While the election results may be depressing to conservatives and many libertarians, I want to give some “glass is half full” reasons to be optimistic. The first couple of reasons to be optimistic will be more for libertarians and the last two will be for both.
The first reason is that we won’t have a President Romney.
The second reason is that Obama is less likely to bomb Iran. This is actually the biggest issue that is out there. If there is a major war with Iran, then that will affect everyone. It will mean that many innocent people will die. It will mean more hatred toward Americans. It will mean higher gasoline prices. It will mean far worse economic conditions.
While we can’t be sure of what Romney would have done and we can’t be sure of what Obama will do, it seems that there is less of a chance of a major war with Iran with Obama in office. This is not a defense of Obama and it is not to let him off the hook for his continuing wars (some of which he started) and his drone attacks on innocent people and his continuing violations of basic civil liberties.
The third reason to be happy that Obama will get another 4 years is that he will take the blame for the horrible economic conditions that are still to come. There has been massive malinvestment that is so big that we can’t even know what is about to hit us. Obama is correct that he inherited a terrible economy. We can fault Bush, Greenspan, other politicians, and even the American people to some degree for allowing it to happen. But Obama has not improved the situation. He has only made it worse with more regulations, more spending, and more debt. And he certainly hasn’t criticized Bernanke for his huge monetary inflation.
Obama is known as a supporter of big government. Romney is falsely portrayed as a supporter of the free market. If we are going to have a terrible economy for the next four years, regardless of who is president, we may as well favor the guy who is known for his support of big government. I would have been screaming and kicking if Romney had been elected and the media were trying to portray him as cutting government, when of course no such thing would have happened.
The fourth and final reason to be happy about Obama’s re-election is that the Democratic nominee in 2016 will have less of a chance of winning. The Republican nominee in 2008 was doomed because of the disaster that was Bush. The same will probably be true for the Democratic nominee in 2016, assuming the economy is really bad. If Romney had won, then guess who would have been the immediate favorite in 2016 for the Democrats? Yes, Hillary Clinton. She still may run in 4 years, but her chances will be far less having to follow Obama and probably a bad economy. So perhaps we can be thankful for Obama for another 4 years in saving us from having another President Clinton.