Ah, the cynic in me.

The verdict

So America voted last week and they sent a message to the president. Fox, the self appointed emissary of the people, says the people want the president to fix the economy (cue hysterically laughter but anyway let's continue). So the people want the president to fix the economy and cut big government spending (are you confused, yet). They want the man to fix an economy that was wreaked in more than 8 years in 2 years conveniently forgetting that passing policy in congress today is a chore. Moreover, won't passing a resolution constitute creating big government and, hence, defeating the goal of the rebelling electorate. The craziest bit of it all is that to force the president's hand in the matter of fixing the economy, the people have voted in reps from the same party that was in charge when the economy tanked (as if the said party's philosophies could have changed in the 2 years since they got kicked out of power).

Moving forward

I could go on and on but in the last few weeks I've come to understand, a little, the kind of dynamics that brought may have brought someone like Hitler to power. The truth is, more often than not, we all do what the loudest, most popular person in the room does. We'll also clinged to anything that appears to be different from what scares us and has failed (Arsenal fans are very much skilled at this). In the case of the elections, this was made even easier by the fact that apart from voting out the incumbents, there didn't seem to be much by way of options. Ok, so there's the option of waiting and seeing how the current president's policies pan out long-term but mankind, sadly, evolved passed the stage of 'long-term waits' quite a few decades ago.

Or not...

I never was sold on Obama as a president. Of course compared with McCain/Palin it's a no-brainer who I'd vote for any day anytime. So far, though, he's come across as benevolent if a little naive. He appears to be determined to make things work but he is working with a bunch of people that are obviously more concerned with grasping power or not relinquishing it than solving problems. I think he is a good man, a good president but it would take more than a good president to move this country forward. It will take divine intervention. But then again the new congress may just, for personal reasons, work together for the good of the country after all. You never know (how much I love you u, frankie). So let's see how the next year plays out.

The solution we don't like

Talking about ideas and policies let's talk about communism and socialism (I still don't know the difference). I'm not a big proponent of either as practiced on earth but you've got to admit that the Christian community, as found in the bible, was not unfavorably disposed to acts that bothered on extreme communism and socialism. The beauty of the first century Christian community was that it was a community where nothing was forced. To picture it, imagine a community that's communist yet where freedom of speech and choice reigned supreme. I guess you can't quite call that communist anymore. It was a community where love for God motivated all the actions. It wasn't perfect but it was good. There's also that part in the laws of Moses where God gives instructions about years of jubilee and forgiving debts and returning stuff to seized by creditors every 50 years or 7 years or so. Apparently God, sef, na commie. If money (insert greed, possessions, pride) is what drives the economy then the economy will never get better. It might appear to bounce back, but it will leave more poor people - financially, emotionally or socially.

Thank God for another weekend.