Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

Alexander S. Peak

Also available in .txt and .pdf.

5 November 2008

Finally!  The election is over!

We have nothing left to do now but to take in what has occurred.

Unfortunately, it is not pretty.

« Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose »

Predictions

I do not claim to know the future.  But, it’s never harmful to guess.

So, in 2006, I predicted that the winner of the 2008 U.S. presidential election would either be a pro-war Democrat or an anti-war Republican.

When I heard in March of 2008 that Dr. Ron Paul was forming an exploratory committee, I got very hopeful that it would be the latter.  Unfortunately, the GOP didn’t have the foresight to realise that Dr. Paul was the only Republican running who could beat the Democrats.  They chose Mr. John McCain instead.

Ultimately my prediction was correct.  Mr. Barack Obama, a pro-war Democrat, will be our next president.

No Change

“Change” was a big rhetorical devise used during the 2008 campaign, particularly by the gentleman who ended up winning.  After eight dreadful years of Big Government under the Bush administration, change is exactly what the public wants.

Unfortunately, no real change will come.

There’s a popular phrase in American politics, originally coined by the French author Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, which roughly translates to “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Barack Obama and George W. Bush

Rhetoric v. Policy

Notwithstanding the rhetoric to the contrary, there will of course be no change.  This is because Mr. Obama has no fundamental disagreement with Mr. George W. Bush’s ideology.

Both are war-mongers.  Mr. Obama voted to continue funding the Iraq war when he could have easily voted against it.  Further, he wants to increase troop levels in Iraq.  I hope he pulls the troops out of Iraq (he certainly has a mandate to do so), but I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t.

Both are neo-imperialists.  Mr. Obama had plenty of times he could have declared that he would never start a pre-emptive war with Iran.  He refused.  In fact, he refused to even say that he wouldn’t spontaneously nuke them.

Both are corporatists.  Mr. Obama voted for the illegal $700 Billion corporate bailout, a bailout that was not only unneeded, but one that caused far more harm than even hypothetical good.  That’s $2,300 stolen from every man, woman, and child in America for the benefit of Big Business.

Both oppose sound money.  Mr. Obama has not once spoken out against the Federal Reserve banking cartel or its propensity to inflate the dollar, thereby robbing from the average American her purchasing power.

Both support the American police state.  Mr. Obama voted in favour of the USA PATRIOT Act, the REAL ID Act, and the illegal FISA wiretapping.

Like the Republican incumbent, Mr. Obama supports the insane war on drugs that is destroying our cities, opposes gay marriage and free-market healthcare, supports an unconstitutional wall between the U.S. and Mexico, and supports federal control over education.

It seems that the only real difference between these two men is that Mr. Obama is a member of the Blue Party while Mr. Bush a member of the Red Party.

Obama’s Victory is the Republicans’ Fault

Ultimately, the Republicans have no one to blame for Obama’s victory but themselves.

They spent the past decade expanding the size, scope, and cost of government as much as they could, it’s no wonder the American people are fed up with that party.

They only had one chance at winning the election: the respectable Dr. Ron Paul.  But instead they decided to snub the good doctor and give the nomination instead to Mr. McCain, thereby handing easy victory to Obama.

Victory isn’t the only thing the Republicans have given Mr. Obama, they also are giving him the imperial presidency that they spent the last decade building up.

Art by Mirko Ilić

The Libertarian Alternative

It’s clear the American public is fed up with Big Government.  They are fed up with the lies, with the wars, with the high taxes, with the corruption, with government run amok.

Unfortunately, the new boss offers us nothing that we weren’t already getting from the old boss, other than a rhetoric of “hope.”

There is an alternative, however, to the corruption and broken promises of the Red Party and the Blue Party.  I’m talking of course about the libertarian alternative.

Libertarians believe in you.  Libertarians believe that you are the best person to run your life, not John McCain or Barack Obama.

Libertarians believe the government cannot and should not try to run your life, run the economy, or imperialistically run the world.  We want to cut the size, scope, and cost of government as much as humanly possible.

Unlike the Democrats who promised to bring the troops home in 2006 but never did and only pretended to try, Libertarians demand a humble foreign policy of free trade and no nation building.  The Libertarian Party is the only party that will bring the troops home, not only from Iraq, but from Germany, and Japan, and Korea, and everywhere else that American troops are stationed.

Unlike the Republicans who promised tax cuts but then drastically increased spending, thereby ensuring that Americans would ultimately have to shell out even more from their pockets, Libertarians demand huge tax cuts coupled with huge spending cuts.  The Libertarian Party is the only party that will fight unconstitutional government programmes and repeal the ones we’ve got now.

There is an alternative, but you won’t get it from the two Establishment parties.

In closing, I ask you to ask yourself just one question: have you had enough yet?