Glimmer of Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Ok, so now that Bush is officially going to be President for 4 more years, let's take a look at one of his more intriguing campaign promises. Bush has claimed that in order to help urban development, he's going to push for the creation of what he calls, "Opportunity Zones." This basically entails giving businesses tax breaks in certain inner-city areas, with a few other benefits that might get thrown into the mix. It all fits in with Bush's bigger picture "Ownership Society," where everyone in America owns something in order to stimulate the economy. Ironically, the idea of an Opportunity Zone is the sort of thing I would have expected out of someone far more liberal than Bush. In fact, it's downright Rawlsian. Rawls' conception of social justice requires an equality of opportunity, but not any artificial supports or solutions of the sort that communism proposes. Rawls asserts that the disadvantaged simply need something like affirmative action to give them some momentum and allow themselves to motivate the rest of their own change. Therefore, the idea of an Opportunity Zone, which would give minorities and the socio-economically disadvantaged a little help in pulling themselves up seems like sound (at least philosophically) policy.

As a side note, while my inclinations are to be utterly depressed over Bush's reelection, I'm somewhat optimistic at the chances that Bush may follow in Reagan's footsteps: have an ideologically divisive first term, but concentrate on the good of the country for prosperity in the second. I can foolishly hope that his actions in his first were to guarantee reelection, not to permanently put the country down the road it has been heading. I can hope that bipartisanship will be as important as the concession and acceptance speeches have said they would. What can I say? I'm a pragmatist, and I don't really have any other choice but to hope.