ReformedEsq

An attorney's reflections on life, law, theology, sports, and other random topics. Enjoy!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

This Election

I honestly have no interest in politics, but I will comment on the current status of things; to be honest, before Palin was added to the ticket, I didn't really think that McCain was a great choice, but better than the alternative. In a way, McCain almost holds back Palin, because she's having to temper her more conservative views to his more moderate views.

But make no mistake, the Obama "machine" (pollsters, mainstream media, etc) is trying everything in their power to get him elected; if he does, make no mistake. He WILL bring change, though not a change that everyone will be happy with (and even those who are drinking the kool-aid will be happy with either). His administration will bring a level of government intervention that we have never seen, censorship of opposition (through use of 4th branch entities such as the FCC), and taxes beyond belief.

Obama was here a week ago and the scene (according to a friend of mine who went just to see what it was like) was sad, to be honest. People were treating Obama much like a rock star, even a savior; crying when he spoke, like they hung on his every word. I've got a message for those folks: There's not a person on this earth that's infallible, and everyone's going to let you down. I've already got a Savior who holds my very soul in his hands. Government cannot save you (ask the Russians) and Obama cannot save you (and neither can the Republicans!); I watched a great special the other night on 20/20 with John Stossel where he illustrated how great things work when government DOESN'T get involved. He correctly exposed the credit crisis as a result of too much regulation and too much intervention. People like to think that price controls and bailouts are the only way to go; however, we the people control our own destinies through the market.

That's right: we have the power as the consumer. How do I know that? Just look at gas prices. They were telling us at the beginning of the summer that prices would reach $5 and go higher and higher; so you know what? We (as a country) combined trips; we carpooled; we didn't take that vacation trip and had a staycation. So what happened to the gas prices? It's dropped nearly a buck and a half in less than 4 months. Did the government do that (no, though I could give some credit to Bush for stating some months ago that he was repealing the executive order against drilling off the coast--gas prices did drop a little after he said that). By cutting our demand, supply increased and gas stations, in a free market, began to charge less and less; this is the advantage of competition. I just read today that the price for a barrel of oil is STILL falling, despite OPEC cutting production.

However, this will not be allowed in an Obama administration, the idea of a "free market." The problem with the Democratic Party ideal is that they want two things that cannot coexist: they want everyone to have jobs by MAKING corporations pay a certain amount and then penalizing them with tax increases since they're so "greedy" with profits. The disconnect here is that it is profits that create jobs; it's the business owner that has a five-year plan to open another branch or even franchise that gets undercut in this idea by heavy taxes. If he is heavily taxed, he won't see the incentive to expand, create more jobs, etc, so those jobs are never created and the economy never sees the increase. Minimum wage is another issue; by INCREASING minimum wage, they have in fact let down employees trying to find good jobs. You see, if the minimum was where it used to be, then employers and employees would negotiate in an open market what one was willing to pay and the other was willing to accept.

Change is coming, alright; it's up to the American people what change they want. I had thought about writing a few posts on what I would do if I became president, but I think I've gotten political enough for one season.

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