POST-ELECTION MUSINGS

 

By Bill Dunn

  

Random thoughts on the recent election…

 

• During the campaign, everyone complained about the negative political commercials. But there is only one reason candidates resort to nasty character assassination: it works! If voters would say, “The minute I see a candidate run a negative ad, I vow to vote AGAINST him or her,” then all the mud-slinging would stop in an instant. Don’t hold your breath waiting for this to happen. The problem is not them, it’s us.
   
• Politicians may be vain and arrogant, but they’re not stupid. They are faced with a simple situation: if they promise to take money from some people and give it to voters in the form of spending programs, then they win elections. If they promise to govern based solely on the Constitution rather than on the concept of wealth redistribution, then they lose elections. So when it’s all said and done, we the people of the United States have precisely the government we deserve. Everyone in this country wants the government to be fiscally responsible, but NO ONE wants to give up a single nickel of his or her benefits and entitlements. 
   
• Here’s my short-term prediction now that the Republicans have regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives: First, liberal politicians, assisted greatly by the mainstream media, will scream relentlessly about all the people being hurt by the heartless, nasty conservatives and their “draconian cuts.” These charges will be leveled at Republicans regardless of whether government spending on social programs actually decreases or not. We know this will be the preferred tactic because it has been used effectively in the past. Next, the conservatives politicians will cave in because they won’t be able to stand being called “heartless.” Deficit spending will continue unchecked, just like it did under George W. Bush. Soon after, the conservative base will get discouraged at the lack of fiscal sanity, while the liberal base will be energized. Finally, the Democrats will win big in 2012. The Republicans, always slow to catch on, will realize voters did not vote specifically for them in 2010, but rather, they voted against incumbents. Being the incumbents during 2012, the GOP will take it on the chin. An era of anti-incumbency see-sawing may be the norm for many election cycles to come (except in the Socialist Republic of Connecticut, where Democrats always win).
   
• Here’s my long-term prediction now that a large majority of the population is dependent on the government. (For the gory details, see this paper’s Sunday editorial of October 31st—truly a Halloween fright—which chronicled approximately 200 million citizens who receive regular government salaries, health benefits, and/or entitlements.) I predict deficit spending will continue to spiral out of control, boosted by the federal government coming to the rescue of bankrupt states, including, of course, Connecticut. The feds will assume liability for all the over-promised and under-funded state pensions, and print up out of thin air a couple more trillion dollars every six months or so. Meanwhile, the real estate market finally will stabilize, thereby no longer exerting negative influence on the inflation rate. At this point, our out-of-control debt will cause inflation to skyrocket, and people will long for the good old days of Jimmy Carter, when inflation was only 18-percent. It’s called monetizing the debt. Do a Google search on the German Weimar Republic in the 1920s, and be afraid, be very afraid.
   
• And my final random thought about the just-concluded elections: Hey Linda, please clean up your signs!