The value of optimism
I’ve been accused many times in the past of being the Eternal Optimist, and I don’t deny it. I can see the bright side of any situation, whether it is the election to President of someone whose ideas I disagree with or whether it is the onset of a severe recession, possibly a new Great Depression.
If the election of Barack Obama does nothing but show African-Americans once and for all that in America you can become anything so long as you try hard enough, then I’ll accept his election as a positive thing. It may mean that poor blacks will stop complaining and start working, individually, towards achieving the American dream. That would be good for America.
Also, if African-Americans can realize their dream of seeing a black man elected President, maybe Libertarians like me can realize our dream of seeing a freedom-loving Libertarian become President someday. If Obama’s ascendancy to the Presidency has the long lasting effect of showing that America is indeed a special place where opportunity is there for all its citizens, maybe more and more people will come to realize that it is the maximum freedom we have as citizens that makes this possible.
Also, the onset of this economic Depression will not be stopped. If Obama makes moves similar to what FDR made during the last Great Depression of the 30s, it will worsen this economic downturn. Maybe people will learn from these new mistakes that capitalism and economic freedom are the only ways to gradually get the country back out of a severe economic downturn. In the end, it could mean a political plus for the value of capitalism as a political system.
I hope Obama does not try to turn America into a socialist country or restrict gun rights. And I hope he and the Democrat-controlled Congress do not try to put a free-speech-restricting law like the Fairness Doctrine in place to restrict conservative talk radio. I am optimistic that he will fail in those attempts because too many Americans like me will resist him.
For readers of Backwoods Home Magazine, I think we are prepared for any eventuality. We tend to mind our own business and keep working at our personal lives no matter what. We will whether even a socialist political wave in America, and we will certainly do fine in this looming Depression. We are prepared, and the future is bright for us because we have confidence in ourselves.
November 6th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Mama used to say, “Out of everything bad comes something good…sometimes it takes a while but eventually it does”. May it be that the hard road ahead will have a silver lining and in the end that America will be a better place.
November 6th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I have always hoped for the best but prepared for the worst and ridden out many hard times. However, that was with the constitution, bill of rights and checks and balences in place and in tacked. What’s to stop Obama from turning America into a socialist country or restrict gun rights? Or the Democrat-controlled Congress putting a free-speech-restricting law like the Fairness Doctrine in place to restrict conservative talk radio? Us? I hope so… but I’m not so optimistic as I once was.
Look what we let happen so far, the patriot act, military commission act, presidential directive 51, Heabas Corpus gone, FISA wiretaps and numerous other laws put into place for one reason only to be used against the very people they claim to protect. I’m ashamed that we no longer have the moral high ground, that we let torture take place and defended it as a “necessary evil”.
If I was told just 10 years ago that Americans would condone such acts, I would have been very angry and ask how dare they even consider saying that and rightly so! Now I look with a heavy heart and tear in my eye at what we allowed us to become… and still people remain apathetic, waiting for a politician, a president, a patriot to fix things. Waiting for “Change” but refusing to be active, to do their part to facilitate the Change. We are in big trouble.
Sorry if I’m a bit Opinionated. I have had enough of my civil liberties taken away from me by the past administration not to be fearful. So bear with me for not trusting this guy.
OK, I’ll be generous and give Obama the whole four years of his initial term to make significant progress on the following issues. Here are some questions about “change” that I will be keeping track of until 2012.
- Will Obama repeal Patriot Acts I and II as well as reversing Bush’s signing statement and acknowledging the repeal of the John Warner Defense Authorization Act?
- Will Obama support Dennis Kucinich’s efforts to bring war crimes charges against Bush, Cheney and others for deceiving the country into a war or will he protect them against such charges like Nancy Pelosi has done?
- Will Obama bring war crimes charges against Bush, Cheney and others for authorizing torture and will the torture of suspects under U.S. detention, a complete violation of both the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions, cease under an Obama administration?
- Will Obama withdraw American troops from Iraq and Afghanistan without sending them away again to bomb another broken-backed third world country in the name of a UN-supported “humanitarian” war?
- Will Obama end the warrantless secret surveillance and phone-taps of American citizens?
- Will Obama follow through on his rhetorical support for the second amendment or will he seek to ban guns as he did in Illinois?
- Will Obama cease his support for the Bush-administration backed banker bailouts, hated by the majority of Americans, and target the real cause of the problem – the Federal Reserve – or will he continue to give taxpayers’ money to banks who are merely hoarding it all for themselves?
- Will Obama seek to continue the militarization of America and preparations for martial law through Northcom and the secret government or will he dismantle the police state that has been constructed over the last eight years by the Bush administration?
There can be no excuses – either Obama will be proven to be a liar or he will, backed by Democratic control of Congress and the Senate, follow through on his mandate for “change”.
In the meantime I’ll buy more guns and ammo, buy more land, become as self sufficient as possible and speak my mind even if my voice shakes (outside a “free speech” zone).
~Brogan
The first amendment is there to protect unpopular speech. Popular speech needs no protection.
~Governor Jesse Ventura
November 7th, 2008 at 5:46 am
This is very well said. If I may add one thing… I am 36 and I came to this great country after living under Communism for most of my life. So I have a hard time understanding the race issue in this country since we never had slavery in Romania. I also have a hard time understanding why anyone would ever want to purposefully vote a socialist or a communist into office. But with that said, if the act of voting a black man into office was done out of the guilt of the many, it ultimately make it an empty gesture which has no value. If racism is truly a problem in the U.S., things will not change until people’s hearts willing change and understand that we are all equal under God and under the Constitution.
