In January, the spectacle of presidential politics will reach a new level as Barack Obama, the orator-in-chief, the supreme family man, the star basketball player, the reflective lawyer, someone who represents the United States as no one else has, is sworn into office.
Huddled around flat-screen TVs and Internet streams, Americans will watch Obama’s inaugural address with millions or even billions of people around the world. He will have an unprecedented opportunity to gather support for his plans.
Nearly 60 Democratic senators will be sworn in with Obama, and moderates in the GOP will likely support him based on the public consensus that America needs national unity and change (a word relentlessly pounded into citizens’ heads for the last two years).
With a near super-majority in the Senate and the House firmly in his control, and with unbridled public support (Obama’s favorable rating has already risen more than 10 points since the election), it’s likely that the government will begin reorganizing itself on a scale that has not been seen in years, maybe decades.
What changes will be made?
Obama has said that he will invest a few hundred billion dollars in renewable energy and a new power grid. If he does this, it will be an investment on a scale that has never been tried and it could drastically reduce the use of fossil fuels.
The auto industry is on the brink of collapse and is begging for a government rescue. If Bush doesn’t do it first, you can bet that Obama will: no president wants to be held responsible for the downfall of the most quintessential of American manufacturers; with potentially three million jobs lost, it would be a devastating economic and symbolic blow to the country. The auto bailout will be a good move as long as loans come with strings attached, like new management and higher mileage standards.
Of all of the political attacks that helped decide this presidential race, the most effective might have been Obama’s line on health care: John McCain wants to tax your health care benefits. In contrast, Obama presented his plan as unobtrusive, promising the unconcerned masses of insured people that they wouldn’t be too inconvenienced by his proposal. By elevating this issue over the course of the campaign, Obama can now legitimately claim that he has a mandate for health care reform.
Will the Republicans stop Obama? No.
Republicans, over the last two decades, have chosen to allow vast increases in government spending. They have even passed giant social welfare programs themselves in transparent attempts to win new constituencies. Washington Republicans have never found a principle that they couldn’t betray.
The Republicans’ problem is that their real intentions are fundamentally opposed to the will of the nation: the American people do not want to see senior citizens living in poverty, as many did before Social Security. They do not want to see the underclass of poor, disproportionately non-white people grow any larger. They realize that the legacy of prejudice is still alive, embodied in our economic system that discriminates against people based on ZIP code, skin color, gender, sexuality and other factors. They want to see these problems fixed.
That’s why the American people elected Barack Obama, and if the future unravels as it appears that it will, they might see some real changes very soon.