Post-Election Thoughts

This election showed one clear thing: America is still an extremely and deeply racially divided nation. But not so much in the South! States such as Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, etc, which have a majority of African-American population, go red (over issues one can assume), while the presence of Black Panthers who stand outside a voting place in Penn and the admissions of voting twice. Throw in the statements made within the last year by celebrities like Opera (the "ONE") and the immature comments by personalities such as Powell (yeah, Obama has experience...), and you a volatile mix where people who didn't vote for Obama now seem like racists when in fact it seems like the racism seems to be swinging the other way.

As well we see a very obvious want of change from the Bush administration. What would have been interesting is without the racial division, just how close this election might have been. Obama did not have the outstanding popular vote landslide most expected.

With most U.S. precincts tallied, the popular vote was 51.9% for Obama and 46.8% for McCain, making the Illinois senator the first Democrat to win a majority of the popular vote since 1976

See also here.

As well I see that this country has a complete misunderstanding of how the economy works and what will benefit them. Obama went against his liberal background and ran on a conservative talking point: tax cuts. (Ignore the fact that he doesn't actually support tax cuts, but oh well.) Yes McCain blew it on speaking clearly on the economy, and it took a plumber to bring it up. But what would have voters have thought if they knew that the overall Bush policies made people richer overall in the last four years? Here's a comprehensive tax plan by some really smart economists. As well we see exactly what I've been saying all along, in that the stock market has fallen in light of Obama. In all fairness, I heard yesterday that the market had already assumed an Obama victory and had absorbed that reality the past few couple weeks. (So the market plunge I predicted back in August became reality the past couple weeks instead of just today.)

Will we be better under an Obama administration? Depends on if he wants to govern on the basis of his extremely liberal record, or if he will govern on the basis of the pseudo-conservative/moderate agenda he presented himself as post-August. As I've ask people all along, just point me to the reasons why you voted for Obama and on what reason you made that choice. As my father-in-law said (as devil's advocate), a vote for Obama is a gamble. I would add that that it is a gamble, but throw in a heavily Democratic Congress and you have some good odds that what we will see a very liberal agenda being pushed. I recommend this post for a good look on how to survive an Obama presidency, for Republicans and Democrats. See also here, here, here, and here.

Update: A very good article on the next four years under Obama.

Second Update: Complete and utter justification on my stock market predictions!