Why Obama Won

In honor of the certification of the election results, and the impending innauguration of Barak Obama, I am reposting a blog from my MySpace account from November. As most of you may or may not know, I am not in any way shape or form a supporter of Obama. Politically, I tend toward the right side of the middle of the road most of the time... However, that rant is for another time. So... here it is...

Obama won, on the immediate surface, because he inspired the population. His chief opponent, McCain, did not. However, neither candidate has shown a sound understanding of the economy, while the population today lacks a solid footing in the basics of civil society.

The underlying problem that led to this abysmal slate of candidates is that our society has consistently failed to educate our youth, who have slowly become our adult population, about what it takes to run both a successful democracy and a successful capitalistic economy, and the true virtues and potential pitfalls of each. This, coupled with a lack of instilling in our youth, as a whole, the virtues of the work ethic, honesty, and humility, has resulted in a greedy population that does not care who they hurt as long as they get what they individually want.

Our people, and especially the politicians, have learned that in a representative republic, you can vote yourself monies from the public coffers. Politicians all use this fact to buy votes, and the masses are rallied to support them. Without the self-restraint of morality, this will result in the downfall of our system of government. Allowing non-citizens to fairly easily cast votes for our government officials is a case in point as to what is wrong with this picture.

Additionally, in capitalism you need to spread economic opportunity (not money) to all, but not allow the hoodwinking of others by either business or government with regard to the true economic nature of the transactions. Encouraging and strong-arming lenders to make risky loans, and then allowing derivatives that consist of bundled risky loans to be sold in such ways that the lender is divorced from the borrower, have brought us to this point. That shareholders in companies would allow CEOs to make millions as these very companies go out on a limb financially is another example.

We have not taught our population how to be good citizens, and what this entails. Nor have we instilled in them basic morals that make for a civil society. Instead we have created a generation of adults that is no longer asking what they can do for their country, but what their country can do for them. This will bakrupt us, both figuratively and literally. The only question remaining is, "When?"