After spending $6 billion on these elections, America ends up right where it started: with Democrats in control of the Senate, Republicans in control of the House, and the same man in the Oval Office. Here are 12 thoughts:
When Barack Obama gave his victory speech, he said this: “We know in our hearts that for the United States of America, the best is yet to come.” Do you believe that in your heart? I am bracing myself for what is about to happen to this country. The threats are legion, both within and without.I can more readily comprehend Americans getting swept up in the hype of hope surrounding Mr. Obama’s first campaign. But now we have a record of four years to look at. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. These crowds that are so ecstatic at this victory—what are they expecting in this next term? What is their hope founded on?More specifically: America re-elected the president after four years of trillion-dollar deficits; four years of stagnant productivity and high unemployment; four years of rising inflation, gas prices, grocery bills and so on. They gave him another term after he purported to reduce deficit spending—by ramrodding healthcare reform through at untold cost. The economy hasn’t collapsed yet, but the foundation is creakier than ever because all this administration’s efforts to address the crisis have aimed at trying to soften its effects rather than solve its causes.On top of that, America re-elected this man after the Fast and Furious debacle; after his public support of same-sex marriage; after his party erased God from its platform and then awkwardly jammed a mention of Him back in; after it became painfully clear that a black man’s presence in the White House has not eased race problems, but if anything has made them even more volatile.White Americans substantially favored Mr. Romney—nearly six in 10. However, the minority vote is increasingly king in this country, and there he lost big. The president clobbered him by nearly 40 percentage points among Hispanics, nearly 50 points among Asians—and 87 points among blacks. These are the groups that swing elections. No candidate can win who doesn’t cater to their favored positions on issues like immigration and welfare policy.The problems facing America are bigger than Mr. Romney could have managed. That said, he was probably the lesser of two evils. The fact that the electorate chose the greater says a lot.As an aside, watching how Americans have handled the destruction wrought by Sandy—not the people who have acted with dignity and moral character, but those who have exploded in anger and violence, shamelessly looted, sold gasoline for sex and so on—makes it all the more sobering to contemplate what’s ahead in the next four years.Highlighting the nation’s moral shift, yesterday’s victory for homosexuals went beyond re-electing the president. For the first time in American history, a popular vote legalized same-sex marriage. After 32 tries—32 times that voters shot down measures on state ballots that would have approved same-sex unions—yesterday, such laws passed in Maryland, Washington and Maine, and Minnesota rejected a measure constitutionally defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Also, Wisconsin elected a lesbian to the Senate, the country’s first openly homosexual senator.Exit polls showed that the president had a 23 percentage point advantage among voters who were most concerned about foreign policy. To be sure, Mitt Romney offered no real alternative. But I find it remarkable that voters chose the incumbent after the spectacular failure of his vaunted outreach to Muslims; after four years of fecklessness with Iran; after the loss of Egypt and Libya; after the increased radicalization of the Middle East and North Africa; after the deadly mistakes in Benghazi and subsequent cover-up.Speaking of foreign policy, the gap favoring Mr. Obama was even greater among another contingent: actual foreigners. A recent bbc poll in 21 countries found the president with a 41 percentage point lead. Why is that, do you suppose? Because they want to see a stronger America?The Kremlin said Vladimir Putin took a “very positive view” of Mr. Obama’s victory. I should think so, considering President Obama’s pledge to Dmitry Medvedev that he would have “more flexibility” to work with Russia after this election. Other happy leaders: Ahmadinejad, Chavez, the Muslim Brotherhood. Not so happy: Netanyahu.Guess how many American voters said foreign policy was their most important issue? Five percent. I expect this to change—radically—and probably during this next presidential term. Why? Because this infatuation with deficit spending and government handouts is a holiday from reality. It cannot and will not last. The threats from outside the country are growing and shortly will force themselves upon the American landscape. Events are rapidly building toward the fulfillment of sobering biblical prophecies of America’s future—prophecies that start with our cities being torn apart with violence, probably in part because of terrorist attacks—and end with—unfathomable as it may seem—foreign invasion and captivity.Bonus thought: There are countless factors at play, but ultimately it is God who decides elections (Daniel 4:17). President Obama is the right man to oversee—and I believe, even to hasten—what is to happen to the U.S. in the time ahead.
