Elections over. Here are my predictions for the next 4 years:

The national debt will increase all 4 years.

The social security system will stay broken. The medical system will stay broken. The quality of education will continue to decline.

The size of the government will increase. More human rights will be infringed on. The government will continue to move away from the form instituted by the founding fathers.

In other words… same-old same-old.

If McCain had won, how would my predictions have changed? They wouldn’t have. These predictions were made before the election occurred!

My wife was a bit upset at me last night. She turned on election coverage and after a few minutes I went to do something else. She asked if I didn’t want to watch the election and I told her that I didn’t really care about the outcome.

I didn’t. And I don’t. The rhetoric will be different than if McCain had won. The end result will differ only in terms of WHICH human rights are ignored, WHICH branches of the government will grow the most, WHICH special interest groups will get the most benefits.

I do exaggerate though if I say that nothing about the election interested me. There are a couple aspects in particular that do interest me. The first is how does the makeup of the house and senate look. It’s bad. The president is democrat. The senate is strongly dominated by the democrats. The house is strongly dominated by the democrats. I would have been much more comfortable if it had been split (or even if the democrats had had only a small edge), but it’s pretty obvious that the American people have had enough of the republican party for now.

It’s a shame. It shows that people are tired of the way things are going. It’s also a shame that they think that things are really going to improve with the other party in power.

Same-old same-old.

Another thing that interested me was how the third-party candiates would do. Obviously I voted third-party, but how many others feel the same way I do? I had hoped that at least some voters would realize that neither party was going to solve the problems this country faces. Unfortunately, it appears that somewhere around 1% of the vote went to third-party candidates.

Here’s what I’ve found for past elections in the percentage of the vote that went to third-party candidates:

 2008    1.0 (??)
 2004    1.0
 2000    3.8
 1996   10.0
 1992   19.5
 1988    1.0
 1984    0.7
 1980    8.3

So, what we really need is another Ross Perot type to shake things up. I wish that the impact he had on the two elections he was in had continued, but it seems to have disappeared.

I have one wish for this coming term: I hope that Obama proves me wrong. Prove to me that you’re NOT just rhetoric, that you actually do want to change things. I’d love to see this happen… but I’m not holding my breath.

There are a couple of additional things that interest me. I’m interested in the fact that Obama is black. Race doesn’t matter to me. I’ve never made a decision about someone based on their race, but I recognize that it IS important to some people. I am curious to see what impact having a black president will have on racial issues in this country. I can see it going either way.

I’m also interested on the impact it will have on the US-World relations. It’s no secret that the world dislikes America and hated Bush as a president. I don’t think that that is necessarily a bad thing, but the reasons they hated Bush are justified in some respects. America is a sovereign nation. In other words, we do not answer to any other government or nation (including the United Nations). As such, if it is necessary to make decisions that no other country in the world approves of, we have that right, and the fact that other countries disapprove should not be a reason to change our stance. On the other hand, the decisions we make need to be made with the intent to preserve out liberties and our people. I’m not at all convinced that many of the decisions made by the Bush administration (or any other recent administration for that matter) really meet that criteria. So I’m less concerned about public (i.e. world) approval of this country, and more concerned about how well it meets the standards and measures set up by the founding fathers. Unfortunately… the answer is POORLY!