Thank God Obama won. I was equally as thankful that the
campaign had finished. It was obscene—it’s negativity, the nearly $2 billion
spent, the ads on both sides that were filled with half-truths and innuendos.
I don’t trust Romney and I didn’t like his vision for
America but neither he nor Obama gave us much substance during the campaign.
Both promised to create jobs with old paradigms—lower taxes and businesses will
hire; investing in the infrastructure will create jobs. Neither addressed the
complexities of job creation in the global economy where workers in competing
countries make less in a week, than middle income Americans make in a day.
Neither spoke of the need to readdress free trade in this environment. Or how
we’re going to direct students toward the specialties employers need—many
high-wage jobs are not being filled because they can’t find applicants with the
needed skill-sets.
We celebrated a friend’s birthday on election night. Four of
us gathered at another friend’s house for food, champagne and chocolate while
we watched the returns. We cheered when Obama won. Then CNN showed a graphic of
red and blue counties. Seeing his formidable challenge was sobering.
The day after the election the looming, so-called, fiscal
cliff (that neither candidate addressed during the campaign), couple with
continued fears about the European economy caused the DOW to plunge 2%.
As the market’s downward spiral continued, both President
Obama and Representative Boehner promised to work together to reduce our
deficit but that’s not what I see. The reds are still holding fast to their no
tax increases stance, the blues insist the rich must play more. And continued
diverseness in Congress was easily apparent in the responses to the Benghazi
investigation that began last week.
We can argue about whether Obama’s
re-election does or does not give him a mandate. But what does have a mandate
is eliminating the gridlock. No one’s going to end up with exactly what they
want. That’s the essence of compromise.
