Election post mortem: Blue
Approval of Stafford County's road bond referendum was a happy surprise for me. I had expected it to lose because of our county's worsening economy, a reflection of what's spelled disaster for the GOP efforts elsewhere this fall.
So now there is hope for some of our dangerous, miserable old county roads. Yes, dangerous. If you don’t believe me, just take a little trip out Mountain View Road. It’s still the cowpath it’s been for centuries, just paved over.
I have railed before about its dangers, particularly all those huge old trees growing right where the road’s shoulders should be. We've grieved when teens plowed their cars into the trees, but then have done nothing. Now it looks like we'll do something. True, the state should be handling it, but since they won't, we must. To the referendum's champion, couinty supervisor Mark Dudenhefer, congratulations.
Other than that, there's precious little to brag about. True, our county stayed Republican, by a small margin, as did most of the rest of the southern states, excluding of course our very own Old (now New?) Dominion.Thus, nothing can be done now about the Democrats’ coming takeover of Washington, lock, stock and pork barrel.
So we're left to survey the wreckage and hunker down and lick our wounds. At least most Stafford County voters retained their sanity.
On election night I recalled exactly how it once felt to come to terms with the fact that a real nobody like Bill Clinton had won the presidential election. Thanks partly to the votes drained by that flaky independent candidate, Ross Perot, we sent a saxophone-playing smarty pants and his scheming spouse into the White House to engage in further outrageous shenanigans, just as they had in Little Rock.
Substitute Chicago‘s corrupt Southside for Little Rock and today’s situation is nearly identical: We’re getting our second "black" President.
And we losers are left to sing the blues, or worse. Reminds me of that old song that went, “You ain’t been blue ‘til you’ve had that Mood Indigo.” Well, now I’ve got it.
These thoughts contrast vividly with my reactions to happier presidential election outcomes. First there was consternation, then excitement over the contested Gore-Bush contest, finally settled by the Supreme Court. Then came satisfaction when an elitist, John Kerry, handed Bush another term.
But now, what coming changes should we fear? “With this election, the U.S. is at a philosophical tipping point,” wrote columnist Dan Henninger in the Wall Street Journal. Businesses will be allowed to create “wealth,” he writes, only so long as it’s not primarily to create new jobs or economic growth but to support a deep welfare system--to wit: Obama‘s promised universal health care, plus his “spreading the wealth“ mantra.
Is there a bright side? Perhaps, even in the midst of the economic meltdown. In fact it’s a direct result of the meltdown, proving, I suppose, that even the darkest clouds can have a silver lining. The first of these bright spots is that we’ve won the Iraq war. Further, the price of gasoline has plummeted. Also, illegal aliens have apparently been going back to Mexico in record numbers. But the Democrats will work to bring them back. Just watch.
In any event, claims columnist Dick Morris, “Obama will preside over the largest expansion of the government’s role in the economy since the 1930s.”
We’ll undoubtedly see. Undaunted, as the old Frank Sinatra tune goes, "I wanna be around to pick up the pieces..."
So now there is hope for some of our dangerous, miserable old county roads. Yes, dangerous. If you don’t believe me, just take a little trip out Mountain View Road. It’s still the cowpath it’s been for centuries, just paved over.
I have railed before about its dangers, particularly all those huge old trees growing right where the road’s shoulders should be. We've grieved when teens plowed their cars into the trees, but then have done nothing. Now it looks like we'll do something. True, the state should be handling it, but since they won't, we must. To the referendum's champion, couinty supervisor Mark Dudenhefer, congratulations.
Other than that, there's precious little to brag about. True, our county stayed Republican, by a small margin, as did most of the rest of the southern states, excluding of course our very own Old (now New?) Dominion.Thus, nothing can be done now about the Democrats’ coming takeover of Washington, lock, stock and pork barrel.
So we're left to survey the wreckage and hunker down and lick our wounds. At least most Stafford County voters retained their sanity.
On election night I recalled exactly how it once felt to come to terms with the fact that a real nobody like Bill Clinton had won the presidential election. Thanks partly to the votes drained by that flaky independent candidate, Ross Perot, we sent a saxophone-playing smarty pants and his scheming spouse into the White House to engage in further outrageous shenanigans, just as they had in Little Rock.
Substitute Chicago‘s corrupt Southside for Little Rock and today’s situation is nearly identical: We’re getting our second "black" President.
And we losers are left to sing the blues, or worse. Reminds me of that old song that went, “You ain’t been blue ‘til you’ve had that Mood Indigo.” Well, now I’ve got it.
These thoughts contrast vividly with my reactions to happier presidential election outcomes. First there was consternation, then excitement over the contested Gore-Bush contest, finally settled by the Supreme Court. Then came satisfaction when an elitist, John Kerry, handed Bush another term.
But now, what coming changes should we fear? “With this election, the U.S. is at a philosophical tipping point,” wrote columnist Dan Henninger in the Wall Street Journal. Businesses will be allowed to create “wealth,” he writes, only so long as it’s not primarily to create new jobs or economic growth but to support a deep welfare system--to wit: Obama‘s promised universal health care, plus his “spreading the wealth“ mantra.
Is there a bright side? Perhaps, even in the midst of the economic meltdown. In fact it’s a direct result of the meltdown, proving, I suppose, that even the darkest clouds can have a silver lining. The first of these bright spots is that we’ve won the Iraq war. Further, the price of gasoline has plummeted. Also, illegal aliens have apparently been going back to Mexico in record numbers. But the Democrats will work to bring them back. Just watch.
In any event, claims columnist Dick Morris, “Obama will preside over the largest expansion of the government’s role in the economy since the 1930s.”
We’ll undoubtedly see. Undaunted, as the old Frank Sinatra tune goes, "I wanna be around to pick up the pieces..."
posted by Ben Blankenship at
7:32 AM
