Obama, the President of "Change"

I’m so glad that the inauguration of the new president of the United States is over with. I was getting tired of hearing about this “historic” event. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am aware that Obama is our first African-American president, and that truly is a important milestone. I am also aware of how he worked his way up from a fractured home to lead the most powerful nation on earth.

HOWEVER . . .

Throughout his campaign, Obama has never given us a clear picture of what he intends to do and exactly how he intends to do it. Through his exceptionally eloquent public speaking, he has captured the hearts of most of the nation, but what about our heads? Given his record during his time in the Senate, and the fact that he came up through the Illinois political machine, I’m not expecting to enjoy the next four-to-eight years.

Obama’s record in the Senate has been consistently liberal (or progressive; however you want to label it), which is to say, consistently pro-big-government and anti-freedom. I’m not looking forward to more of that. As someone* said: “That government is best which governs least.” And Ronald Reagan: “Government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.”

While it might just be a nasty rumor, I understand that the state of Illinois, especially the city of Chicago, has some of the most corrupt politics I the nation. How could an inexperienced man, with no family money and no powerful previous connections come up so quickly through the ranks? I’m not accusing Mr. Obama of anything, but it certainly looks suspicious.

Another gripe I have about this inauguration, and government functions in general, is the cost. ABCNews did the math and estimates that Obama’s inauguration will cost $170 million. I’m with Tom Delay on this one:

If Obama were "serious" about changing Washington, DeLay said, "He would announce to the world: 'We are in crisis, we are at war, people are losing jobs; we are not going to have this party. Instead, I'm going to get sworn in at the White House. I'm going to have a nice little chicken dinner, and we'll save $125 million.” (AOL News)

In this time of financial crisis and recession, how much good could be done with $170 million? To get an idea of how much that is, consider these:

• If you took 170 million dollar bills and laid them end-to-end, it would stretch from Los Angeles, CA to Washington, DC, and back again, three times, with some left over! That’s six times across the continental United States!
• At an average home price of $254,103 (as of June, 2008, which is a bit overpriced for right now) that $170 million would buy a average home here in Utah for 669 families. With an average family size of 4, probably a little higher than the national average, that would make a huge difference in the lives of 2,676 people.
• With an average price of $85, $170 million would buy 2 million textbooks for use in our public schools, or 170,000 Apple MacBook computers (at $999 each).

That’s a lot of money, but not much “change”.

* (variously attributed to Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Napoleon, Henry David Thoreau, or Ralph Waldo Emerson, no one seems to know for sure, but it was quoted in Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" in 1849)