Posted by
ScottK on Friday, January 23, 2009 12:28:11 AM
So I have decided to re-start this blog and I promise to be much more diligent about posting this time around. Now that I'm a 3L, I have a lot more time to read and discuss politics instead of archaic legal principles. When I signed back into this blog, I read my previous posts. And was I ever wrong about 2008. I wrote those posts in the aftermath of the 2006 bloodbath. I too easily dismissed the idea of an Obama candidacy. At the time, he seemed like an immensely talented young politician who would have his chance to run in 2012 or 2016. Although I was correct that a significant portion of the Democratic constituency wanted an alternative to Hillary, I got the wrong man. In fact, I was way off on the man to challenge Hillary. The 2008 election proved to be a transformative election and one we will greatly regret on the conservative side. Although Obama is a very talented politician and an intelligent individual, his policy choices and his worldview are dangerous for the future of America. It will take conservatives decades to recover from the changes Obama will bring. We are already giving up on a serious war against terrorist organizations and, even worse, we've abandoned free market principles. If nothing else, Obama has reinforced in the minds of millions of Americans that we must turn to government to cure our ills. The power of the individual in American life will diminish and the power of government will grow exponentially. Unfortunately, President Reagan's eloquent statement that "goverment is not the solution to our problems...government is the problem" will be forgotten by all but a few conservative stalwarts. The one hope we have is that Obama discredits himself by overreaching in his first term. I'm not saying this is likely. It's just our only hope. Unfortunately, we only have ourselves to blame for the advent of American socialism. By not finding a conservative Republican candidate to unite behind, we handed the presidency to Obama. McCain was never a serious threat to Obama. He was simply Bob Dole 2.0. He had about a week in which the polls looked encouraging and then slid right back into a 5-10 point deficit behind Obama just like Dole in 1996. However, it's also not the fault of the Republican primary voters. We did not have a great crop to choose from. If Obama does give us an opportunity in 2012, we must find a candidate that can effectively communicate conservative principles like we have not seen since the days of Reagan. Fortunately, this is exactly the topic of my next post, so stay tuned.