We come from an area of the country that doesn’t agree a whole lot with the policies that Obama endorses, and because of that, we hear a lot of people talk about how the country is going to be changed so drastically and how awful things are going to be the next four years. But I think people forget that any person that earns a nomination from a major political party is as qualified as anyone to make the decisions presented to him as president. Barack Obama cares about America and will do what he thinks is best, even if what he thinks is best is not what you think is best. I will say he has inspired lots of people and even though I don’t agree with all his ideas, he has appointed people to cabinet positions that come from all angles of life which suggests that he is willing to work with people who have different paradigms than his own.
I also didn’t enjoy the fact that so many people trash-talked President Bush. He’s our leader and deserves respect, no matter how much you disagree with his policies. So I’ve made it a point in my life to support whoever is president and not to speak any slander about him, because he is worthy of respect. Maybe that’s the most radical idea anyone’s presented in politics this year, huh?
—Count Seth, Becoming The Archetype
I suspect that Barack Obama will first focus on fixing our current national problems before he considers any of the international ones. I think pulling troops out of Iraq will be his first step, as the hundreds of billions of dollars spent there have done nothing but harm our economy. Obama needs to act as FDR did during the depression. Government has to better regulate the financial sector, it has to stabilize what has now become unstable. Obama should not cater to big business or the fabled “trickle-down economics.” I think we all know that if you put money in at the top in our economy, especially nowadays, it rarely trickles down. Unfortunately, greed at the top has caused the middle class to suffer, and we know that without a strong middle class we can no longer maintain our status in the world markets. India and China already have bigger middle classes than us, and are taking many of our jobs, as they can do them for much cheaper and still maintain a decent quality of life. If Barack Obama has any chance at fixing this, Americans must stop living beyond their means. Our economy functions best when everyone is in debt, and that has to change.
I think Obama will be most successful if he maintains a moderate position. He will do this by not adhering to the far Left or far Right, but by doing what is best for the majority of Americans. I don’t expect him to be as popular coming out of his presidency as he is going in, but I do expect him to make some critical changes in the way the American economy is run. Hopefully, those changes will set us back on the right path, away from corporate greed and corruption, and closer to realistic and frugal consumerism, if there is such a thing.
—Matt MacDonald, The Classic Crime
