Posted on 11/07/2008 10:40:35 AM PST by Traviswf
Hi there. I voted for Obama, but have been reading a lot of Freerepublic lately to see how the other side is reacting. I'm not trying to troll here - honestly - but if you feel I am, that's understandable. I just wanted to offer a perspective on this that I think may be interesting to some of you. Oh, and this is much longer than I intended. And I'm fairly certain I'm not posting this the right way...for which I apologize.
When Bush was elected in 2000, I was upset. And yes, I whined about him "stealing" the election. I don't really think that's true anymore - it was just a painful way to lose. Sure, we can whine about the popular vote vs. the electoral vote, but you can't change the rules in the middle of the game. Then I watched the movie Recount and realized just how awful the democrats were at trying to win the damn thing. Gore seemed like he didn't really want it.
When Bush won in 2004, I was absolutely devastated. I thought the world was going to end. I didn't think we should be in Iraq, I agreed with Kerry that we had to finish the fight in Afganistan. I was worried about the courts. And frankly - I just didn't like Bush. I didn't like the way he governed, the way he spoke, and the way he talked as if we on the left were less American.
On 9/11 I happened to be in Toronto on business. When the towers fell, I knew I had to get home. A colleague and I wanted to go to New York, to help in some way. But we were told nobody was getting anywhere close. Our next instinct was to get home - to California. We didn't just want to be with our families, we desperately wanted to be in our country. That day was rough because my colleague thought his wife might have been on one of the planes - her travel plans were very similar. It took hours of agony before we, thank God, found out she was safe.
So we rented a car in Toronto and drove across the country. It took a couple hours to get across the border in the middle of the night. We stopped in Omaha, and then Colorado. I can't even tell you how much I loved my country driving across its beauty in those days after the attacks. And there were no jokes about "we're in enemy territory" because we were in "red states." We were in America. Everywhere we went people said "How are you? Is everyone safe?"
I know everyone has similar stories of those days. And certainly many, many people have stories of real loss - not just "we thought we lost someone, but it was a happy ending." Then, fairly quickly, I felt my patriotism coming under attack because I had a difference of opinion about how to fight back. I didn't think Iraq was the right choice - it made no sense to me, and I certainly wasn't alone. But people questioned my love of my country. And that was very, very hard to forgive.
When 2008 came up, more than anything, I wanted to win the White House back. I wanted to punish the Bush administration for what I felt was not just a failure to be competent, but a failure to keep the country united. I inititally supported Hilary, but I had this feeling in my gut that she was just going to be Bush - but for our side. She'd be a partisan warrior, a polarizing figure (which Bush wasn't when he started, but Hilary already was...). It made me sick to my stomach.
I wanted to go back to feeling like an American in those days after the attack - where our disagreements were things we laughed about over a beer and the real threat was far, far more serious.
I'd written Obama's candidacy off as a dry run for 2016 or later. Or maybe he was running for VP. I thought - hey, dude, at least finish a term in the Senate. Then when he said "we're not a collection of red states and blue states, we're the United States of America" it hit me like lightning. It had nothing to do with him - it had to do with the country, and my love for it and this feeling deep down in my gut that we were fighting over the placement of the deck chairs while the ship was sinking.
Wow, this got really rambly. Sorry about that. Here's why I posted initially. I saw this thing on here about Obama's "national defense force" and some posters commenting about the coming civil war or some such. I'm pretty sure Obama was just talking about funding for police. I mean - are you guys really worried he's going to do this? There was a rumor on the left that Bush was bringing a military brigade trained in "riot control" home from Iraq before the elections. People were convinced Bush was going to take over the country in a military coup. I'm sure you think that's laughable - as do I. Obama is not going to raise a civilian force of brown coats. First of all there's no money for it, nobody would go for it, and he'd be laughed out of the White House.
He's also not a socialist. And he's not coming for your guns. If he did either of this things, he can basically just go home now. Those are not realistic positions for any president to have. He will likely appoint liberals - at least too liberal for you guys - to the courts.
But here's the thing. He's going to try and be a good president. I think they all do. And Obama ran on uniting the country, on being bipartisan. That's sort of ALL he ran on. It's how he won 60% of independent and brought home so many of the Clinton voters. So if he doesn't deliver on this - I imagine he'll be fairly easy to beat in 2012.
So that's my two cents. Obama was always going to get my vote as the nominee because I'm a lifelong democrat and a liberal. But I'm not a socialist or a pacifist. I believe in the 2nd amendment and favor the idea of most issues being decided by the states. I'm not a religious man, but I respect those who are and I think the Dems over reach in pushing religion out of the public square. I believe global warming is a serious problem, but I also think Al Gore enjoys it WAY too much.
And here's another caveat. I know it's easier to be bipartisan and talk about "togetherness" when my guy won. I was where you guys are now in 2000 and 2004. I mean, my party ALMOST ran Howard Dean and then said "No wait! John Kerry is a much better idea!" Or in this election to have a friend say "You've GOT to read Alec Baldwin's latest piece on HuffPo." I mean...really? He doesn't count as an "Obamacon" you know, he only plays a republican on TV...(you guys ever notice that our most annoying Hollywood liberals end up playing republicans? what's with that?)
