Amid the woeful wailings of my conservative friends over Obama’s solid victory over McCain last night, I thought I’d share my take on how this election ended up.  As you can gather from my previous writings on the subject, I was no fan of McCain in the primaries and viewed him mainly as a lesser of two evils in this election.  I voted for Bob Barr on principle since I fully expected McCain to take Texas without my help.  So I’m not heartbroken that we won’t have McCain in office.  Yet as a libertarian-leaning conservative, I’m not excited about the prospect of four years of liberal power in Washington either.  Nevertheless, while I do wish Obama hadn’t won, there are a number of reasons why I’m not too upset either.  In fact, I think Obama’s victory can have some genuinely good effects, if he stays true to his rhetoric last night.

I’ll also point out that although I opposed Obama because of ideological disagreements, I didn’t buy into the fear-mongering that painted him as a Muslim foreigner who hung out with crazy domestic terrorists and hate-spewing preachers.  Yes, his black liberation pastor is rather extreme in his views and has said some pretty upsetting things, and yes Ayers took the whole anti-Vietnam war thing to some dangerous and irresponsible levels (long before he and Obama met).  But when you put these men’s actions and Obama’s relationships with them into context and try to put yourselves into the shoes of those involved, it becomes less severe than people make it out to be.  Troubling, yes.  Clear evidence that Obama will be a racist and terrorizing president, no. 

That said, here are some positives I see in an Obama presidency (I won’t get into the negatives since my goal here is to share an optimistic view.  Getting bogged down into the dangers of government-provided health care insurance isn’t my objective): 

International respect

Love him or hate him, Bush hasn’t helped America’s image abroad.  Sure, people will say “who cares what those yellow French socialists think, we ain’t nobody’s bitch” or something along those lines, but how our friends (and enemies) view us does matter.  Having a well-spoken and reasonable man instead of a proud maverick should help other nations view us positively again, and may even tone down the brashness of foes such as Iran’s Ahmadinejad.  It won’t win our wars, but it may help avert them and go a long way toward restoring the world’s respect for us.

Foreign entanglements

Although the Democrats don’t exactly have a clean record when it comes to avoiding foreign meddling, I do see Obama as less likely to keep us engaged in Iraq much longer and more likely to take a more limited and focused approach to anti-terrorism.  His own lack of experience in these matters isn’t exactly a good thing, but the “experience” of the neoconservative war hawks isn’t exactly what we should be looking for either.  We should walk softly and carry a big stick, and I think that Obama is more likely to take that approach than McCain would have.  And for all the domestic spending Obama wants, a reduction in foreign operations, particularly in Iraq, will save us a lot of money.

He has a civil rights background

While I find the actions of groups like the ACLU and NAACP to be generally exploitative and far more motivated by lust for power and privilege than genuine concern for equality and fairness, I do think Obama is likely to be a better choice than McCain when it comes to restoring our rights to privacy and fair trials. The sacrifices of privacy (Patriot Act) passed in the name of anti-terrorism have moved us in a very dangerous direction, and I’m hopeful that Obama will work to reverse those laws. And hopefully the supposed terrorist detainees in Guantanamo, etc. will finally get fair trials and just sentencing.

He’s black

While I would have preferred someone like Walter Williams to be our first black president, it’s certainly not a bad thing that America has elected an African-American president.  Not that we should vote for someone because of their race either way (and I don’t think that’s what gave Obama the victory), but it is a good sign of how far civil rights have come in this country. 

He (seems) willing to listen

Although time will tell how truthful Obama’s promises have been, he does strike me (and this was true before his victory speech) as someone willing to listen to reason.  He’s not a stubborn cowboy with a my-way-or-the-highway approach to leadership, but seems to be open to other viewpoints.  This isn’t necessarily a good thing since he still needs good judgement to recognize good advice when he hears it, and it’s up to him to ensure that he has intelligent experts giving him this advice, but it may be a refreshing change.  Again, this all depends on whether he sticks to his promise to “listen to you, especially when we disagree.”  A humble President willing to listen would be a great thing for this country.

A McCain victory would have implied that the Republican party is on the right track

Although I believe McCain would have moved us less in the wrong direction (domestically, anyway) than Obama, if McCain had won the Republicans wouldn’t need to question their direction.  A sound defeat in this election means that the Republican party needs to rethink their platform and hopefully provide a real alternative to the liberal ideology.  I’m not saying I think they’ll swing all the way to Ron Paul conservative idealism, but hopefully they’ll realize that constitutional conservatism still resonates with a growing portion of the country, and maybe they should provide a candidate who represents them. 

Final thoughts

Again, these are the positives I see to Obama’s victory.  He’s still a liberal who is likely to move us toward an ever more polarized tax distribution and an expansion of entitlement programs – a terrible idea considering we’re not close to affording the existing ones.  And he’ll almost certainly nominate liberal judges who would uphold Roe v. Wade (although it’s debatable whether that’s really the most effective approach to getting rid of abortion).  But as liberals go, I think we could have done worse and honestly I’m curious to see what the future holds.  I have no doubt that Obama’s actions on the domestic front will be bad for conservative ideals, but there are a few points on which I’m optimistic, particularly with regards to foreign affairs and civil rights.