Original Sin, Reconciliation and Absolution

It finally came to me. I last wrote about how I didn’t think all the Obama voters were on the same page. They voted Obama for a variety of reasons, but I hadn’t been able to pinpoint the reason so many folks who considered themselves “conservative,” had voted for him. But thinking about the “feel good” atmosphere that seemed so obvious to me, helped form my hypothesis. Voting for Obama was reconciliation that removed the Original sin of slavery, and will lead to absolution for historic discrimination against blacks. A vote for Obama said “I am not a racist and America is not a racist country. Now you have proof.”

Towards the end of the campaign, the one thing that liberal pundits kept pushing, were the quotes from conservative pundits who had switched over to Obama or were at least critical of McCain. David Brook’s line that Palin was a “cancer on the GOP” got more circulation than anything else he has written since he joined the New York Times. You’d be hard pressed to find a liberal who didn’t quote it in his column. Most people didn’t even know who Christopher Buckley was before he endorsed Obama. But within days everybody knew he was the son of recently deceased conservative icon, William F. Buckley. They heard all about his voting for Obama, but I doubt they heard his response when asked if he feared Obama’s liberal agenda. I don’t have the exact quote, but he basically said he didn’t think that Obama would actually be able to implement everything he wanted because cooler heads would prevail when he started getting advice from folks who knew better. That, he felt, made it safe to vote for him. Considering the people most likely to end up in his cabinet, I take no comfort from that notion. Nationalized health care, no new drilling, a hasty exit from Iraq and redistribution of wealth are what his true believers expect for him to deliver. And something tells me he does not wish to disappoint them right off the bat.

I heard this morning that Obama plans to start his administration by immediately reversing many of the executive orders that Bush had signed. Not surprisingly, one of them was to expand the stem cell lines that are eligible for federal research dollars. That won’t strike any chords. Nobody will come crashing to Earth on that one. But the next one listed was to kill any expanded off shore drilling. You may recall that during the campaign, even Obama had to say he supported that. More than two thirds of Americans did and he wasn’t about to hand an issue like that to McCain. Even the Democrat congress lifted their ban because of voter support. So would this reversal be called “lying,” or will some softer sounding term be put forth? At the very least sentences will be parsed. (“I only said I was for SOME expanded drilling.”)

It’s going to be a while before reality steps in for the “conservatives” who opted for absolution on slavery. They are currently enjoying that renewed feeling one gets from going to confession.