During commentary on Tuesday's election results, political pundit Charles Krauthammer called our president a "magician". He said that Americans somehow thought that Barak Obama was a magician who sold them on his ability to somehow solve all of their problems, which is why they voted for him, yet, a year later, as reality is setting in, they are seeing that campaign promises and actual implementation of these promises are two entirely different things.
These comments put a particularly large smile on my face. I have called this president, first The Leader, which was not necessarily my doing, but a reference to a cult leader from The Simpsons, and now secondly, The Magician.
I call him The Magician because I think the only way for his Healthcare initiatives to work as he is selling them would be through magic. He says that he is going to find and cut all of the existing spending necessary to pay for $1 trillion in new spending after the money has already been spent (a common practice of politicians who end up never cutting the existing spending after the fact), cram people who have no money to pay for services into the healthcare system without increasing its capacity, and somehow reduce the cost of care to the people who are paying for the system, and somehow still increase the quality of care that everyone is receiving. There is only one way that this can be achieved...magic!
Barak Obama's win a year ago had a lot to do with people who don't normally vote getting out and voting. They, unlike the rest of us who vote all the time, were not able to filter out the campaign promises from what he would actually be able to achieve. So many of these first-time, or seldom-time voters saw him as someone who would fix all of the problems in their lives that they had been unable to fix for themselves.
Now, after a good ten months in office, I think they are seeing that this is just not the case. They are seeing that The Magician is not going to be able to wave his wand and somehow magically fix Taxington, D.C., the politicians, the economy, and their own personal problems.
If they would vote once in a while, they would know that this is what the rest of us deal with on a regular basis...politicians that make campaign promises that they just simply will never have the power to deliver on.
We investigate the facts, read the bills, read the platforms, and do not simply just get caught up in the political whirlwinds like the perfect storm that got The Magician elected last year. We recognize that a Presidential Election is a far more important thing than a road show to take an interest in for a couple of months every four years.
I think the honeymoon is over, which is why you are seeing The Magician's numbers turning. When the excitement about this man's youthfulness, his lack of tarnishing years as a Taxington politician, his desire to shake up the system, and yes, even his race, all wear off, we as Americans are seeing that despite all of the campaign rhetoric, there is still a politician in the White House.
For the life of me, what I cannot figure out, is why all of the first-time and seldom-time voters out there thought it would be any different. Oh, yeah, that's right, it is because despite living in this country and reaping its benefits, this is the first time that you actually got involved with the rest of us in the political process and took the time to vote. Well, welcome to American politics, where you are seldom happy with the results of any election. Now, go crawl back into your hole of political oblivion and let the rest of try to fix the mess that you have created.
There is not an easy solution to the problems that this country is facing, and we should all be suspect of anyone who tells us that they have the formula to fix it all. We all have a duty to vote for someone who will do what is in the best interest of the nation, not just simply promise to provide us with the things that we do not have, have always wanted, yet somehow, have never found the means to provide for ourselves.
Money will be borrowed, money will be printed, services that we cannot afford will be provided, yet one day, the bill will come due and we may see the first time in the history of this nation where the bill is just so overwhelming that it drags the entire country down with it, and no amount of magic will be able to save us when that happens.
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