Delegating Responsibility to Obama

Let us suppose that we, like Abraham, hand over responsibility for decisions to God. That is a decision we make. If I delegate responsibility, then I am responsible for what my Leader does. I am responsible for the outcome.

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In a representative democracy we use the same process. We vote and delegate responsibility to elected officials to conduct our foreign policy, protect the nation, shape the economy, deny health care to the dying, etc. Sometimes, like Abraham, we are asked to sacrifice our children, perhaps by sending them to die in a useless war. Like Abraham, we obey.

I am not responsible for George W. Bush, because I voted against him, he stole his election, and I would never delegate responsibility to a stunted frat-boy. I am, however, responsible for the actions of President Obama, because I supported him. The outcomes have been mixed so far. Consider the war in Afghanistan--Obama told us repeatedly during his campaign that he intended to enlarge the war. I can't claim that he fooled me.

Some of my friends avoided responsibility by not voting or by voting for third-party candidates. You can't delegate national decision-making to third party candidates, because they never get elected. This sort of non-delegation, however, has occasionally led to the election of George W. Bush to high office. Non-delegation also has outcomes.