Confederate Sharpshooter

First of all, an apology. I am truly sorry voters in the 2008 election did not have better choices to choose from, you would think out of the hundreds of prospective candidates we could have fielded better choices than McCain vs. Obama. We didn’t. That has been the problem our highest office has dealt with since the 1980’s. The last truly great president we had came to power after the Jimmy Carter disaster of 1976-1980. Ronald Regan will, when history is written, be remembered as probably the greatest president of that century, certainly of the last half of it.

Since then we have had the choice of the lesser of two evils, albeit usually a clear choice. This time, it was democrat or democrat light, or more properly openly socialist vs. democrat. Neither was a choice most people would vote for, it was simply which one I dislike least. At least, for the rational, logical voter. Sadly, this election was carried not by those who think, but those who feel. Ask any Obama supporter why they voted the way they did, and that word will crop up in the first sentence, I promise.

What ever the reason, we have a new president, and it is clear things are going to ‘change.’ Trouble is, up until now he’s been dodging exactly what those changes will be. Here are some of my predictions on what you can expect in the next four years:

Severely curtailed civil rights. It’s a given he is coming after firearms owners first, and they know it. Firearms sales, ammunition and soon-to-be-illegal parts like standard capacity magazines, etc. are breaking records everywhere. One manufacturer of the popular AR-15 utility rifle is backordered to the tune of 60,000 units. That’s just one maker.
Don’t think that is the only civil right that will be affected under this administration. Free speech is next, and soon. The ‘fairness doctrine’ is on the way, and it will affect everything you see and hear. If it criticizes the ones in charge, it will not be tolerated. Funny how those who preach tolerance practice it the least.

Less freedom. As in ‘1984’ or ‘Revelation’ or any other nightmare you’d care to name. Do some searches on ‘Mileage taxes on cars’ ‘RFID to track commuters’ or the like. Do you really want the Federal Government to have the power to monitor, by GPS satellites, every move you make? Think long and hard about that one.

More Taxes. Taxing the rich has long been a tagline of the democratic party, but only those of us who bother to read past the tagline know who the rich are: it’s us, the middle class, and lower middle class, who end up paying those ‘rich’ taxes. The math is simple: there just aren’t enough millionaires to pay the trillions of tax dollars the congress wastes every year. Not that they would if they could: rich people got that way by earning the money, for the most part. (we’ll ignore the Paris Hilton’s and Ted Kennedy’s for the moment, they are the exception, not the rule.) Rich people, in other words, create wealth by building and selling products, services, and wares. When you tax those people, you tax the people they sell those products and services to. Why people can’t grasp this simple concept is beyond me.

Finally, and worst of all, more government in your daily life. Look for socialized medicine, which is a greater nightmare than you can believe right now. Think Post office efficiency with Internal Revenue customer service. The EPA will use global warming as an excuse to shut down badly needed businesses that harm no one. (I know this one personally, we’ll talk about that later.)

If you think I’m wrong here, do me a favor. Write up your own list, of things you think will be better, or worse, and put it in an envelope, or online if you are brave. Let’s compare notes in 2012, and see how things stack up. I would love to be wrong, I really would. But the past performance of our new president does not speak well of the future or our freedoms. And Freedom is what this country is supposed to be all about.