The Day After the Election

I'm writing the first part of this article at 4 pm on Tuesday so as of right now I have no idea who won the presidential election. Up until about four hours ago I was pretty hopeful that John McCain would emerge the victor when all of this is over. But a startling thought kind of killed a lot of that hope.

Nearly every person I have heard show support for Barack Obama has done so from a place of willing ignorance. Most of the endorsements for Obama are filled with words that have no bearing on who he actually is and what he actually stands for. I saw an article yesterday that claimed Obama stood for family values. I'm not sure where they got that impression. Most of the rest of the endorsements Obama picks up lack anything that even approaches a substantial reason for supporting the man. Colin Powell's endorsement is a good example of this.

So here is the startling revelation that I had: None of this makes any sense. When normally intelligent people are willing to ignore all of the facts and come up with reasons for supporting someone that have no bearing in reality then I think there are greater things going on here than meets the eye. Just the other day a woman was buying dog food at the store I work at and said "I can't wait until Obama is president and we don't have to deal with these high prices anymore." What is wrong with people? It's best not to try and make sense of it all because you can't. There is no reasoning and no logic to describe why Obama carries the support that he does. What I'm trying to say is that I believe that our leaders are only in power because God allows them to be in power. If Obama wins the election then it is because God willed it so. And I certainly don't mean that to sound like God somehow endorses Obama's policies. No, I think sometimes nations need tough medicine to get themselves back on track. See my article Electing a King for more information on that.

I would like to believe that when this article is published tomorrow morning that none of this has actually come true, that enough of a America is not under the Obama spell to bring about a different outcome. The reason I don't hold on to much hope of that however is because I have yet to find an Obama supporter that is actually informed about the issues and has based their decision on that knowledge. I'm sure those kinds of people are out there as well, and though I disagree with them, at least they are making their decision from a place of knowledge and not because they think Obama will lower the price of dog food or because "McCain is too old."

This next paragraph is specifically for people in Pennsylvania. I've heard so much about how Obama cares about the middle class but what will happen to the middle class in Pennsylvania if he bankrupts the coal industry like he said he would? What about all those middle class people employed in that industry? What will happen to our electric prices in PA if there is no coal industry, or a heavily hindered one? If Pennsylvania goes to Obama, it just reinforces everything I have written in this article about voters not thinking and only feeling.

WEDNESDAY MORNING:

Well America has actually done it. I watched McCain's concession speech last night and at one point it almost seemed like there was a tone of “everyone can just shut up about equal rights now.” I could be wrong but that's what some of what he said seemed to be geared towards. I only watched about two minutes of Obama's speech in front of the teary eyed millions. Never before have I seen a president elect welcomed with such fervor and emotional displays, it's a bit frightening. America is normally not about these kinds anointings of elected officials. I kept expecting to see Hypnotoad somewhere up on stage with him. Friday's article will be about what to expect in the years ahead, don't miss it.