As the returns are starting to come in the probable election of Barack Obama to the presidency and the concurrent control of both houses of the Congress by the liberal wing of the Democrat party makes me sad.  As my readers know I am a generally a Libertarian.  I agree with George Washington that, “government, like fire, is a dangerous servant.”

I didn’t like President Bush because he has expanded the Federal Government like a Democrat.  In my eyes his worst mistakes were not the Patriot Act and the Iraq war.  His worst mistakes were No Child Left Behind and subsidized drugs for seniors.
I expect that I won’t like an Obama Presidency very much.  He has said that he will try to take away the right to secret ballots in union elections, which will drive up the cost of labor and then will raise trade barriers to try and keep jobs here.  It makes me sad that we are likely to sink into the miasma that was England in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
But we will have hope and change. Along with socialized medicine, an anti-drilling and anti-nuclear energy policy and jobs programs.  And we will have these until inflation does the work of destroying the wealth of the middle class.
On the other hand perhaps he can govern as well as he can campaign.  Perhaps he will appoint moderates to cabinet level positions.  Perhaps he will work on expanding the pot not just redistributing it.  I doubt it though.
We get to re-elect the House of Representatives in two years.  Under Bush and under Clinton the house changed hands in the off year election.  So all is not lost.  We survived Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon.  We can survive Barack Obama.  And we will continue to thrive.