Obama-Change for America

Election Day 2008 will prove to be a turning point in America's history as a choice is made between two very different candidates and very different tickets. I have never known such a contentious political environment as the one surrounding this election.

A sign of the change in America is that a black man may emerge as the next President of the United States. Another sign is how blacks in this nation have hung their political and economic hopes on this man and face the possibility of great disappointment. As The Root reports:

If the polls turn out to be completely unreliable and Barack Obama loses to John McCain today, it will set off a heated debate about race in America. But even if that happens, this will already be a different America from the one that allowed Obama, on a cold day in February 2007, to stand on the steps of the Old State House in Springfield, Ill. and more than implicitly compare himself to Abraham Lincoln.

Another sign is that America has been turning Left and this turning (very unlike Abraham Lincoln's social views) is probably permanent. The effects of this left turn are not yet known, but there will be consequences for blacks as well as whites, for Hispanics, Asian Americans, Native Americans, etc. What is done to Americans by a powerful federal government will be compulsory. It is a dangerous illusion to think otherwise. Leftists are not tolerant people.

The fears of conservative citizens are probably justified. Left-leaning social policies, tax reform, tensions between racial and ethnic groups, church-state tug-o-wars, political manuevering for a second presidential term are anticipated, even dreaded.

Then there is the favorable reaction of less than freindly nations. Syria and other Islamic nations are pleased to see the Bush administration replaced. The Syrian press recently endorsed Barack Obama.

Obama's foreign policies will not be evident right away. He has too little experience in international affairs. However, if his past performance is an indication of his direction, he will extend a friendly hand to world leaders, especially in the Islamic world, while he seeks to advance his leftist ideology at home with the support of a Democratic Congress.

With the election over, maybe the USA can get on with economic growth, diplomatic interventions where human rights are systematically violated: especially violence against Christians in Sudan, Laos, India, Pakistan, Iraq... the list seems to be growing. Yet it is difficult to imagine Obama and Pelosi having any interest in the plight of Christians since they don't appear to care much for Christians in their own country. One might go so far as to say that they really dislike us, since many of us have not been supportive of their leftist ideologies.

For more on the lurch to the Left, go here.