is beaten, they will never know the bullet they dodged. They will never realize how narrowly the free country that allows their dissidence escaped a course that would leave us with much less liberty, immeasurably less strength and greatly diminished dignity and pride.

All they will see is the imagined prejudice of those who voted against their Savior. The facts which the thinking can see without having them come to pass will never be in the grasp of these desperate souls. The pain they have carried for eight years will intensify to a peak heretofore unknown. They will resent the blindness of their fellow citizens and mourn the loss of the utopia they envisioned with all the passion of a bereaved lover. The split in our political soul, as a Nation, will be more deeply reft than ever before. The racial divide will be intensified to a level not seen in our lifetimes, if ever, for there will be no convincing the bereaved that their loss was not due to pigmentation.

This is a terrible year for our great America, perhaps the worst in her illustrious history. It is difficult at this moment to see how we can ever overcome the rift that will result on November 4th, regardless of the outcome of the vote.