Pollyanna

In the old Walt Disney movie, Pollyanna went around a small town reminding grumpy and distraught people that there is always something to be glad about. For believers in human liberty and limited government, there are good reasons to regret that Barack Obama has been elected president and very good reasons to regret that he will govern with the Senate and House that were elected Tuesday. However, in this case, Pollyanna is right. There are in fact several things to be glad about.

First, George Bush is leaving. His administration has not only been a failure. It has been a double disaster for friends of liberty. Not only did he abridge civil rights, endorse torture, lead us into an unnecessary war, balloon deficits and government spending, increase regulation and entitlements, create massive and intrusive new bureaucracies, and claim unconstitutional powers for the executive. He did it while presenting himself (and being presented by his enemies) as a so-called conservative and, in some vague sense, as an opponent of big government, thereby damaging actual opponents of big government by implied association.

Second, and most important, John McCain lost. Since World War II, with the one exception of the first two years after the Johnson landslide, the worst legislation and the grossest assaults on liberty have come not under Democratic administrations, but under those of big government Republicans, with the presidencies of Richard Nixon and George W. Bush being the leading examples. In this respect, John McCain would have given the nation a third Bush term. He is an activist, big government, command guy to his bones. His actual views on domestic issues are not that far from those of Barack Obama. The difference is that President Obama’s worst proposals probably will be blocked or filibustered by Republicans in the Senate. As good team players, the same Republican senators likely would have supported them coming from a President McCain, while Democrats would have opposed him only when he was not statist enough. In general, gridlock is good, and we have a better chance of it with Obama than McCain.

There is a also chance that an Obama administration may do some good things such as correcting excesses from homeland security and the war on drugs and abjuring torture. As president Obama might even have a more nearly constitutional view of the scope of the executive.

Finally, Republicans will be in opposition. That means they need something to oppose. The easiest things to oppose will be Obama’s plans to expand government and constrict freedom. So, perhaps only willy-nilly, we may hear Republicans talking about freedom and limited government again. They might even accidentally come up with candidates who believe in those things and elect them as the political pendulum swings back in the next few years.

All in all, this election has turned out about as well as it could have.