I was watching the 2 hour special of Dateline NBC that was pretty much indicating Barack Obama was the greatest person on the planet. It made me chuckle. All this pomp and circumstance for someone who has yet to become President.
January 20th, 2009 reflects a new change in American politics and I hope that the new President will get the economy back on track without damaging my pocketbook or taking my rights away. If he can, then I will gladly vote for him the next time around. I am skeptical about his ability to do all of this, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
8 years ago and 4 years ago, I made some predictions about the upcoming 4 years after an election and the friend I was speaking with told me I should have written them down. So, for the sake of reflection, I will write my predictions down here. Because of this election:
1. It's ok to send your kids to a posh, private school, despite liberals getting on conservatives for doing this.
2. Anyone who disagrees with President Obama's policies will be a racist.
3. Going along with #2, it's ok to accuse anyone who disagrees with him, a racist.
4. It's ok to spend billions of dollars and go further into debt, because a liberal is in the White House.
5. It's ok to support bailouts of irresponsible corporations and homeowners, because a liberal proposed it.
6. A President who did not serve in the military is ok.
7. Relying on yourself instead of the government is a sign of weakness.
8. It's ok to shut out Republicans from the government, even though Democrats once said it was wrong to do.
9. "Change we can believe in" will not include bi-partisan solutions, freedom of speech, a hands-off government, self-reliance, lower taxes, or non-violent protests.
10. The "fairness" doctrine will only apply to conservative-dominant areas, such as talk radio.
11. Even though the following were not good indicators of the state of the country, or were inflated, or flat out wrong, when they improve, they will be considered valid indicators for the new administration: the NASDAQ index, unemployment numbers, the number of people who are uninsured, and the deficit level.
12. Hard questions for President Obama will be considered unreasonable.
13. There will not really be any hard questions for most of his administration.
These are just a few predictions for the upcoming 4 years.
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5 comments:
i love you dearly, but find it decidedly disconcerting how blindly conservative you are sometimes. it's quite puzzling, actually, because you often speak of people who are so ensconced in their views that they just cannot see around them long enough to keep from becoming a cynic. Being cynical is an unfortunate malady.
I suppose by definition, my openness and optimism would make me a raging liberal, ready to lob illogical and misplaced racism cries at every turn. So be it, I guess, but I have a different set of predictions entirely and none of them involve anyone as "savior".
In response to the "hard questions" comment, I didn't notice the previous president's ability to answer any questions at all, hard or easy. I think he thought it would be kinda fun to be the president, so that's what he did. And look how well off we are under his management. And yes, this mess is more than just a cycle.
Hard questions need to be asked. Your response is simply to say "well, the other guy could not or did not answer them". Does that make this time around an excuse not to answer them? Rather, it should be a reason TO answer them. I don't see that happening. His press secretary's first conference was a disaster because he could not answer a questio. And heaven forbid Obama should be hit with a question on his first visit with the press corps. His answer was to say it was not the proper forum.
Say what you will regarding "openness", but know this. I know what is right and what is wrong for me, and what works for me. I am more liberal in some viewpoints and not so much in others. But the end result is the same. I know what is the right path to choose.
Today, as I was at work, discussing the stimulus with a co-worker, we were interrupted by another co-worker who said something quite interesting. She accused both of us (white males), of being closet racists. Why? I asked her why. The answer was simple- because I was critical of the President's plan. Nothing was said in the initial conversation about the President's race, because it had nothing to do with anything. Because I did not support a black President's plan, I was in the wrong.
I told her I was very critical of former President Bush's insistence on the frst bailout. Interestingly enough, I commented on this on another blog that she frquents, and she and I discussed the blog entry at one time. Did that make me a racist then? Of course not, because Bush was a white male too. It made sense then.
The problem with most liberal minds is that they cannot distinguish two things. They fail to realize that to be truly open-minded, it means they must accept that both sides may be right. They also fail to accept that dissent is needed, and not only when it benefits them. See the above discussion for a perfect example of the failure to understand this.
Not all liberals will react this way, but many will. And those that do give the rest a bad name.
Shall I hold you to every stupid bigoted thing any conservative has ever said then? I don't imagine you would like it any more than liberals do.
"They also fail to accept that dissent is needed, and not only when it benefits them."
Do you honestly fail to see that this applies to the Republican Party as well?
If your HuffPo biography is accurate, then you grew up in almost identical fashion to me. I ended up quite liberal. I could just as easily substitute my own strawman argument for yours saying that conservatives would hate my life story because my parents chose careers they felt made a positive difference in the world over ones that just made lots of money, and because my mom went back to work.
It would be equally as accurate.
1.It's not sending your kids to a posh private school, so much as the systematic dumbing-down and de-funding of the public school system.
2.Anyone who disagrees with President Bush's policies will be called a traitor.
3.Going along with #2, it's ok to accuse anyone who disagrees with him of being un-American.
4.It's ok to spend trillions on a "war" you entered on false pretenses because...?
5.Ok, you must have your strawmen mixed up. Liberal strawmen only support bailing out homeowners. Conservative strawmen only want to bail out big corporations.
6.Since when was that a requirement?
By all accounts Grant was a terrible president. It always _has_ been ok.
7. ...Which is why red states receive higher percentages of welfare dollars?
8. It's ok to refuse to compromise in any way and then whine about how you were "shut out"
9.Republican politicians and pundits have told me for years that the things you list are Bad, Bad, Bad, so why would you want it to include them?
10-11
Too big a guess. We'll just have to see, I suppose.
12.-13. Seriously? After the last 8 years, seriously?!
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