Hmmmmmm........

Well...Barack Obama is President-elect of the United States. It really is an historic moment in the history of our nation. I'm simultaneously struck by the greatness of the achievement and struck by the, frankly, terrifying platform that the first Black American President has used to enter the office. It seems to me that his platform is exactly opposite of what America needs at this moment.

Higher taxes, new trade barriers, and more regulation are not going help jump-start an ailing economy. They're instead going to discourage innovation and entrepreneurship and force more American companies relocate abroad or outsource labor. Funneling more money into the education system and apply more pressure to public schools is only going to encourage waste and inefficiency in the system. And it doesn't address the main issue that is affecting education in America: children can't be bothered to learn and parents can't be bothered to "encourage" them to learn. Until you address those two fundamental issues, education in America is going to continue to decline. Taking American's Constitutional right to bear arms isn't going to solve to problem of violence in cities and schools. It's only going to keep guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens with whom the problem doesn't rest.

Crawling back into the "good graces" of the international community isn't going to solve the major foreign policy issues, either. Countries like Iran, Syria, North Korea, and China aren't looking to be friendly. Their actions, which I personally think are completely independent from our foreign policy of the last 8 years, indicate that. Iran doesn't want to negotiate...they want nuclear weapons. They want to destroy Israel, one of our most steadfast allies since its foundation in 1948. I think it's a bit naive to suggest that they've been waiting for us to sit down with them to suspend their nuclear program and play nicely with Israel.

Ahmadinejad: "Oh, here comes America. Finally, they've come to negotiate! Now we can abandon our plans for dominance in the Middle East and the complete annihilation of Israel and return to civilized membership in the global community. If only they'd come sooner..." Give me a break!

Now that I've gotten that out, I want to say that I'm honestly going to try not to be hateful about Barack Obama anymore. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and see how his plans pan out. He is going to be the next President of the United States and as such deserves of all the respect that the office entails. I'm going to endeavor, throughout all the disagreements I'm sure to have with him, to remain respectful. I hope and pray that, by God's grace, our nation prospers, that it remains secure, and that our most treasured ideal, liberty, flourishes for generations to come.