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The Coming Post-Obama Renaissance
Works and Days ^ | October 2, 2011 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 10/02/2011 5:30:53 PM PDT by decimon

The Parting of the Clouds

In every literary, historical or cinematic masterpiece, times must grow darkest before the sunrise and deliverance. Tolkien worked that classical theme to great effect. A sense of fatalism overtook a seemingly doomed Gondor — right before the overthrow of Barad-dûr and the dawn of a new age of men. The historian Herodotus, in literary fashion, also brilliantly juxtaposed the Greek collapse at Thermopylae (the Spartan King Leonidas’ head impaled on a stake), and the Persian firing of an abandoned Athens, with Themistocles’s sudden salvation of Western civilization at Salamis. In the classic Western film, hopelessness pervades until out of nowhere a Shane rides in.

(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: vdh

1 posted on 10/02/2011 5:30:56 PM PDT by decimon
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To: decimon

Well, let’s kick off our bedroom slippers and make it HAPPEN!


2 posted on 10/02/2011 5:55:46 PM PDT by wetgundog (" Extremism in the Defense of Liberty is no Vice")
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To: decimon

Meanwhile, the “anti-banking” mobs and protests spread across the US, demanding the government “bring down” what they are calling “capitalism.”

The “protesters” are socialists.

They elected a communist to the White House.

The bankers that caused our economic problems and profited from them are the mega-bankers and mega-financiers who are totalitarian and socialist by nature.

And they helped put Obammie the Commie in office.

So we have socialists and communists having elected and communist who bailed out the socialist/communist banking system, and now the socialist “street thugs” are pretending to protest the socialist bankers in order to call for more crack downs on the free market by the Communist in Chief.

Their demands caused the problems. They are targeting a false target in order to get their komrade to impose more of his draconian, anti-free-market policies and laws, and all the while the are trying to get him re-elected.

What a massive three-ring circus, complete with elephant $shit up to the knees.

My point?

All of the “protests” you are seeing are the early use of violence to ensure that Obammie the Commie gets re-elected next year.

Not sure when the Renaissance starts, but whenever Obammie the Commie leaves office, you can expect the same type of pseudo-sociopathic and pseudo-psychotic deranged hatred the left displayed for Bush (really the Americans that voted for him) to be flame-thrown upon whomever we support in the next big election.

Buckle up your boots, FRiends, and lock and load. If we want our country back, we will have to fight for it.


3 posted on 10/02/2011 6:06:23 PM PDT by Ghost of Philip Marlowe (Prepare for survival.)
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To: decimon

Sure hope he’s right.


4 posted on 10/02/2011 6:06:23 PM PDT by Montanabound
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To: decimon
Here's what I expect:

1. The national economy in 2012 will be worse than the national economy of 2011.
2. Obama will lose in a landslide.
3. A Republican will occupy the White House and have broad control of Congress in 2013.
4. The economy will take off and 2013 will be a good year.

5. The media will give Barack Obama credit for everything good that happens from 2013-2017. His policies made the boom possible, you know. The old "Bush's Fault" will become "Obama deserves the credit".

5 posted on 10/02/2011 6:20:20 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (The USSR spent itself into bankruptcy and collapsed -- and aren't we on the same path now?)
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To: decimon

It will happened, people have had enough.


6 posted on 10/02/2011 6:23:36 PM PDT by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: decimon

I laugh at everything this idiot progressive Obama loving idiot writes. =.=


7 posted on 10/02/2011 6:30:50 PM PDT by cranked
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To: cranked

opps, forgot the sarcasm. =.=


8 posted on 10/02/2011 6:31:45 PM PDT by cranked
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To: decimon
I share VDH's optimism but it's going to be a long, rough road. Possession of the Presidency is more than simply symbolic; less important, in my view, than getting the Democrats out of Congress. The House is what has slowed the impetus of 0bama madness, but control of the Senate is only slightly less important. It would be nice to be able to vote the partisan liberals out of the media as well so we could at last have a rational national conversation but that isn't going to happen. And so no matter who's in it is likely to be the same old constant tribal drumbeat. Just a fact of life in a corrupt society.

