Hassagot השגות

Obama is president-elect and what steps come next.

    Obama is now president-elect.  He gave a beautiful victory speech in Chicago, full of calls for unity, vision, one nation, a beautiful future, G-d bless, and so forth.   338 electoral votes to 157; 51% of the vote to 47%.
    McCain gave a simple and noble concession speech.
    The Democrats are gaining in the Senate and House, though they have not secured a filibuster-proof majority of 61 in the former.
    I hope that Obama will be the entire country's president, and not only the Democrats'.  That he will reach across the aisle.  His victory speech suggests he will.  His record and history do not. 
    I wonder if he has a core.  Noone seems to know what he stands for--his former colleagues on Harvard Law Review among them.  Is he in Bill Ayers' pocket?  Rashid Khalidi's?  Reverend Wright's?  David Axelrod's?  His own?  My wonderings are what undergird my deep anxieties, expressed earlier, about the unfolding of a very liberal Democratic agenda--a big spending, big taxes, anti-personal-intiative agenda.
    At least one national Republican figure has suggested a self-willed banishment to the wilderness for his party (in other words, a time of retreat and regrouping).  As reported in The Wall Street Journal tonight:

"We've lost our credibility," said Scott Klug, a former Republican congressman from Wisconsin who said he fears the party is entering a long period of retrenchment. "We're just going to be in the wilderness for a while."

What aspect of its core will emerge to engage the 4% and more who could have put McCain into the White House?  I feel a desire to go into the wilderness as well.  How the country changes!  How quickly it seems to be sacrificing tradition, loyalty, family, community, and even G-d for individualism and the dream of salvation-in-government.
    Over the last few days I have been preoccupied with the impending results of this day.  A weight has been lifted and we shall see what the morrow brings.   One must of course not despair.

-- H. A. Massig

Even in the Vegetable World, One Must be Assertive in Order to Survive

    In another post, I may consider an approach to war.  For the time being, suffice it to say that in the world of nations as in the vegetable world, one must be assertive in order to survive.

    This summer we raised some heirloom tomatoes.  I was fascinated to see the red tomatoes grow and ripen on the vine.  How many enemies they had--insufficient watering, squirrels, insects...
In order to survive, the tomato plants devoted what water they could to growing the fruit.  Those globes asserted their identity as they grew and prospered.

    The struggle to survive is perhaps more dynamic in the animal and human worlds than in the vegetable one.  All the more so in the world of nations.  A nation, to survive--and certainly, to prosper--must assert itself in the world in the sight of its enemies and detractors.  In this effort, it escapes me how self-flagellation serves a helpful purpose. 

    In simple terms:  American self-loathing is not only unbecoming (because narcissistic); it is also self-destructive.

--H. A. Massig

A Great Empire Can Will its Own Downfall

    As Obama speaks about restoring the moral standing of America, I consider the desire on the part of many Americans to see America cut down to size.  It can be trying, after a time, to be the world's superpower.  We would like the music to stop, to get off the dance floor.  Just a little quiet; life will be so much more enjoyable that way.

    The world is not kind to superpowers that have had enough.  The barbarians wait at the gate.  The piranhas anticipate their flesh.  So long as we have flesh, and wealth, territory, resources, we can always be taken down one more notch.

    In my view, the decision to downsize a great country is an act of national suicide.

-- H. A. Massig

Who Shall Win and Who Shall Lose

    The early minutes of November 4th.  I am very anxious.  I worry for the country and the world.  The polls and the press 'know' who will win.  Obama, Pelosi, Reid.  The people will decide--have already begun deciding. 

    I have not despaired of a McCain victory, but find it very unlikely.  So, while I hold out hope, and pray for the best, my thoughts turn to the day after.   A jubilant youth, a jubilant African American community, a jubilant academe.  The conservatives among us wonder, what next?  The GOP will gamely lick its wounds or engage in mutual recriminations.

    And beyond that--the return of the trial lawyers, the federal government supporting unionization without secret ballot.   The discouragement of personal initiative, the punishment of big business.  As power flows to the federal government, will the country experience revitalization?

    It feels as if this is beyond the scope of the single voter or even of many voters, that it is mysteriously in the hands of G-d.  Who shall win and who shall lose...

--H. A. Massig

On the Eve of the Election

   

Obama and McCain both penned columns on the Opinion page of The Wall Street Journal today (Monday, 11/3/08).  In his own words, Obama pointed to things that I have drawn attention to in this blog:

• "We'll create two million new jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and laying broadband lines that reach every corner of the country. I'll invest $15 billion a year over the next decade in renewable energy, creating five million new, green jobs that pay well, can't be outsourced, and can help end our dependence on Middle East oil."

Whose jobs will these be?  I worry:  the jobs of the federal government.

• "I'll finally finish the fight against bin Laden and the al Qaeda terrorists who attacked us on 9/11, build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century, and restore our moral standing so that America remains the last, best hope of Earth."

I hear the refrain, "bin Laden and the al Qaeda terrorists."  If he can take out the bad guys, will the badness be defeated?  But more worryingly, he wishes to "restore our moral standing."  We are found wanting in the court of opinion--I presume European (plus Canadian, Australian, New Zealander...?).    America is 'immoral'? Bad? Deserving of punishment?  What shall be its penance? 

• "So tomorrow, I ask you to write our nation's next great chapter. I ask you to believe -- not just in my ability to bring about change, but in yours."

Obama opens his closing paragraph with an appeal to his secular-religious faith.  "I ask you to believe."  One must believe that by voting for him one has the abilitiy to "change this country."

    In contrast, McCain writes

• "...we must place our trust in the hands of those who have never let us down, especially the American family and small businesses."

This is a surer trust in my book than placing one's trust in the hands of the president--any president.

-- H. A. Massig