Electing Barack Obama President is not going to solve all of our problems. I've decided to vote for him anyway.
Forget that our country is currently staring down the barrel at a trillion dollar deficit. When you add our national debt, which will reach $10 trillion this year, to unfunded commitments such as social security and medicare, we're looking at a $53 trillion dollar debt. That's $550,000 per household. And both campaign camps are promising us tax cuts? That's fuzzy math.
And with that kind of balance sheet, it will be hard for the next administration to find the cash to fund new programs. Campaign commitments on energy, education, and healthcare will all have to be rolled back. Or maybe it will finally force our president and our Congress to make hard choices, cut programs, and quit catering to special interest groups?
Not likely, but here's to hope.
Every president since Nixon, when we first started to rely on foreign oil, has promised to lead our country to energy independence. As the price of a barrel of oil has been cut in half, will the American people still cry for relief at the gas pump? Can we even afford to implement comprehensive investments in alternative energy? Will Americans continue to trade their pick-ups for a prius? I doubt it.
On the campaign trail, future presidents love to talk about cutting government programs. But what happens after they're elected? President Reagan shut down a total of four government programs. The first President Bush proposed cutting 246 programs, but Congress took a hatchet his plans and he cut eight. President Clinton managed 41 small programs in 1994. Newt Gingrich's Contract with America fell apart at the seams by attempting to eliminate 300 programs to save the tax payer $15 Billion in wasteful spending. They managed $1.5 Billion. And our own President Bush. Well, you read the papers....
During the last debate, I understood why John McCain was so angry. Senator McCain's impressive record of physical, moral, and political courage has become a casualty in this campaign. Our national discourse focuses on what the candidates will do, not what they have done. It doesn't matter that he took a bold and unpopular stance on immigration reform during his primary campaign. It doesn't matter that he stood up to the Bush administration on their incompetent conduct of the war in Iraq. It doesn't matter that he went to Bob Jones University and condemned their religious intolerance as bigotry, a remark that probably cost him the election in 2000.
What matters is what the candidates tell us they will do, but unfortunately there is really very little our next President will be able to do.
During the debates, when I hear McCain state that government is not the solution, I can feel a thrill running up my leg.
So why am I voting for Obama?
I'm voting for Obama because when Senator McCain says that government is not the solution, he sounds exasperated and no one seems to be listening. When Obama says, "we are the change we have been waiting for," the crowd goes wild. Nevermind that it's followed by countless proposals for how government will save the day.
This might be the silver lining to our economic and political woes. Our next president and our Congress will finally be forced to make hard choices, cut programs, and place country before party and constituent. It might be all they are able to afford to do. And it might force the next President to address another hard truth. That we, every day Americans, are also all part of the problem and unless we take responsibility and action, those problems will persist.
No president has been able to make American energy independent because no technological solution to our energy consumption exists. The only real solution is to consume less energy. Something every American must make conscious choices to do.
While I enthusiastically believe every American is entitled to the best healthcare possible, healthcare also starts with healthy living. Something every American must make a conscious choice to do.
While No Child Left Behind left a slew of children behind, our education system will not be fixed by universal testing and increases in funding. Instead, the best Americans must be inspired to teach and incentives must be created to keep them in our schools. Something young and old, especially retiring baby boomers, must make a conscious choice to do.
America's image in the world will not be fixed by one man with a funny name and a great story. And the war on terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism will not be won in the mountains of Afghanistan. Despite rhetoric from both campaigns, it is not the central front in the war on terror. Nor will it be won by spreading the gospel of American democracy. Instead our values will triumph through the example of everyday Americans. Want to win the war on terror? Take in an exchange student. Send your kids abroad. Build an irrigation ditch. Buy a family a goat in Pakistan. Join the peace corps.
And while we wait for the government to make a $700 Billion effort to rescue our economy, it won't mean much unless Americans make a conscious choice to spend less then they make and start saving more of their earnings.
Despite what you may hear in the media or even read on this website, we have two great Americans running for president. The real question is how great are we? I hope the echo of "we are the change we are waiting for" doesn't fade after election day.
I hope Obama will use his voice and popularity to make our country face some difficult truths. That even he cannot solve the issues confronting us today, but that...well...yes, we can.