I would not be a bit surprised to see immediate relief on hiring once the demonizers of success are shoved to the sidelines. Small businesspeople are naturally alarmed to be called "the rich" and have their hiring practices subjected to lofty progressive disapproval merely for being. The progressives have adopted the remarkable position of being for the working man by keeping him unemployed and against the wage-payer by keeping him unable to employ anyone. Sure, that's Death To Capitalism for the academic fools that abound in the 0bama administration but it's death to a whole lot more first.

Not a small part of the potential recovery is likely to be at the expense of our European cousins, whose financial institutions have flooded ours with capital hoping not to gurgle down the Greek drain and several other larger ones. It is difficult to see that inherently unstable arrangement lasting; it is more difficult still to imagine what will stabilize it. Before the sun breaks through the clouds, there are, well, clouds.

And as VDH says, it is the Constitution that is our bulwark against the fools who always seem to have better ideas but never seem to produce better results. They've had their shot and they blew it, and short of the guillotine they are going to be a part of our political landscape for an indefinite period to come, always sniping from the sidelines, never actually producing anything but self-righteous demands for a fictitious social justice that is nothing but theft. They're happier that way. Time for the adults to govern again.

9 posted on 10/02/2011 7:07:11 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Billthedrill

If you haven’t seen it then there’s another thread on FDR and the war: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2786907/posts

We were broke at the end of WWII. And, to be dramatic, the specter of the New Deal hung over us. But Truman, with a Democrat congress, couldn’t bring back the New Deal. Then there was Eisenhower and we flourished.

Everything could have gone wrong but didn’t.


10 posted on 10/02/2011 7:20:02 PM PDT by decimon
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To: wetgundog; All
Well, let’s kick off our bedroom slippers and make it HAPPEN!

There is no safe harbor with Obama in office. Gold, stocks, real estate, cash, they are all vulnerable, because all of them depend on the rule of law.

The only investment that makes sense until President Obama is out of office is investing in a stable, limited American government that believes in the rule of law.

In 2010 I "invested" in the political process more than I have ever done before. It is the only investment that makes sense at the moment.

11 posted on 10/02/2011 7:55:10 PM PDT by marktwain (In an age of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.)
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To: Billthedrill

I agree with the need to capture the Senate as well as the White House. However I fear Boehner and McConnell as leaders will be no better than Hastert and Frist who were financially irresponsible and beholden to special interests.

The concentration of economic power on Wall Street wil have to be broken to return freedom to main street. For small business to resume hiring, It must have access to capital which is today being deployed overseas or wasted in speculation. We must also remove the government backstop and allow the big banks and corporations to fail.


12 posted on 10/02/2011 7:59:45 PM PDT by Soul of the South (When times are tough the tough get going.)
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To: decimon

Obama is living proof that the collective brains of all the radical leftist college faculties is bereft of any common sense or practical knowledge. He was the leftist academician they were waiting for. He would show America how to run a country. And he’s run in into the ground.


13 posted on 10/02/2011 8:51:05 PM PDT by driftless2
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To: Billthedrill

Some trends that are bad (and will be difficult to reverse) -

1. Homosexuals in the military - cannot see how this will improve military effectiveness. Rather, costs will go up (to build new facilities), retention rates will go down (as volunteers leave rather than bow to political correctness), enlistment rates will drop (IMHO), and good people will be killed because of poor training. Indeed, military chaplains are being called on to provide same sex marriages, which will force same sex marriage into every community that hosts a military base.

2. Media - the MSM is going to pull out all the stops to demonize opposition to “progressivism”, no matter how obvious its failure is. Those who get there news from the MSM will be angered and frustrated (intentionally) by what the MSM tells them is going on, and will resist a return to a constitutional order (who wants to be anti-”progress”?)

3. Education - as adults, parents, and conservatives, we have dropped the ball by allowing two generations of children to be politicized and abused by the Left’s takeover of academia. Even if we somehow generated intellectual and philosophical balance at all levels of education, and eviscerated bloated bureaucratic budgets, it would still take 20+ years for current and recent students to be un-brainwashed by reality.

