End of the year reflections, part 1 - politics

The first time I had a blog three years ago, I wrote a series of reflections at the end of the year. Since I'm going to be on vacation in a few days and will not have guaranteed internet access for over a week, I will attempt to bombard you guys with articles about some of the things I've come to a conclusion about in the past year, inspired by the spirit of Christmas.

Conclusions about Politics

Those of you who have known me for a very long time know that in the past four years, I have gone from a diehard conservative to an activist for Democratic candidates to a Ron Paul libertarian cheerleader to someone who seriously considered registering as a socialist. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I voted for a "major party" candidate in the presidential election this year. Since that fact alone probably comes as a surprise to many of you, I am of course not going to tell you who that candidate was. But I finally came to realize the fact that there was not a single candidate whom I could trust with carrying out everything I believed in. Although some of the lesser-known candidates came pretty close, I found myself having to prioritize certain issues over others - and that was what I was missing all along. So, even though I care deeply about, say, repealing the farm bill that requires all livestock and some fish to have a bar code implanted in them, I had to recognize that that law really isn't a priority right now. Being able to prioritize issues is something I'm really proud of, because although I have always considered myself an informed citizen, I have had to struggle with the fact that I'm a political anomaly. So, this really was a great development for me this year.

As any blogger should be, I am obliged to comment about the onset of Mr. Obama's presidency. As most people are, I am excited for the new ideas that he will bring to the White House, and his election was definitely a step in the right direction. However, although I am not a political analyst by any means, I do have some words of caution about his presidency. I feel as though all this fanfare has caused many people to believe that Mr. Obama will enter office with this gust of sweeping change that everyone will love and enjoy. We'll get out of this economic recession quickly, his exciting new vision will swiftly motivate congress to work towards new heights in American progress, and Europe will love us again.

I'm sorry, but that's not going to happen. When change happens in America, it doesn't come easily. It just doesn't. In fact, I predict that whatever Obama does, people are still going to lose jobs as a result of his actions. People are going to be angry at him, and people are going to wish that McCain was president. The unfortunate thing is that when this does happen, or when the Obama administration does suffer a failure, the "agent of change" image is going to come and bite him in the butt. I'm not saying that Obama isn't going to do great things. He will, and I am pretty sure of that. However, what I am saying is that so many people have such high hopes set for him that when anything slows him down, people will either start saying that 1) he's not living up to expectations and is thus a failure or 2) cranky Republicans, predatory capitatlists, and Catholic bishops still don't like him and are putting all their efforts into subverting his message of wondrous change. Like I said before, Obama has the potential to do great things, but let's not label him just yet.