Posted by
Patrick Henry on Friday, August 13, 2010 10:29:37 AM
According to the polls, 55% of Americans think the word "socialist" fits Barack
Obama very well. That being the case, the outrage over 10% unemployment,
record numbers on food stamps, massive and continuing mortgage foreclosures,
government takeovers of automakers, financial institutions, student loans and
healthcare, strangling regulation of virtually every type of business and the threat
of some new and burdensome tax on an almost daily basis seems amusing. What
has America hot under the collar is, after all, what they signed up for when they
voted Obama and his Democrat cronies virtually unlimited legislative and executive
power.
Despite manifold historical examples, people still don't seem to get it that this is
precisely what socialism does to a country. Now, I grant you that Obama cloaked
his socialism in charm, wit and an inspiring message of hope and change. And I
further grant that he did so in front of a war-weary, Bush-hating electorate that
wanted to believe any change was for the good. But now, 18 months after Obama's
grand inauguration, 62% say the country is headed in the wrong direction and 50%
disapprove of Obama's performance, with 54% saying that Democratic ideas
are too liberal. Duh! Somebody really smart once said, "Be careful what you wish
for."
What's really interesting is that the Democrats don't understand why their grand
plan is failing either. They do know, because they're working so hard to persuade
us that it isn't. When something succeeds, you don't have to prove it.
In a recent public moment of partisan pique and personal frustration Obama claimed
that, "Republicans don't have one single new idea to move the country forward"
from the mess it's in. That statement alone shows how much the Democrats really
don't get what they've done. Let's unpack it for a moment.
First, it seeks to justify obvious Democratic failures by suggesting that Republicans
have no alternatives. We see that argument played out in senile liberal Princeton
economist Paul Krugman's recent New York Times article seeking to discredit Paul
Ryan's (R-WI) "Roadmap for America's Future" (a prime example of a "Republican
idea"). Krugman dismisses Ryan's arguments as "old" and "tired" and then whines
that Ryan's revised taxation plan (flat or fair tax) couldn't possibly provide the revenue
needed by the government to operate. What he isn't honest enough to add, is that
it isn't sufficient for the bulging, bloated bureaucracy created by Barack Obama
to operate, a point Ryan would, no doubt,concede. The errors in Krugman's
(and Obama's) position are (a) that the country needs to continue barging forward
like a drunken bull in a fine china shop, and (b) "new" ideas are needed to fuel
that progress.
When one is approaching an obvious dead end, the last thing he needs to do is
step on the accelerator. And if America is correct that the country is moving in
the wrong direction, then going farther down that road is the last thing we should
be doing. What don't we understand about the "progressive" agenda that is
driving the Democrats? Their notion seems to be that we need to put the pedal to
the metal and drive away from consitutional government, free enterprise and personal
prosperity as fast as possible. What many of the thoughful dissenters are urging is
putting the wagon in reverse, undoing some of the damage, scaling down government,
putting business back in private hands, cutting business owners some slack and allowing
people to make their own medical decisions in conference with the doctors they trust.
When you believe you're headed the wrong way, the last people you want to listen to
are those screaming at you to step on the gas. That's the message Obama and the Dems
don't get, because they don't want to.
The United States Constitution is pretty old, and it's just chock full of old ideas,
But maybe before turning it into Obama's "living document" that we can twist
according to our whim, we'd better take stock of what strict adherence to and
patriotic defense of it have done for this nation. And then, perhaps we should
compare that with what Obama has done in 18 months, and what the cratering,
debt-riddled eurosocialists have done. Having made such a comparison, then
perhaps we should give serious thought to which state of affairs we find more
attractive. By comparison with Obama's neo-socialism, the old ideas look pretty
darned good, Maybe the way out of this mess is not more innovation in govern-
ment, but a government more intent on implementing the tried and true formula
that made America great. Democrats with power are as dangerous as children
with a new chemistry set, and they're bound to blow something up. This time, it's
the economy. What's next?
Perhaps the voters deserve some slack. Obama's schtick sounded so good, all
hopey and changey. And Bush, who forgot he was supposed to be a Republican,
was so bad in th eyes of so many. And who wasn't drawn to the notion of electing
America's first black president. But most never understood how far Obama was
prepared to go in confiscating wealth from some and redistributing it to others.
No one guessed that this first "post-racial" president would lead the nation into
deeper racial divisions than ever. No one envisioned him as the de facto CEO of
banks and automakers, the regulator of executive salaries or one who would
decide, independently of congress, how much electricity we could use, where
our health insurance would come from, what our doctors could and couldn't
do to treat us, what products we had to buy or where and when we could drill
for oil. We were gullible, perhaps even stupid.
But now the economy lies in ruins, unemployment remains high, the "recovery,"
such as it was, has stalled, our president is involved in lawsuits against half the
states of the union, illegals are still streaming across our southern border. The
milk has been spilled, and we, the voters, have to try and find a way to put it back
in the bottle before it all spoils. We can cry over it, or we can take the bull by the
horns and solve our problem. We know who is causing the problem, where they
are, and what they'll be calling themselves on the November ballot. So, will it be
full speed ahead to hell? Or is it time for thoughtful leaders who will slow down,
think, and return us to the prosperity and pride we remember? It's really up to
us, isn't it? But this time, we can't be blinded by political correctness, or plead
that we've been fooled. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!