Ultimately, Obama can do very little of what he’s promised. At least I hope so.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Obama has already committed to reneg on his promise to honor the second:
http://www.change.gov/agenda/urbanpolicy/
It’s in the name of “the children”, of course. Didn’t take long, did it?
November 7th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
First of all, as Brogan detailed above, our country is already some strange mix of a socialist/fascist state. We need not wait for Obama to move us any further along this path. We’re there!
That’s an excellent list by the way Brogan.
One thing I like about Obama, even though he wasn’t my candidate (I wrote in Rep. Ron Paul), is that for the first time in a long time, we have a president (elect) that can speak and speak well. He can motivate and give people hope. Now, of course, if his ideas are wrong, then this can be a bad thing, but even the best leaders are nothing if they cannot communicate. President Bush in particular, couldn’t talk a complete sentence if his life depended on it, never mind an inspirational one. On the other hand, in terms of inspiring and leading, FDR, JFK, Reagan, Churchill….Obama *could* fit in here, but only time will tell.
We won’t be pulled out of this Depression by FDR-modeled solutions or probably any other solutions other than to re-localize our economies, economies built on individual freedom as well as economies built on less fossil fuel dependency. I’m one of those folks that believe that, beyond all the reasons that say our credit crunch is caused by govt. policies, that the *real* reason our economy has cratered is because modern economic growth is nearly completely dependent on fossil fuels, especially oil. When cheap oil ceased to exist, growth took a pause. Meanwhile we have to understand that the heavy use of credit is dependent on future income growth – otherwise the borrowers (individual, corporate, governmental, it’s all the same) cannot hope to easily pay back what they borrowed if future income becomes stagnant, or even worse, less than previous. Simply put, the end of cheap oil was the final straw that broke the credit camel’s back. Indeed, it was cheap oil that allowed us a lifestyle that over the past 50 years helped us grow complacent with the use of credit (again at all levels, personal, corporate, governmental) to begin with. Given our wildly growing economy of the past decades, courtesy of cheap energy, future income growth seemed assured and we took for granted that we could dangerously overextend our use of credit (including perhaps, extending credit for people to buy houses that couldn’t really afford them.) Now, however, we see the end result and it’s pretty ugly.
Lastly, FDR’s Depression came at a time when the US was virtually *swimming* in oil, coal, and natural gas – stuff that back then, was getting cheaper every day. We were the Saudia Arabia of oil back in the 1930s. We also had 1/4 of our people still on or very near farms, and our industrial infrastructure was brand-spanking new and the envy of the world. None of this is true any more. We are in for a very rough time now I fear, (and this is probably true even had *my* candidate won!) You’re darn right FDR’s solutions are no solution this time, more so than even you, Dave, might think. Still, I don’t believe Americans are quite as soft and ignorant as is contemporarily supposed. Maybe we can grow to the challenge, with or without President-Elect Obama.
Best regards,
Stephen Beltramini
Walpole, MA
November 7th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
That didn’t take long…. I guess I was right to be worried.
Here’s a direct quote from his web page.
~Brogan
http://www.change.gov/agenda/urbanpolicy/
Address Gun Violence in Cities:
As president, Barack Obama would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals who shouldn’t have them. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent, as such weapons belong on foreign battlefields and not on our streets.
November 8th, 2008 at 7:09 am
PS- How can you child proof a gun? Why would you want to? Is he assuming we’ll let kids play with our guns?
Get a gun safe… problem solved. What’s next? Child proofing power tools? Cars? What happend to “Good old fashioned parenting”?
~B.
November 9th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
I’m sorry I can’t share your optimism . . . and I’m somewhat shaken by all the previous writers’ innocence. This is not a ‘maybe’ thing, folks, its a ‘done’ thing. Obama doesn’t give a damn about poor black laborers down in Mississippi, or Union Electricians in Chicago.
I’m amazed at the lack of knowledge and understanding of who this guy is, where he’s been and what he intends to do. You can kiss
your gun rights goodbye, and your 401K and your right to choose your own doctor, and all the rest.
I wouldn’t advertise too widely that you have the ability to get by on your own. Individualism is not in this guy’s playbook. Freedom, as we know it, is not in his lexicon. This is going to be a long, rough ride, and we will never recover from this election. If you hated Bush, you’re really going to love the next thirty years.
December 30th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Brogan,
What they mean by “child-proofing” is designing built-in mechanical locks that literally lock the action so the weapon cannot be used. It probably also includes “smart” weapons which are based on electronic technology that only allows an authorized individual to operate the weapon.
There is also a push to serialise ammunition by laser etching a matching serial number on the case and bullet of each round. A similar technology is one in which the firearm stamps a micro dot code on each round that is fired.
Some states have actually passed legislation requiring one or more of these technologies on all firearms or ammunition sold in their state.
If you do a search for things like “smart guns”, “micro-dot stamping of ammunition” and “serialised ammunition” you should be able to pull up some applicable articles. According to the NRA, legislation to require serialised ammunition, which includes keeping track of who purchased what ammo, is being introduced in 18 states.
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” — Thomas Jefferson
February 6th, 2009 at 8:07 am
As usual you are way ahead of things Dave. Here is an article where a Senator is pledging to take action to bring “balance”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0209/Sen_Stabenow_wants_hearings_on_radio_accountability_talks_fairness_doctrine.html?showall