Aftermath...

 

 

 

 

"Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle won"

 

Duke Of Wellington

Not to be too much of a soothsayer, I will make the following prediction - On November 7th we will all wake up and the world will still be here. Baring a protracted result such that we had in 2000, either we will have a President Romney or the second term of a President Obama. As a nation, we will survive November 6th. Beyond that day, the question is this - can the Commander in Chief also become the Healer in Chief for a very fractured nation.

People may disagree on who will come out on top in this election. However, one thing most agree on is the margin of victory will be razor thin. This country is split about as even as one could imagine. The question I have been wrestling with is this - will the half the support the losing candidate be able to live with the outcome? If power is still divided between the Executive and Legislative Branches, will anything get done? Will the dislike for each other's policies evolve into a visceral hatred for each other? As a nation, can we survive this election? Or are we going to devolve into an ungovernable mob.

If one was a conspiracy theorist, one could take extreme discomfort in the fact that our government has purchased over a billion rounds of ammo for most every Federal agency. Between the ammo, the armored personnel carriers and the drones, it almost looks like our government is preparing for war. My question is "against who?".

Back to the Healer in Chief. Our last two presidents promised us they would "change the tone in Washington". Each said he would be a "uniter" and not a "divider". The first was mistaken and the second was untruthful. Whoever wins, we need a leader who will be the President of the United States of America, not just of a constituency, race or religion. We live in a pluralistic society and need to be governed as such. To keep dividing us by income, race or class will lead to a result so bad, we might never recover.

In the next four years, it will be very possible to see three openings on the Supreme Court. As the years have gone on, and the courts have become much more entrenched in judicial activism, the composition of the highest court has become almost as important as who is in charge of the Executive Branch. If after the election the country is not yet healing, picking an ideologue for the first Supreme Court opening could be the proverbial "match in the gas can". Yes, I am talking riots in the streets - European type riots.

Finally, the financial solution to the debt crisis will take the utmost in political acumen and cooperation. Our debt crisis is bipartisan in nature - we all created it and we all need to solve it. To keep blaming the other side and attempting to stick one group of people with the fix will not work. FIX the tax code. ALL need to have skin in the game. ALL need to pay something in taxes. Failure to handle this is the most sensitive and skillful of ways could rupture the country wide open.

As I said in the beginning, we will survive election day. My question is will we survive the aftermath.