Malcolm Cutchins: Marriage, family win on Election Day

There was some good news concerning Election Day (unfortunately no longer one day as our Constitution dictates).
Marriage and the family were big winners. Arizona, California and Florida became the 28th, 29th and 30th states to amend their constitutions to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. In Arkansas, voters overwhelmingly approved a measure that only married heterosexual couples could be foster parents or adoptive parents.

The drastic economic changes proposed by President-elect Barack Obama during this long, bitter campaign are certainly a major factor for the stock market problems. The bad influences of planning to raise the capital gains tax, and the threats of “redistribution of wealth” and the largest tax increase ever are significant market pressures. The constant barrage of negative economic news by the mainstream media adds to the fear factor that influences investors and business.

Some ways to restore stability to our economy include:

* Our unfair tax structure forces huge amounts of U.S. capital to go overseas. Some estimates put it as high as $13 trillion. To help return much of this capital, a new, simplified tax structure would go a long way.

* Drill more, drill now. Sending oil-rich countries $700 billion a year needs to cease. We have huge oil reserves in ANWR, OCS and shale stone formations.

* Diminish give-away foreign aid. There is an excellent article in the latest issue of The American Conservative (Nov. 3, p. 35). The author is Fred Reed who lives in Mexico, one of the magazine’s contributing editors. Reed fears that the billions we pour into backward countries will not help them much because of 1) a “lack of interest in schooling,” 2) a “lack of ambition” and 3) “corruption to a degree that most Americans can’t readily imagine …the culture condones corruption.” The latter point is a good warning for us in the U.S., based on ACORN’s willingness to participate in open voting corruption (as just one example) and the media’s failure to adequately expose them.

* Demand sacrifices from our Congress. It is high time that they lead by example. Since poor congressional oversight of the sub-prime markets contributed greatly to the loss of several trillion dollars by U.S. stockholders, congressmen should give up some of their raises, and several (like Barney Frank) should be forced out of their positions, as well. I’ll not hold my breath.

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Cartograms (which show normal election maps and others skewed for population) can be found at:http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/. The normal map of red and blue counties reveals that the land area dominated by votes for McCain/Palin is much, much greater than that for Obama-Biden.

This should be a strong warning to Democrats who want to totally ignore the important values held by the majorities in these huge geographic areas. To do so will greatly divide our country.

Dr. Malcolm Cutchins is an emeritus professor of engineering of Auburn University and writes a column for the Opelika-Auburn News.