Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States. As an American, I am proud for what this historic election means for our country; however, I wonder if the electorate really knows what they voted for.
Like many of you, I flipped though the cable networks watching the returns come in Tuesday night. While I was expecting Obama to win, when it came down to the wire, I had “hope” for a “change” in the results towards McCain. Alas this was not the case. Barack Obama, congratulations on winning the race, congratulations on being the first minority president, congratulations on progressing this nation further socially.
With that said, where do we go from here? Well, folks, we have just more than 1,450 days until the next election, so I suggest we make the most of it. I do not believe that Obama’s election is by any means a mandate for liberal socialistic values, even thought this is what people will be getting with Obama.
No, people voted for Obama because conservatives didn’t make their case strongly enough on how to run the country. It didn’t help that our candidate was John McCain. It also didn’t help that McCain ran a softball campaign. I have great respect for him, and I know that he would do a better job than Obama. However, this could have been a much different story if the Republican candidate was Mitt Romney or Fred Thompson.
People elected a socialistic liberal. He believes in universal healthcare and taking what you rightfully earn and give it to people who do nothing. He has surrounded himself with establishment liberals, which is not really “change,” is it? Obama has practically no solid policy, because he has frequently changed his position on the issues. He is the closest thing to a Marxist we have in our country and we will see the effects over the next four years.
Our government is now controlled by the liberal Democrats. They control the House, Senate and the White House. The conservative filibuster option in the senate is now nearly nonexistent. We practically have no power as conservatives. Or do we?
What we do now have is the opportunity to turn the tables on the liberals. We now get to write books calling our president a traitor. We now get to yell and moan every time our “rights” are taken away. We now have the opportunity to act like liberals.
But I doubt we will seriously turn the tables and act like liberals. Unlike them, conservatives can carry on a rational discussion without screaming, hate or vitriol.
So I ask again, what do we do now? We need to take this time to rebuild. We need to let the country see how disastrous a government controlled by liberal socialists is. We need to have new leaders emerge to carry the conservative banner, and to tell people that it is better to keep what you make rather than allow the government to redistribute it. We need to spread the word that it is better to have private health care because it increases competition and decreases price. We need to promote charter school systems to promote competitive education, so students actually learn rather than students just being taught. We need to promote these and other conservative issues.
Once people get the message, and re-elect conservative leaders, we need to hold true to our values and do what is right, not what will supposedly get us reelected.
Conservatives lost this election because they lost their values, they lost their issues and became the same power-abusing, corrupt, pork-barrel spenders they said they were not prior to entering office.
As for the other issues on the ballot, I cannot believe that Proposition 8 passed here in California. I was frankly surprised that in a state so “liberal” and “progressive” people would vote FOR marriage being exclusively between a man and a woman. I personally voted for Proposition 8. I want to make it very clear that I don’t believe that people “shouldn’t” have rights. As I’ve stated before, marriage was started as a religious institution between a man and a woman. The problem is that government co-opted marriage. The same legal rights are currently available to same-sex couples, but it is a civil-union, not a marriage. People are essentially fighting over a title, not over basic freedoms. I contend that if you really want same-sex marriage, fight for government to get out of the marriage business entirely, not the other way around. I am glad Prop 8 passed, because it sends a clear message to activist judges who were legislating from the bench to begin with.
I am disappointed in the other propositions. As Californians, we added several new state-wide bonds. I contended prior to the election that many of these bonds were great in theory, but bad in practice. California does not have the money! We will be forced now to increase our taxes. Thank you voters. Thank you for screwing this state even more.
As a state we also voted yes on Propostion 2. So thank you, too, California voters, for $10 per dozen eggs from China, Mexico and Arizona.
We just lost a battle in the war of politics. It is frustrating as a conservative but is a great opportunity for real change. We are on the road to rebuilding and we can get back in power again. Ronald Reagan once said “there’s no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit.” Let’s move forward and take back the shining beacon on the hill.
Ian Nachreiner is an agricultural science senior and Mustang Daily political columnist.