Posting opinions, letters and correspondence from far and wide. Even some to/from my elected representatives.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008


Obama will be like touching a hot stove.

All of these newly registered voters. They've not voted before so they've never touched the hot stove before either. So that would mean that they've never known the feeling of despondency that comes from promises made by a politician who then turned out to fail to deliver. It means they don't know what is like to have their curiosity and fascination that is devoid of reasoning or logic dashed to pieces. If (and it's a big if at this moment 11AM on Tuesday November 4th 2008) Obama wins then it will have been due to various factors. And the loss will be bitter because it was the first election for me where I was able to vote for my own head of state (formerly having been only able to call myself a subject of the Queen of Australia who is of course a foreigner).
But there will be good news to come of all of this. One of the rays of sunshine I make as a prediction is that all of these newly registered voters, if they should indeed come out and actually vote (I have my doubts), well they will be as a child who has never touched the hot stove of liberalism. And over the next four years we will see those voters become despondent, disappointed and crestfallen. Because they will learn (the hard way) over the next four years that populism and the cult of personality may be good for false hopes and revving up big crowds but it does not make an economy grow or recover, nor does it lead the world toward democracy and freedom, nor does it spell magical solutions to societies ills. Obama and a Democrat controlled congress will appoint liberal judges, raise taxes and reshape the United States in ways that will shock, horrify and appall these new voters. Just as a baby puts its hand onto the hot stove and spends a brief moment wondering what is wrong with the situation, so to our new voters will have a few months perhaps a year or so before suddenly, just as a baby recoils in spasms of pain, so to our newly registered voters will suddenly be shocked and pained by what they see before them. The good news is, not too many among us ever touch the hot stove twice.

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