Obama vs McCain

I've been trying to stay away from blogging on the presidential candidates mainly because it's such a depressing subject. But I knew I couldn't stay away from it completely. So here are a few thoughts which I admit are mostly speculation at this point in time.

Barak Obama is a collectivist, altruist and statist. He is a rookie in politics and he doesn't seem to know much about history. He's a firm believer in sacrifice including forced sacrifices as evidenced by his 'we can no longer enjoy prosperity and expect others to like us' speech which also shows his second handedness.

If elected president, I see him being pulled in different directions. There will be those who will pressure him not to do anything that would hurt or destroy the chances of future black men to get elected. A 'once in a lifetime, ground-breaking opportunity so don't screw it up' kind of pressure will be present.

There will be those who will tell him he has a mandate to bring about 'change', the main slogan of his campaign. What kind of change? He will do what all sacrificers do when it becomes obvious that all previous sacrifices haven't worked: call for more and bigger sacrifices. A non-sacrificial course of action is alien to his mind.

I figure that because of his inexperience and second handedness, he will be somewhat paralyzed to move at least at first and will do nothing without a consensus of his cabinet. If his cabinet suggests one course of action, he will not go against it.

On foreign policy, the main driver will be to make other nations-including our enemies-like us. This will mean presenting to the world a militantly straight-spined, shoulders back, chin up image--while on one's knees posture. It won't make anyone like us of course, but the glee with which our enemies will view our moral cowardice and self-immolation will be viewed as approval and all will be right with the world in Obamaland, just as it was in Carterland.

What kind of concrete policies he'll propose is hard to say now but for sure appearances will mean everything. I think he will call for a world summit on Iraq with a view towards getting the troops out. Perhaps he'll call for a summit on world oil prices too. I don't see him nationalizing the oil companies ala Maxine Waters but I do see him appeasing her and her Marxist ilk with a windfall profits tax which will punish corporate greed. The press will swoon over this one. Do you see the republicans standing up to defend greed? Me neither.

On the domestic front--I call it a front because the intellectuals are at war with the general population--I'm wondering if he'll come out with some "Great Society" type of program. I think he's too green for that right now. Maybe in his second term. (Biting my tongue)

One thing I think he will do is offer a giant program to improve and/or save inner city schools most of which are utter failures. It will require a massive allocation of taxpayer dollars into such schools. Or perhaps, no taxes will be needed. Obama could easily use these schools' plight as an altruistic excuse for the windfall profits tax, the money from which would go directly to said schools. The media will kneel before him.

But like all the white presidents of the past, he will not even try to look for the root causes of those schools' failures: an irrational curriculum fostered by government encouragement. To do that he would have to take on the educational establishment. But that would be seen as political suicide and thus not happen. It won't happen even though taking on the educational establishment, that is, reincorporating phonics into the reading classes, structuring math classes hierarchically and providing a historically contextual science curriculum, would virtually guarantee his reelection. Sad.

When I look at John McCain I see an older and craftier Obama. He too is a collectivist, altruist and statist. They both believe in forced sacrifices. Whereas Obama wants Americans to be sacrificed to lower life forms and 'change' which means more and bigger sacrifices, McCain wants Americans to be sacrificed to lower life forms and the homeland. Whereas Obama wants Americans to sacrifice the products of freedom, SUVs etc., McCain aims directly at freedom itself via forced service to the homeland and his hostility to free speech.

Obama says we can no longer afford the prosperity of our freedom, McCain says yes we can but we must purchase our freedom in annual installments of self-sacrifice. In other words, we can buy our freedom by giving up pieces of it. This of course can have only one outcome: the loss of all freedom. That is why I think McCain is the more dangerous of the two.

Things will get a little clearer as the election draws nearer, maybe more so when each gives his acceptance speech at their conventions. I know I'll be blogging on this election a few more times but I dread the task.

(Speaking of dread, I was listening to a conservative talk radio show this morning and they were discussing the possibility of Obama, if elected, appointing Hillary to the Supreme Court! Talk about a nightmare!) [Is that even possible?]