The man who sits in the Oval Office will not make or break your online business. You’ll succeed or fail on your own terms. That being said, a President Barack Hussein Obama supported by a Democrat majority in both houses of Congress can and will make life more difficult for you online.

Here’s a look at what to expect in 2009.

1. Fairness Doctrine. A priority issue for the Democrats is to revive the misnamed Fairness Doctrine as a way to squelch the opposition on talk radio. Unless there’s a specific exemption in new legislation for blogging, the Fairness Doctrine will chill your free speech. When you voice an opinion, you’ll be bound to give your opponents/competitors equal time to refute it. Disgusting.

2. Workers’ Rights. As part of efforts to appease union interests, look for new employee rights to be created that are anti-employer. This will make it especially important for you to dot your I’s and cross your T’s when outsourcing work to independent contractors in order to avoid getting penalized.

3. Higher taxes. Tax cuts will be allowed to expire rather than renewed. This is a de facto tax increase on your income. Anyone who complains about higher taxes will be accused of being greedy, selfish, and not willing to pay their fair share. The prevailing political philosophy is that government can spend your income better than you can. For the public good. For the children. For the elderly. You get the picture.  If you oppose the looting of your earned income, it will mean that you are mean-spirited and hate puppies. If you’re even thinking about feeling guilty, you’ll want to get a copy of Ayn Rand’s The Virtue of Selfishness now to understand how you’re being manipulated and what you can do about it.

4. More taxes. Expect there to be a big push for a uniform taxation system for e-commerce. The states and cities will now have a friendly ear in Washington for setting up a system that makes you the [Read more...]