It’s taken me a while to collect all of my thoughts on Barack Obama’s victory. I chalk this up largely to my own political skepticism: both parties tend to talk big when they’re out of power and accomplish a fraction of what they promised once they’re in power. I suspect that the largest expenditure of political power by elected officials in America isn’t on controversial topics or even reelection, but on mere station keeping. In a perverse way, I think this is something to be grateful for: if it means that our favored politicians accomplish less than we had hoped, it also means that our political bogeymen accomplish less as well. We can already see this happening in the Obama transition: within a week of winning the election, Obama had already softened his position against hiring lobbyists for his transition team. Does this mean we can’t trust anything Obama says? I’d say no, but I think it’s a good reminder that it’s not wise to put too much stock in campaign promises. Or, perhaps, politicians.
Anyway, back to my take on the Obama presidency. To begin, I’d like to think of the positives of Obama’s victory. Fortunately, this is easier to do for Obama than it would be for any other Democrat I could think of, and of nearly every Republican as well. I’ll start with the obvious: Obama is the most appealing candidate either party has backed for a long time. “Vote for Change” is a wonderful slogan, and you can’t do much better for a political platform. “Change” is a popular word, an uplifting word. It’s easy to conflate “different” with “better.” I’ll admit that admiring Obama for effectively using glittering generalities sounds like damning with faint praise, but I do appreciate that we have a candidate who sets him up as a champion for the country and not merely a political party.
Obama also seems to get things that no other politician gets. He’s keen on supporting the development of internet infrastructure as a way to revitalize the American economy. This may not sound like much, but we can be grateful that it’s Obama instead of his fellow senator Ted “Series of Tubes” Stevens. There are good reasons to regard the U.S.’s access to broadband as a public utility rather than a product; for one thing, it would make it easier for the 1/3 of the country for which it is currently unprofitable for companies to provide service.
Obama also seems to be making reasonable choices about developing better sources of energy. What many proponents of alternative energy seem to forget is that neither hydrogen nor battery powered cars are likely to reduce pollution until our power grid is no longer supplied by coal generators (or at least ones using the current generation of technology). Neither party has, until now, done much good in this area, so we can be grateful that it has Obama’s attention.
As for my concerns about Obama’s election, I don’t think, as James Dobson and others have claimed, that an Obama presidency will lead to de facto censorship of politically conservative speech. For one thing, there’s simply no incentive: conservative blogs and talk radio have never been stronger, and the Democrats still managed to elect a president and a majority in each house of Congress. What could they possibly gain from taking a position that’s sure to be controversial to free speech advocates? Obama and his handlers seem to be wise enough tacticians not to push this issue. This is one concern about Obama’s victory that seems safe to disregard.
Then there is the issue of abortion. Barack Obama is probably the most dedicated defender of abortion the presidency has ever seen. His declaration of support for pro-abortion bills currently in the works has been strong and unambiguous, and I call it a safe assumption that whatever campaign promises he reneges on, his support for abortion will be unflagging. Those who voted for Obama for precisely this reason will no doubt be relieved, but those who think, as I do, that abortion is a moral error on the scale of the U.S.’s support of slavery, will justifiably be dismayed by his election. Worse, he doesn’t even appear to have seriously considered alternate views; his glib response to Rick Warren on the issue–”it’s above my pay grade”–is appalling both for what it does and does not say. It does not acknowledge the fact that deciding who is legally considered a person is not, in fact, above his pay grade. It does imply, though not outright, that if fetuses really are human, then termination of them isn’t really a big deal to God, or whomever else Obama considers above his “pay grade.” I’m not a single-issue voter, but I was sufficiently unconvinced about the rest of his platform that this casual indifference to a question I find very important was enough to seal the deal against casting my vote for him. Thoughtful disagreement I can respect and even support, under some circumstances. Obama’s response was not that: it was not respectful, it was not even disagreement. It was indifference bordering on contempt for the question.
Nevertheless, a great many Christians and people who consider themselves to be against abortion voted for Obama. Considering that the Republican party has shown scarcely more interest in the subject than Obama for the past several years, it’s certainly understandable. Yes, Obama supports abortion, but it’s not like the Republicans have done much to oppose abortion besides talk about it. Republicans, in fact, have not accomplished much at all lately, and their campaigning reflected this. Obama’s campaign stood for change; McCain’s campaign stood for…well, pretty much not being Obama. The Republicans counted on voter inertia at the time when it was weakest, and they got trounced for it. This should surprise nobody but the Republican party itself, for they’ve done little in the last eight years to appeal to small government proponents or abortion opponents, their traditional supporters. Judging from their campaign, the Republican party seemed to think that simply showing up to the election was enough to get elected. It’s a little comforting to find out that as pathological as our two-party system is, it still takes a bit more than that to compete.
So what’s the bottom line? I’m going to make a predictive leap and say that some things will get better, some things will get worse, and a lot of things will change hardly at all. I’m not thrilled that such a pro-abortion administration will be in power, but I will say that out of all the Democrats currently in office, Barack Obama is probably the most palatable. I would have preferred a candidate who got more minor things wrong and the major things right, but if nothing else Obama should be good for a some much needed infrastructural housekeeping. In short, Obama’s good enough for government work.
