When reality bites back…

It’s done. It’s over. The historic election has come and gone. And I congratulate Barack Obama and his supporters on their ground-breaking success. I know they’re ecstatic right now.

But there’s a fly in the ointment. A big fly. Here’s what it is: 48% of the country, myself included, did not vote for Barack Obama. 48% of the country disagrees with him on major issues. Did this number change simply because he was elected? No. 48% of the country will continue to disagree with Barack Obama.

That’s a lot of people. A lot, a lot, a lot of people.

Obama did indeed promise that he hears the voices of the people who did not vote for him. This is a speech every president makes. There’s nothing new about it. Remember Bush talking about how he would be a “uniter, not a divider”? Did it happen? No. Will it not happen again? Probably.

Obama now faces the real prospect of governing the country. He’s promised just about everything under the sun, so now he’s in a little bit of trouble. He either keeps his promises and appeases his liberal base, or he moves to the center (as he has been doing recently), and governs center-right, which is where the majority of this country lies. Reports are that he’s studying up very carefully on the disastrous first two years of the Clinton administration, when they tried to push through too many fringe ideas too quickly, and crashed and burned. Barack Obama is not a stupid man.

We are not a united people. We will not all get together and sing “Kumbaya” simply because Obama was elected. Those of us who disagree with Mr. Obama will continue to disagree with Mr. Obama, until he shifts positions.

And for those of you conservatives in the dumps over the election — just wait. The GOP could use some wilderness time to rediscover their Reaganite roots and think about how badly they screwed up by going drunk with spending binges. Just…wait. Jimmy Carter was elected in 1976 and was “Saint Jimmy” to many people; the world was going to be saved. Instead he was a disaster and in 1980 the world got Ronald Reagan. Bill Clinton was elected in ’92 and two years later accomplished something that had not been done in almost fifty years — he lost control of the House and Senate to Republicans.

So, again, for you 48%, along with me, who do not agree with Mr. Obama, simply have some patience. Either Obama will move to the center, in which case we start to get what we’re looking for, or he falls prey to the liberal agenda he ran on in the primaries, in which case he becomes a spectacular failure and a one-term president.

Time and reality have a way of taking care of things, even such platitudes as “hope” and “change”. Even when it’s Change You WILL Submit To. Even when it’s watered-down Socialism.

Take heart, and wait. When Obama becomes president, he is going to find it very hard to be all things to all people, and he will have to choose his path.

And 48% of us will we watching very, very closely.

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