4 ms·

It may be just a speech, but that acceptance address was one heck of a way to start things off. Despite a strong (though very much appreciated) message of hope

by ricree 18y ago

It may be just a speech, but that acceptance address was one heck of a way to start things off. Despite a strong (though very much appreciated) message of hope, he was very clear on the magnitude of the problem and the effort it was going to take to solve it. He seemed to touch on a lot of issues that I felt were critical to the future of the country. Energy and environmental challenges, getting the economy back to stable ground, healing political divides and tempering extremism; these are all issues that need to be tackled, and I am happy that he addressed them here. Hopefully his policies will live up to the talk, but if nothing else I believe that his message alone will go a long way towards helping improve things. It seems all too rare these days for a politician to say that yes, things will be difficult and dirty, and there are going to need to be sacrifices from everyone, but despite all the hardships we really can work to build a better future.

hugh 18y ago
Hopefully his policies will live up to the talk, but if nothing else I believe that his message alone will go a long way towards helping improve things. Never forget: the unintended consequences of any government policy almost always wind up being far more significant than the intended consequences. This is what I fear most.
- redrobot5050 18y ago
  You've got citations to back up your fears, don' you? I've love to see the horrible, horrible unintended consequence of seatbelt laws.
  - wildwood 18y ago
    Or the GI bill. If only we had known! :)
    - hugh 18y ago
      Y'know, I did say "almost always". Seatbelt laws? Yeah, I can't think of much there, though I'm sure there's somebody out there who'll argue that seatbelt laws promote worse driving, and there have probably been some particular crashes in which seatbelts have led to rather than prevented injuries. The GI Bill? Actually in my limited understanding that probably wound up having consequences well beyond what was originally intended, and it's likely that most of those consequences were on balance good rather than bad. But it doesn't make them any less unintended. It wrought major changes in higher education and in the demographics of cities vs suburbs, which were probably not on the minds of those who originally proposed the bill.

by ricree 18y ago

hugh 18y ago

Hopefully his policies will live up to the talk, but if nothing else I believe that his message alone will go a long way towards helping improve things. Never forget: the unintended consequences of any government policy almost always wind up being far more significant than the intended consequences. This is what I fear most.

redrobot5050 18y ago
You've got citations to back up your fears, don' you? I've love to see the horrible, horrible unintended consequence of seatbelt laws.
- wildwood 18y ago
  Or the GI bill. If only we had known! :)
  - hugh 18y ago
    Y'know, I did say "almost always". Seatbelt laws? Yeah, I can't think of much there, though I'm sure there's somebody out there who'll argue that seatbelt laws promote worse driving, and there have probably been some particular crashes in which seatbelts have led to rather than prevented injuries. The GI Bill? Actually in my limited understanding that probably wound up having consequences well beyond what was originally intended, and it's likely that most of those consequences were on balance good rather than bad. But it doesn't make them any less unintended. It wrought major changes in higher education and in the demographics of cities vs suburbs, which were probably not on the minds of those who originally proposed the bill.