Trying for Optimism Here
By 10:00 PM on November 6, 2012, the results of the election were obvious. You could tell by the jaunty leg-swinging and the body language of the MSM reporters. At that point, I felt sorrow for what could have been and would not be in a Romney presidency. I also felt that there is a lot more complexity and there are often unpredictable long-range consequences to a single event such as this.
In the short term, it would have felt good and validating to replace the current overbearing and high-handed administration with a rational, managerial and significantly less political team. It would have provided the immediate pleasure and satisfaction of remonstrating them through defeat.
However...
Had Romney won, the liberals would have had a martyr. They would also have forever after wailed about how things were just turning around and ever-growing government power was just about to demonstrate its efficacy when - boom - the rug was pulled out from under them. And finally, any future problems, many set in motion by this administration, would have been laid at the feet of the new administration.
Now, the consequences of the policies and actions of the first four years are becoming manifest. The arrogance of the first term has become hubris. The caution (such as there was) of an administration trying to get reelected has given way to carelessness and imperiousness. Enough time has passed to allow the weakness of the philosophy of centralized top-down big government to result in various failures.
My hope is that the current administration will now suffer real consequences where a loss in November would have insulated them forever. There are no what-ifs to ponder but only concrete results.
And finally, this may result in a far more effective correction to overweaning government (IRS and the dysfunctional tax code, inefficient government management of health insurance and care, tax revenue mis-allocation to favored industries) than would have occurred if Romney's election had provided partial relief and taken the pressure off these issues.
In the short term, it would have felt good and validating to replace the current overbearing and high-handed administration with a rational, managerial and significantly less political team. It would have provided the immediate pleasure and satisfaction of remonstrating them through defeat.
However...
Had Romney won, the liberals would have had a martyr. They would also have forever after wailed about how things were just turning around and ever-growing government power was just about to demonstrate its efficacy when - boom - the rug was pulled out from under them. And finally, any future problems, many set in motion by this administration, would have been laid at the feet of the new administration.
Now, the consequences of the policies and actions of the first four years are becoming manifest. The arrogance of the first term has become hubris. The caution (such as there was) of an administration trying to get reelected has given way to carelessness and imperiousness. Enough time has passed to allow the weakness of the philosophy of centralized top-down big government to result in various failures.
My hope is that the current administration will now suffer real consequences where a loss in November would have insulated them forever. There are no what-ifs to ponder but only concrete results.
And finally, this may result in a far more effective correction to overweaning government (IRS and the dysfunctional tax code, inefficient government management of health insurance and care, tax revenue mis-allocation to favored industries) than would have occurred if Romney's election had provided partial relief and taken the pressure off these issues.
posted by alison @ 1:01 PM
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