So we have a new President Elect in the form of Barack Obama. Some of you are elated, some of you deflated, and others of you think “meh”. I tend to fall into the latter(est) category for many reasons. First and foremost-DUH. Obviously Obama was going to win, and if you didn’t see that coming months ago you probably weren’t paying attention. While I think it’s fair to say that both top shelf candidates (it’s a little strange that our Top Shelf is so Bottom Rung, isn’t it?) were pretty mediocre, McCain was in most respects the most mediocre of the two, and the least charismatic by far. Moreover, the Republican Party has spent the last several years pretty much slapping the faces of their own constituents. Instead of following through on their “less government” rhetoric of years past they’ve inundated us with bigger, more intrusive, more expensive government.

Instead of following through on their words about “Liberty” they have instead catered to the religious nutjobs on the extreme right. And strictly from a PR standpoint they’ve put forward the most boring, uninspiring candidates imagineable. Whatever else you can say for or against Obama, the guy comes across as genuinely likeable. I’m not at all convinced that he truly believes his own rhetoric, but then, I haven’t seen a mainstream politician who convinced me he believed in his words since Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton (and while both of those had buckets of charisma, neither had what you might call brilliant presidencies).

What, though, is the real significance of this election? Well let me tell you what I think. After a lot of consideration I’ve come to the conclusion that the significance of a Barack Obama presidency is not in the politics of it, for he is by and large the same candidate as John McCain. The real significance is a cultural one, and it has more to do with the American people than with Obama himself.

Less than a century and a half after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation we have our first black(ish) president elect, which if you think about it is pretty astonishing. That a black man can rise to the office of President is a testament to the American Culture’s ability to adapt and change, and to now choose as its leader someone who a century and a half ago would have been a slave. Truly we have come a long way, and there is a lot of pride to be found in the fact that this has happened so early in our history.

It’s unfortunate that our first black president isn’t himself much of a revolutionary. By and large he’s of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt ilk (you know, that evil fascist of a president who sat in the oval office for nearly 4 terms while he destroyed the economy and turned a recession into the Great Depression. Thank god he died before he could do anymore damage), which probably doesn’t bode well for the long term health of Economic Liberty in the United States. However, to be completely fair about the matter, we haven’t had a mainstream protector of Liberty in any flavor, much less economics, for a damn long time, so it isn’t like we’ve suddenly changed course. Therein lay the problem.

Obama’s platform was built and sold on the rhetoric of Change. Unfortunately all he repeated throughout his campaign was a great deal of more of the same. When the challenge came only one month before the election to prove where he stood, he made it very clear as he stepped up, shoulder to shoulder with George W. Bush and John McCain to champion and ultimately enact the biggest corporate welfare program this country has ever seen. Literally, at the hands of the Congress of which Obama and McCain were both a part, with the help of our illustrious President Bush, we were driven to accept as much spending in mere hours as the entire Iraq war has cost in over 5 years. And we were forced to accept this as a solution to a problem that was caused by the very government that then force-fed us their “fix”.

It came as no surprise when, after his victory, Obama conceded a number of facts: an economic recovery will not be possible rapidly and may not even happen in his first term; and there will be no sudden changes in Iraq War policy. These concessions have already pissed off some of those who voted for him (leave it to the unwashed masses to assume that a president need only flip a switch to repair an economy or withdraw from a war), though honestly I can’t see a reason why. What rational person thinks that sweeping change happens overnight?

In any case, here’s the rub of my take: Politically, the Obama election is nothing to either celebrate nor to particularly panic about. What you have elected to office is, quite simply, more of the same. You’ve supported the Status Quo, and you’ve done it in the name of change. Not a particularly clever move, but at least you managed to make some cultural history, so it isn’t a total loss. My advice? Try not to panic. The world will neither end nor find bliss on the back of Barack Obama, and just like it has for the past 232 years America will soldier on through the next 4. For those screaming that Obama will take America to “Hell in a hand basket” let’s take a moment and realize something: America is already there.

So try to be optimistic. Work your butt off, try to earn as much as you can, and take advantage of every tax break and evasion tactic you can legally pull off. Vote no on spending programs in your area when presented with the option, vote yes on kicking incumbent politicians out on their asses. In the end, we’re all still relatively free so let’s just keep our eyes on the road ahead and recognize that what goes down must come up. Rule of buoyancy, I swear.