At the closing of the Constitutional Convention, a woman asked Benjamin Franklin what type of government the Constitution was bringing into existence. Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” Those words rattled around in my head Tuesday night as I watched the returns come in from election night 2012. You see, I am the type of conservative that is not all caught up in the social issues that some folks base their entire vote on. Most of them are meaningless to me therefore I give them very little thought. For me, there are a few thoughts that go through my head about every candidate I contemplate voting for. Is the prospective President going to keep us safe? Does he or she have a grasp on how to work to improve our economy? And finally and for me most importantly, do they have a grasp on basic economics and clearly understand that we simply can not continue down the current spending road that will certainly lead us to fiscal Armageddon?
I am not sure Mitt Romney could have stopped the fiscal train wreck we are riding but I definitely see no clear way that President Obama can fix this. Thomas Jefferson warned us that once the folks figured out they could raid the U.S. Treasury, the Republic would be dead. Indeed, our nation is now $17 Trillion in debt and climbing. Projections at the end of another Obama term show it at $25 Trillion. For all the promises we heard during the campaign, not one candidate mentioned Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or general spending reform.
Does anyone see the President moving to the center? Why would he? He was just re-elected. By the same token, the GOP held the House and actually picked up seats. Will they come to the center? Obviously, our nation can not continue down the current fiscal path it is on. This will obviously take some increases in taxation and reductions in spending. The left has to realize that there are not enough “rich” to pay for this mess. At the same time the right must realize that some increase in revenue is going to be necessary. Continuing that thought process, the left must realize that some significant spending changes are going to have to occur. The right must temper that by not attempting to gut everything.
Can we do it? We will have a good idea by the middle of next year. If not, TJ and Ben may have been right.
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