Can’t fight the tide

Charles Reyes, Jr. called it right yesterday (via e-mail). So did publisher John DelRosario, Jr.(in print). And so did editor Cookie Micaller (over the phone). Meanwhile, yours truly refused to listen to logic, and was stubbornly insisting–-as I’ve always insisted–-that Gore would capture the White House.

Oops.

I really got wired on this election, for some reason, maybe because of a sense that the United States really has permanently turned a social, political, and economic corner. Perhaps this explains my egregious grammar errors lately; the three wrinkled, weak little brain cells that I devote to policing my syntax were drafted into political poll watching, much of which fueled my recent commentaries.

Though the polls seemed to favor Bush, my contrarian mind couldn’t imagine him being able to out muscle the collective strength of the scores of socialist constituencies that have all grown in political power over the decades.

Most folks in the Commonwealth–-at least the business sector–-will welcome the Bush victory. As do I. But I’m still convinced that the fundamental demographic trends in the United States are rolling towards a European style welfare state.

After all, with so many people on welfare, so many working for federal, state, county, and municipal governments, so many tied to government checks for retirement, so many soaking up the government’s medical bennies, and so many “educated” in the Soviet style education system, the tail has to wag the dog at some point. Democratic socialism is just a matter of time.

It’s already here, in a lot of ways. The largest economic entity in the United States is: the federal government. The largest employer in the United States is: the federal government. The biggest single expense most people have is: the federal government (taxes).

Bush’s victory was tighter than a gnat’s butt stretched over a rain barrel. The Republican party shouldn’t lose sight of this fact. Indeed, much of the analysis we get from the Grand Old Party is actually wishful thinking masquerading as political science. The GOP line of reasoning goes like so: “Washington and Jefferson preferred liberty, therefore everyone else must prefer it.” That’s a flawed premise indeed. I say now–as I’ve always said–that most people prefer authority to liberty. They prefer the promise of security to the angst of freedom. And, of course, these people vote. So–what’s the big surprise? The demographic trends in America are as plain as the hairs growing out of my nose.

Bush’s narrow win may be the last gasp of a dying era, one last day in the sun for some folks who don’t think that democratic socialism is the way to go. In the long run, however, few Americans are inclined to question the role that big government will always play in their lives.