On the other hand, for a much less sanguine take on the election, I kinda like this semi-rant from Victor Hanson. Now, his final paragraph, where he suggests America is doomed or destined, depending on how sombrely one wants to view things, to turn into either California, in which case we are indeed doomed, or Germany - Germany in the sense that a strong work/business ethic will survive despite the worst excesses and delusions of modern liberalism - I can sort of agree with that - and, yes, no doubt liberal elites have convinced themselves of some kind of Germany-like scenario coming true - the problem is it ain't nearly good enough for America to be Germany, not if you want it to keep performing its role as protector of democratic values and the western tradition.
Now, granted, this is indeed what the liberal intellectual elite wants, an emasculated American military - that was the point of Libya, it was the kind of 'war' liberals fantasize about where the American military is reduced to being some hi-tech police force running around 'doing good' from behind - so too Obama's drone wars, same notion - and of course it's all delusional, we see how Libya is turning out, we see how the Mideast is unravelling - there's no substitute for real power, and Obama sitting at his desk checking off names on a drone hit list is not real power, it's delusion - and one hell of a lot of hypocrisy.
So my point is if the choice is between becoming California or Germany I'm just not very confident that they aren't simply different roads to the same end.
