Election Reflection (or Random Thoughts)

            Mr. Obama is the President of the United States of America and I fully support him.  That does not mean that I will agree with all his policies.  When I disagree with his policies I will say so and hope that better policies are considered.  I will even offer my own ideas on policies.  By the way, if you have not read my book, you should.  You will find a ton of policy ideas that I believe will make America a better place.  If you have a Kindle, you can download the book for free.  It is offered for free today and tomorrow (11/15 & 11/16/2012).

The United States of America is the greatest nation on earth.  We just had a divisive election campaign season - but now that it is over – most Americans are wishing that Congress can work as a team again.  Yes we need two parties (maybe three), but we need one United States Congress.

Governor Romney made another campaign gaff today.  He told a group of his supporters that President Obama won because he offered largess to the nation’s minorities and youth.  President Obama did campaign on issues regarding programs that will help the needy and Americans decided that this is what the country needs.  However, a lot of Congressmen ran on opposing positions and won as well.  As I predicted in my book, the election did not provide a mandate.  However, I also predicted that the lack of a mandate would leave our nation “adrift at sea with no leader at the helm.”  When I wrote the book I thought the negativity of the campaign would tear us apart and that we would be worse off than we were when our credit rating was lowered.  I believe (and I hope) I was wrong.  I think that the enormous amount of negativity has numbed us.  We are ready for an opportunity to rekindle a bi-partisan spirit.

The opportunity is here.  It is called the fiscal cliff.  President Obama made a firm statement yesterday at his press conference that taxes on the wealthy must be raised.  That is what he campaigned for and he won the election.  It is time for the Republicans to give up the sacred cow of “no more taxes” and start negotiating with the President.  I believe that we should allow the Bush tax cuts to expire – for everybody.  Let them expire at the end of this year for those earning more than $500K, at the end of 2013 for those earning more than $250K, at the end of 2014 for everyone.  We need the money.  President Obama wants to allow the Bush cuts to expire at the end of this year for those earning $250K or more.  This will bring in $800 billion in additional taxes over the next ten years.  When the Bush tax cuts expire for everyone, we will bring in an additional $2.5 trillion over ten year (that is trillion with a “T”).

It is time for Republicans to negotiate taxes for Representative Ryan’s thoughtful ideas on Social Security and Medicare reform.  Representative Ryan’s “Business Consumption Tax” should also be considered.  It is actually a value-added sales tax (VAT) that the rest of the world already uses.  The World Trade Organization allows countries to remove the VAT from exports and to levy tariffs on imports in an equal amount to that lost by having removed the VAT from its exports.  Most of the world is doing this and because we do not – we are at a trade disadvantage.  Congress, please consider leveraging the World Trade Organization rules to help us rather then allow other countries to use them against us.

I cannot do an Election Reflection without discussing the lessons learned.  The Republicans lost by a razor thin margin.  The popular vote was 50% to 48.5%.  That is as close as it gets.  Furthermore, Governor Romney lost by very narrow margins in four states (Florida, Ohio, Colorado, and Virginia).  Had he won those states, we would be congratulating him today.  There was no mandate – but there was a trend.  Our country is becoming more diverse and the Republicans need to accept this.  It is a good thing.  It is what has made (and will keep) America the shining city on the hill.  We are the only country that has a “dream” named after it.  The “American Dream” will never die because more and more diverse peoples will continue to chase it – for our nations and the word’s betterment.  Republicans should consider another dream – the Dream Act.  How could any person (let alone an entire political party) believe that they could alienate so many voters with “self-deportation” and think they could win?  Then again, I allowed myself to think they could pull it off.  However, my book stated that my beliefs were to legalize the existing illegal immigrants and start protecting our borders.

Most pundits believe that Governor Romney lost because he did not connect with the everyday American.  The Democrats successfully portrayed Governor Romney as an out-of-touch rich person. There may be some truth to this portrayal of Governor Romney.  However, I believe that Governor Romney failed because he did not play to his strength - economics.  Sure, he said he would add twelve million jobs - but he did not make Americans understand where President Obama's entitlement society would lead us.  All he needed to do was to show a television commercial of the riots in Greece with a rolling message of its government's massive entitlement programs that have gone bankrupt.  People would have connected the dots that President Obama's plan is not sustainable.  That would have made people think about the consequences of our ever growing government and what could possibly happen if we do not get it under control.   Oh well, that thought can be saved for another election.

The other lesson learned is that the primary elections need to be shorter and nationalized (all states vote on the same day in May).  Stretching out the primary campaign by going from one state to the next is ridiculous.  By the time the primaries are held in the final states the winner is already known.  The primaries that were supposed to stiffen Governor Romney up for the campaign against President Obama only allowed Republicans more time to point out why their candidate should not be the next president. 

I think the parties should also consider establishing qualifications to be a candidate.  A candidate should have at least one of the following qualifications: 1) twelve years as a congressman; 2) six years as a senator; 3) four years as a governor; or, 4) has four years of CEO experience at a Fortune 100 company.  What was Herman Cain doing at the debates?  I would not be offended if each party had a closed door convention of its existing and retired congressman, senators, governors, presidents and vice-presidents and selected four candidates for the primary elections.  I also would welcome the birth of a third political party.  In fact, if the far-right wingers wanted to leave the Republican Party and officially start their own party (maybe they could call it the Tea Party) I would be very, very happy.

Congratulations President Obama.  America now, more than ever, needs your leadership.  Republicans - America needs your leadership as well.  Please handle the difficult problems we are facing with honest compromise.  Do it fast – that fiscal cliff thing could cause our debt rating to be lowered yet again.  And, we are still on the path to becoming the next Greece.