This Trainwreck And Its Aftermath

Some predictions:

McCain/Palin is going to lose, and lose big. This will be for the simple reason that voters have simply not yet had the education in reality that they're going to receive during the term(s) of the next administration. The mere fact that the Democrats are a viable party at this point is an illustration that voters are still mired in a nearly complete lack of understanding and prudence. The GOP is also so mired, not so much in terms of governing philosophy, but in terms of motivation to fight the fight that's needed, and in utter naivete about the seriousness of the situation. I can't imagine that there would be anything remotely helpful about a McCain administration at this point. Half-assed Republicanism is of no use to the country, in this, or any, era.

Many are worried that our current troubles are going to usher in a long era of Big Government socialism. On the contrary. It is my opinion that the government is going to be essentially powerless to save us from the imminent economic cataclysm. The powerlessness of Big Government to provide prosperity or economic security is going to be made utterly manifest. As such, the very idea of Big Government is going to be met with more and more revulsion among the populace. The utter contempt that people now have for all involved parties in Congress is a foretaste of this. Eventually, almost no one will perceive that Big Government adds anything of value to our society. The government that will be failing is the very government that the New Deal/Great Society gave us. This is not going to result in a replay of the New Deal, but rather its dismantling. The New Deal will have been shown worthless when the chips were down and it was needed most, and will thereby be done away with.

In the midst of this, the Democrat majority is going to run wild. The amount of graft and corruption in government is going to grow exponentially, especially since no Democrat can resist trying to grab a piece of the new multi-trillion dollar slush funds being created. Also, the various unforeseen consequences of the series of "bailouts", is going to further destroy the real economy. One example: Biden spoke last night of giving judges the power to rewrite mortgage contracts. Such a thing would remove the foundations of "secured debt", which would thereby further restrict credit and cause more economic contraction.

We can expect strong suppression of freedom of speech via the "fairness doctrine", and via a major crackdown on the blogosphere (probably by cockamamie restrictions on fair use, on the very ability to link to an MSM news story, and also via harassment lawsuits). However, this will cause more organized efforts on the part of conservatives to create our own primary journalism networks, and we can also expect something of a renaissance for such "old-school" things as print magazines. While the velocity of conservative "buzz" might decrease, the quality will not. There will also be a greatly increased probability of effective boycotts against MSM advertisers.

Successful Democrat efforts to engineer military defeats will result in a groundswell of resentment among veterans, active-duty soldiers, and the officer corps, as they see their past achievements and sacrifices undone. Many will begin regarding a coup as a possible solution should things get bad enough, and should it appear that the leftists have cut off all other avenues for change (I doubt it would go this far). The coup option would be considered if it became believed that the leftists were subverting elections that should have been landslides in repudiation of them.

Under the guise of "civil rights", same sex marriage will be judicially imposed. There will be increasingly open persecution of churches via lawsuits, and a growing cacophony of media/education propaganda which will regard anyone with retrogade opinions as vicious bigots and haters. In all probability, the leftists will create "Human Rights Commission" kangaroo courts on the Canadian model. This will build a volcano of resentment in the more than half the population that still has its head on straight.

As the private sector endures severe economic depression, resentment against public sector workers, unions, and pensions will exponentiate. The mood will be that there is no damned way that government employees are going to ride the gravy train while people in the private sector languish. The few illegal immigrants who haven't already left due to the lack of economic opportunity will leave once the mood becomes that their jobs properly belong to legal citizens.

Despite trying to cut off all avenues of conservative information flow, as well as gaming elections, leftists will find that eventually the electorate will simply take the only step needed to change the game, namely to vote GOP on every line of every ballot, no questions asked, and no information needed. An entire new class of politicians will be swept into office at all levels of government. And it will be a class of politicians that put their name on the ballot for the sole reason of going to Washington or the State Capitol in order to kick ass and clean house. A great many of them will not be "insiders" or career politicians or graft seekers. They will simply be a cohort that's had it up to here with the useless government and will be willing to do what it takes to rightsize it.

In this process, we will finally break the back of judicial overreach. The new Congress will use its powers of impeachment to rid the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, of its judicial tyrants. We will finally do away with the delusion that Congress is not in the driver's seat when it comes to legislation, and that the best we can hope for is changing the composition of the Star Chamber with a generation or two of stupendous yet nearly fruitless effort. The robed scoundrels will simply suddenly be given the boot. And with a decreased pension.

It will be generations before leftists will be trusted again with the power that they are about to gain in this election.

Eventually, Palin, or someone like her, will be President.

And we will have a populace that has a much clearer vision of the importance and requirements of civic virtue.

So Obama, all I can say is, congratulations, you're going to be quite a fascinating part of history! And Sarah, we're not going to forget about you!