I am writing this the morning after the election, from my home in Chicago. Needless to say, last night was a big night in Chicago (I am NOT celebrating) and for that matter, the country. On a purely intellectual level, this is truly an historic election and sort of puts the final nail in any claims of residual “Jim Crowism” that may be percolating in our subconscious.

But given Barack Obama’s claims about tax policy, “spreading the wealth” and Representative Jim Moran from Virginia’s comment that “It’s time we move away from the Republican notion that if you have wealth, you get to keep it,” if you just read the words, we would have plenty to worry about in the club industry. But history is instructive, and here is what I think will happen to us over the next two years:

• Obama will tack to the center, even though he will still be left-of-center. All presidents do, and he is not a fool, and will realize that if he wants to govern successfully, he will have to mute some of his more radical positions on tax policy. Remember, Bill Clinton and a Democratic Congress tried to tax luxury items like yachts, big RVs and other items associated with the rich. This was a disaster to jobs, and the tax was quickly repealed. My guess is that Obama’s biggest problems will be muting the left wing of his party that feels it elected him, and Nancy Pelosi trying to steamroll him. Once again, if his campaign organization and strategy is illustrative of the way he will govern, he will successfully combat this.

• The Democrats, almost to a person, buy into the notion of man-made global warming. We will see strong legislative action to “green” just about anything. We in the club market are way ahead of the curve on this issue, and we are probably the best stewards of the land that exist anywhere. We have to make sure that our case is made strongly, positively, and frequently. Lots of laws are passed with little actual knowledge of the real issues, and we have to make sure our representatives are well-versed in the actual conditions that exist at our facilities. As much as we detest the notion of “lobbyists,” it is actually an activity protected by the first amendment to the Constitution (ratified in 1791). So we have to make sure ours are the best at effectively conveying our fact-based story, and work to ensure fair and just laws affecting our facilities.

• The Democrats did not get a “veto-proof” majority, but even more importantly, they do not have the 60 votes needed to effect closure on filibusters. What this means is that Republicans in the Senate will have the ability (and let’s hope also the guts) to forestall any crazy tax laws and other infringements on personal liberties and freedom that were bandied about during the campaign. On the House side, there was not the predicted landslide for the Democrats, although they did make some gains. There are a fair amount of “blue dog” Democrats who are not on the left, and will side with Republicans on some core issues. Both candidates made wild promises about what they would do with our taxes, conveniently ignoring the Constitutional requirement that all revenue bills must originate in the House of Representatives. Many Democrats remember the Republican revolution of 1992, which was all about health care and taxes, and don’t want to see that repeated.

• Principle aside, I think we will see an easing of immigration rules, which will make our seasonal labor pool grow. What worries me is that one of the top agenda items for the Democrats is to do away with secret ballots for union elections. I can envision Cesar Chavez-type organizers trying to achieve political power by unionizing migrant labor. This is something we will have to watch closely.

All in all, we will be in for some change, but not as radical as we fear. We will then have a chance to judge Barack Obama on his actions rather than his well-spoken words—thankfully, as with all political issues, we, the people, still get to decide in the end.