Friday, January 20, 2017

Farewell and Hello on Inauguration Day

Today in Washington, despite publicized plans to the contrary, I expect a peaceful transition of power. Actually, "power" should be the wrong word, but it symbolizes the increase of executive power in the US, vice what our founders intended. Thus, "elections have consequences". And what a strange election, with incriminating email leaks, post-truth, fake news, and the alt-right. I've been disconnected and busy, so unlike the proverbial millenials with the faded Obama poster, I haven't taken part in the new, posssible dangerous world of information, although I am at high-risk of echo-chamber mentality. In my workplace, there is a spirit of working hard, earning more and paying less in taxes, with an objective of financial freedom.The validity of the election, as in 2000, is called into question. Thankfully our incoming President, Mr. Trump, won decisively in the Electoral College, albeit through narrow victories in the big midwestern states. I also suspect that adding conservative third-party votes to Trump's total helps close the popular vote gap. It was a bit disingenuous for Mitch McConnell in the Senate to "let the people choose" the next Supreme Court nominee, although it highlights the lukewarm Civics education that Americans have- that elections have consequences.

That said, Mr. Obama stands alone after 8 years of presidency. As I said in a recent blog post, I hold nothing back to say that the DNC, which Obama is a part of, is bumbling, geriatric in leadership, and out of touch. Thus I've been downplaying Obama's accomplishments. But taking a step back, I can see that Mr Obama did try to do a good job. Americans like the idea of affordable healthcare, and like myself, find practices insurance companies used to get away with, like plan cancellation, to be outright immoral. I'm not sure if our healthcare system is teetering on the edge of financial ruin, as Paul Ryan claims; but Obamacare today favors big insurance companies who can comply with thousands of pages of regulations. This favoritism should disappear in favor of fairer competition. Some parts of Obama's legacy won't be repealed this afternoon, and holding insurers accountable is one of those items. So also  the populist movement for minimum wage increases will stay. I also believe that Mr. Obama's urban revitalization efforts will continue, as this is Mr. Trump's raison-d'etre. I look forward to Mr. Trump's business experience, with the hope that the role of small business will be revitalized. Family bakers, florists, and the Catholic Church will be held in good regard again.