(no subject)

[deckardcanine]

Of the four presidential elections in which I've voted, this was the strangest for me: While I had a strong opinion of which major candidate was best, I knew I'd have lukewarm feelings with either announcement. That's because I now move in both left- and right-wing circles, so no matter who won, many people I like would be happy and many others I like would be miserable. I won't even say here whom I voted for (tho some on LJ already know), lest I sour some relationships.

I've noticed that proponents of each major candidate mostly expected their guy to win. Some even said he couldn't lose, ignoring all indicators that the race would be close. They must not have as much exposure to political diversity. I would not have been surprised either way, tho I predicted correctly.

In any case, I rather dreaded this day for the crescendo of emotions it would yield on both sides. I fully expect to find celebrations and gripes in all kinds of inappropriate places, at least online. The potential good news is that it's a twisted swan song: The noise should die down in about a week, after which Romney and Ryan will hardly come up at all. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Comments

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

What bothers me most is that fiscal conservativism is getting tossed out with the bathwater of social conservatism. I can understand why some folks may want to have nothing to do with pro-life philosophy, etc., but it seems like a majority of Americans think they can obtain lasting prosperity through the use of credit cards, and that exponentially increasing national debt is not a problem worth worrying about.

Even the CBO predicts the USA will be unable to borrow to pay its debts by the mid-2020's, and it could be even earlier if nobody in Washington takes a leading role in fiscal sanity.

I see three possible outcomes, all bad:
1. Hyperinflation to make the existing money nearly worthless to minimize the old debt. Might work for a year or two, but nobody will loan to you ever again, and almost every existing business will go under.
2. Ultra-socialism/borderline communism, with tax rates going to 90% or higher trying to pay down the debt. When taxes are that high, you kill the economy and actually reduce tax revenue.
3. Economic collapse, those who have been relying on government money to live will riot when the checks stop, and everyone else will hunker down to hold onto what's theirs. A few days of passionate violence, then RIP USA.

As for overconfidence by Republicans, some of the pollsters got overly creative with weighting their poll results. Some of them assumed Romney would get the enthusiasm advantage that Obama got in 2008 and Obama would have below-average enthusiasm, which ended up inverting the actual poll results.