Obama

Sticking Up For the Little Guy

Obama is truly the peoples’ man!  He fights for the underdog – he plans to tax the wealthy and give to the poor.  A latter-day Robin Hood kinda guy.  Sounds great doesn’t it?  BUT these tales of Guy-Fawkes style hero-villains come with Caveats that are sometimes forgotten.

Obama is definitely not shy about his tax proposals, and I realised this morning that his presidency may be marked by quite a few concessions given to the working class families. Could this even mean a very slight shift towards SOCIALISM for America?

One of the most fundamental tenets of a democracy is the freedom of choice.  With choice comes risk.  With risk comes the potential to fail.  And failure results in poverty.  Poverty is an inherent component of democracy and something we cannot take away no matter how much we may want to.

Perhaps oddly, the statement many on the left will use to justify this, is an utterance you might expect from the religious right: “Love thy neighbour”, the basic idea that we all deserve a chance in life, or the idea that everyone is entitled to some kind of basic living certainly don’t sound like bad ideas.   But it’s actually the fairly inconspicuous words that polarise the debate : ‘deserve’, ‘entitled’.

To what extent am I responsible for my neighbour?

This is because the more conservative will tend to take a more competitive assessment of the situation – that wealth has to be worked for, risked, invested.  And that – having earned the wealth by the rules fairly and squarely – it would be unfair of someone to suddenly change all that and simply take it away to pay for someone else’ failure.

But in all of this it is easy to forget that some are born into a situation in which there is no opportunity to grow.  That – through no fault of their own – some potentially very useful members of society can become neglected.  Yet with the smallest of contributions, some of these people might become a great asset to their families, to their community and to their country.

Clearly no man is an island.  It would be foolish to assume that our success or failure happens in isolation with no impact to those around us.  Equally, there must come a point when one person says to another ‘I have only a very tiny stake in your life, and you must bear most of the risk’.

I am really looking forward to Obamas presidency. He goes against the grain of everything we’ve seen so far. And when people call him ‘radical’ I jump for joy because it shows how far he is from where we are at the moment, and this can’t be a bad thing.

As I write, I can’t help feeling as though the election is already over and that I am just waiting for Obama to be inaugurated. He seems to have effortlessly taken the lead in almost every situation and debate without even breaking a sweat.  While poor McCain walks around awkwardly with a sickly smile, watching Palin stumble blindly from one fiasco to the next.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama speaks at a rally in Reno, Nevada on Saturday (JAE C. HONG / AP / October 25, 2008)

Yesterday I read about Palin being questioned over a possible abuse of power, meanwhile Obama took time out from his campaign to visit his sick grandmother.

Two days ago I was told how Palin had splurged $150k on a clothes shopping spree , while Obama gave a delightful interview in front of his house with his family.  Not so long ago, I remember an interview in which John McCain had lost track of how many houses he actually has.

Only last week, we met ‘Joe the Plumber’, who (it would turn out) was neither a registered plumber, nor who’s real name was Joe and who – it would later turn out – owed back taxes under the current scheme.  His argument was that the democratic tax proposal was unfair.  BUT even this attempt by the Republicans seemed to fall flat on it’s face, as the proposed tax plan will only affect those on $250K p.a. income, and Joe’s argument hinged on him buying a business that was worth $250k (not that he would necessarily turn over this much profit, or that it would otherwise affect him in anyway.)  But oddly, none of this seemed to deter the Republicans from using him as a poster victim of Democratic tax proposals.

Barack Obama drew a crowd of about 35,000 people on the 23rd of October at the American Legion Mall in Indianapolis. (EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)

Liberal Media and Conspiracies Against The Wealthy

I have heard many die-hard Republicans claim the liberal media are conspiring against them.  I’ve heard Republicans say [of Obama] ‘He’s One Of THEM’ (and when questioned, the lady elaborated that ‘them’ meant an ‘Arab’).  I’ve heard republicans claim that Obama is a Muslim in secret, or that he is somehow connected with die-hard terrorists.

Recently, I read about Ashley Todd who cut herself, claiming to have been attacked and robbed by a black man who had carved ‘B’ into her cheek, supposedly provoked by the sight of the McCain bumper sticker.  All of which later turned out to be lies.

I’ve noticed Republicans’ hidden messages and double entendres contained in their broadcasts, referring to Obama as having a ‘shady‘ past, or ‘dark‘ character or emphasizing his middle name is … ‘HUSSEIN‘ (as though the letters in someones’ surname is a rational reason for people to fear the person himself!)

Is Change The Real Reason?

None of this detracts from the great leadership of Obama and his ability to stay cool under pressure.  He really is starting to look like a great world leader.  But the truth is that McCain is a great guy too.  Of all the Republicans, I believe he is a good man for the job, and a moderate who I have a tremendous amount of respect for.  The campaign hasn’t gone particularly badly, nor have the Republicans missed any of the important issues.  Somehow, I can’t help feeling that the real reason is the situation.

The American public want to get as far from past mistakes as possible, which I firmly believe is the main reason for Colin Powells ringing endorsement.  I believe that – no matter who the Republicans would have picked, or how the campaign was run – that the outcome would remain largely the same.  And  for what it’s worth,  I happen to think that Obama will be incredibly good for America.

And whatever the future, we can sleep a little easier at night knowing that it is physically impossible for him to do any worse than his predecessor.