What Would Hobbes Have to Say?

With the presidential election over, I am hearing from a number of conservatives who are disgusted with the result. Most of them show up on the TV screen, but quite a few have been in person. This was undoubtedly the most divisive election of my lifetime, and it is boldly displayed in the data. The president won almost all of the voters in categories such as African-American and Latinos, while Romney won a huge majority within his bases.

Is this a metaphor for the future of
our American government?

However, there were many fewer voters than in 2008 – more than eight million (roughly 121 million in 2012 compared to 129 million in 2008). Some Americans were more disgusted with the mudslinging and media abuse than the choice of candidates and as Geddy Lee of Rush once sang “if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” Many chose to simply stay home and not be part of the process. These people have no legitimate reason to complain over the next four years.

Because of the ideological differences between President Obama and Governor Romney, it was hard for many voters to find common ground between the two, although they may have had a few consistencies. In a sense, the choice seemed to be for good versus evil, and the choice of candidate to play each role split right down the middle; in fact about 51-48, in favor of our current President winning the showdown and riding off into the sunset.

Getting back to the complaints I’m seeing and hearing, the main ones look at the President’s record over the past four years. Terms used such as ‘redistribution of wealth” come back in conversations labeled as “socialist.” Today the inevitable occurred as I saw a picture of a bumper sticker on Facebook. The sticker read “Welcome to the U.S.S.A – The United Socialist States of America.” In light of the angst displayed by many over the past few months, I think some of us saw that coming.

Regardless of one’s personal preference, the election is over and we need to come together to support the President’s second term. The people have spoken. Personally, I believe that the politicians have backed themselves so far into a corner that compromise is now a necessity of job security for our legislators. As a collective society, we chose to make few changes in a Congress that holds less than 20% job approval. Fool us twice? I'd hope not.

My hunch is that the person who could benefit most from a well-crafted compromise in the budgetary process is none other than the current chairman of the Budget committee, Congressman Paul Ryan. Hmmm, didn’t he just run for Vice-President? Balanced budget = 2016 Presidential candidacy?

For those who would like to read an old philosopher’s view of this, I would recommend a glance at Thomas Hobbes’ “The Leviathan.” In Hobbes’ view, people are usually driven by fear and the natural “State of Nature” is a violent one. For this reason, we need to be governed by one force which represents our collective identity, but one which has a large monstrous head. Regardless of your political preference, (and I disagree with the thought, but love the metaphor) it’s worth a look.