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 tax collector for the welfare state. Once the tech is in place to impose a uniform system, bet that it will be used. Too much money on the table for it to be otherwise.
5. Astroturfing. Obama’s campaign was masterminded by David Axelrod. Think Karl Rove with a 21st Century talent for getting things done behind the scenes. Astroturfing is the term for creating fake grassroots support online for a particular cause in the hopes of altering public perception. Successful online marketers will want to ethically model Axelrod’s astroturfing of the package he sold (Obama) to pitch their own products and services via the Internet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNiJc7yxKHgRemember that it is up to you to succeed in your online marketing activities. Do not credit or blame the government for your actions. As of now, it is not yet time for Atlas to shrug.
What do you think?