4. Culture - the Left’s continuing attack against moral standards of any kind is prevalent here. Without calling for a return to Puritanism, we need to return to recognizing virtue and punishing vice in our communities. We need to take back the streets, schools, churches, theaters, etc. Stable two-parent heterosexual families should be the norm; strengthening this family ideal should be the goal of public policy. Recognizing “alternative” arrangements and/or rewarding them is not in society’s long-term interest and should be discouraged. There are two genders, male and female, and if you think you’re something else, than that is your problem, not society’s, and your fellow citizens should not be taxed to support your rebellion against reality.

5. Immigration - unless we transform our immigration policies as radically as Ted Kennedy transformed them in the Sixties, we are doomed. We have spent 40+ years importing poverty and radicalism, legally and illegally, from the 3rd world. Even if illegal immigration stopped entirely tomorrow, we still need to deal with an army of under-educated, non-English speaking people in our midst, and their radical “leaders” who seek to divide and weaken America. Suggestions: English as the official language of government, enforcement of the original intent of the 14th amendment (no anchor babies), and enforcement of the law equally (stop treating the law-abiding as second-classs citizens).

6. The nanny state - we have two generations of students who have been raised to believe that government is the source of all that is good, and that families, churches, and businesses are bad. We need to foster a spirit of self-reliance and a return to the family (as noted above) or else the growth of government will doom us.

7. Welfare - multiple generations of dependents are subsisting on the government dole, yet insist on enjoying all of the things earned by their hard-working neighbors. This needs to be radically transformed so that a minimum subsistence level of benefits are provided (preferably with a “gift of the taxpayer” label on basic foodstuffs, toiletries, etc.); if you want something other than that, then you need to work, earn, and save to afford it. Likewise, drugs and tattoos - if you can afford either, then you don’t need money from your neighbor.

8. Pensions - there will, of necessity, be a radical reset here. Civil society will not beggar itself to continue to pay bloated pensions and benefits. Likewise, all government entitlements, especially SS, Medicare, and Medicaid, will need to be trimmed to reflect the new reality of more retirees and fewer workers.

9. Public unions - this may be the hardest step. But if we are serious about returning America to a limited constitutional order, we need to dramatically curtail and/or eliminate public unions. As it is, they are a conduit to launder taxpayer monies into contributions for the hard left, and their pensions are bankrupting governments (and taxpayers) at all levels.

As you can see, I am not as sanguine as VDH. While the end of Obama may unleash an economic tsunami, failure to transform the culture will mean that much of the productivity and profits will be diverted back to support Leviathan and its pitiful dependents. YMMV


14 posted on 10/03/2011 7:20:02 AM PDT by bt_dooftlook (Democrats - the party of Amnesty, Abortion, and Adolescence)
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To: decimon

VDH is able to put in words what we all have been living through. Since he is an expert in classical history, I will borrow some of his enthusiasm for a brighter future post-Obama. My favorite line in the article notes that Obama has done what no group of the right could have even hoped to accomplish in terms of retaking our country.
Please work to make this happen.....


15 posted on 10/03/2011 8:33:31 PM PDT by JudyM (JudyM)
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To: JudyM
VDH is able to put in words what we all have been living through. Since he is an expert in classical history, I will borrow some of his enthusiasm for a brighter future post-Obama. My favorite line in the article notes that Obama has done what no group of the right could have even hoped to accomplish in terms of retaking our country.

Before the last presidential election there were people, some in this forum, who wished for an Obama win so we would hit bottom and could start rebuilding. I didn't agree as I believe history weighs against the sort of recovery any sane person would wish for. But there's no way to know so those people could at least have had the right idea.

What if McCain had won? Would things be much better?

16 posted on 10/03/2011 8:45:40 PM PDT by decimon
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To: marktwain

Bingo, everything depends on the rule of law and the equal enforcement of same.

baraq and his progressive ilk have not been held accountable because of the threat of the charge of racism.

Time to stop this crap and start prosecuting these people.


17 posted on 10/03/2011 8:54:17 PM PDT by Texas resident (Hunkered Down)
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