So yeah - we've all spent some time in the woods. I just hope we can all agree that we're just as American as the other, and we're passionate about what we believe to be the right path to take. There are real problems with the economy, and Islamic Terrorists aren't going to take a vacation for four years.
That's about it I guess. Sorry you guys lost.
Damn.
I’m printing your reply out and hanging it on my office wall.
Thanks for your honesty. However, you make many false statements. You say you were where we are now both four and eight years ago. That is simply untrue because even while we had a conservative President, we were still dealing with the BS coming from a Dem Congress. Ye KNOW NOT.
You epitomize the saying, “There are none so blind as those who will not see.” Sadly, while you think a lib government is going to be good, unless YOU are a socialist or communist in your world view, what you will find is that, “when the foundations crumble,” we will all suffer. Not just the righteous, but all of us.
How old are you? Did you live through the Cold War and Reagan telling Gorbachev to tear down the wall? Did you live through Jimmy? Have you suffered in your life? If not, you will my friend, you will. This is the scary thing. Nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.
For a long time now, peoples have come to our country because it offers so much. I have a friend from Russia (a Jew) whose own grandfather was kidnapped from his home for teaching things at the university that Stalin did not like. They never saw him again and found out years later that he was shot two days after his being taken. I have an other friend from the Ukraine. She has told me how it was for her in that country.
When we end up just like all the other European countries with their crappy form of governing, their reliance on the UN for security, their godless form of society, where will people hope to run?
Not to be mean, but you are a fool.
Thanks for the post, I enjoyed reading it.
You reminded me of when I was a young, innocent liberal. It was 1976, my first presidential election, and I was oh so proud to vote for Jimmy Carter.
It didn’t take long before I realized what a mistake I had made. Double digit inflation. Double digit interest rates. A mess of new social programs. Those were just a few of the clues.
So four years later I voted for Reagan, and I haven’t ever entertained the idea of voting for a Democrat since.
Let’s just hope these next four years aren’t as painful for us as the late 70’s were.
I missed that! Which two promises were the first to go?
Moderators, shall we let this one stay a while? He is pro-gun at least, and with time might be brought to see the error of his ways.
-ccm
A moderate, eh? So far, that's all the Republican leadership has done: "moderate" the left-wing. And they aren't even doing a good job at that, seeing as how McCain is well-known for frequently and deliberately "crossing the aisle" to whore himself out to the Democrats and betray not only us but the priceless legacy we inherited from the Founders and the generations before us.
The "culture war" you speak of lies not in the halls of Washington's government buildings but in the minds and hearts of the American electorate. Electing the RINO traitor McCain wouldn't have accomplished anything in fighting said war...because he's not even on your side or on my side. McCain is for McCain.
They’re all over various threads tag-teaming.
Ooooo, I wasn’t aware it was pulled, kudos for that !
Here’s the thing. Those programs will actually be closeted indoctrination programs. Marxist “educators” will insure they have a captive audience to give them the extra Marxist conditioning they need to break them of their Bourgeois Capitalistic Piggish ways.
Nothing more than thinly veiled Education Camps.
The Ayers - Obama Doctrine in full operational mode.
Your post should be required reading these next four years.
But here's the thing. He's going to try and be a good president. I think they all do. And Obama ran on uniting the country, on being bipartisan. That's sort of ALL he ran on. It's how he won 60% of independent and brought home so many of the Clinton voters. So if he doesn't deliver on this - I imagine he'll be fairly easy to beat in 2012.
First, thank you for your input.
But regardless of Obama's good intentions, the problem with Obama is the following. Nothing that so-called Constitution expert Obama has said lends credibility to the idea that he actually knows the Constitution and its history, in my opinion. And Obama is just the tip of the iceberg with respect to growing constitutional problems. Please consider the following bird's-eye view of the ongoing constitutional crisis.
Obama is unthinkingly planning on carrying on the Constitution-ignoring politics of FDR, the constitutional flunky who started today's messes in the federal government.
What FDR did wrongly is the following. FDR wanted to start federal spending programs, the New Deal, to help his fellow Americans. But while his intentions were commendable like Obama's arguably are, the problem was the federal Constitution did not delegate the powers to the federal government to enable FDR and the Democratic Congress to establish the Socialistic programs that FDR wanted.
And all it would have taken for FDR to get what he wanted and protect the Constitution, 10th A. protected state powers in particular, was to lead the Article V majority to properly amend the Constitution to explicitly give the federal government the power to establish his New Deal programs. Since FDR was a popular president, I think that the Article V majority would have happily complied with such a request.
Instead, constitutional flunky FDR butchered 10th A. protected states's rights. As if FDR didn't understand the Constitution's amendment process, he essentially got the USSC to politically repeal 10th A. protected state's rights. He did so to win Supreme Court challenges by some states to stop his constitutionally unauthorized federal spending programs.
As a side note, since the public schools don't teach the Constitution and its history, the people have been impotent to defend their religious rights in never-ending church and state separation battles. This is because they don't understand that the 10th A., which the USSC politically repealed for FDR's New Deal programs, is what protected those rights.
Getting back to the ongoing consequence of FDR's dirty politics, constitutionally clueless people like Obama are unthinkingly carrying on FDR's Constitution-ignoring politics of exercising non-existent federal government powers, particularly where constitutionally unauthorized spending is concerned.
The bottom line is that I am now thinking that G-d put somebody as constitutionally clueless as Obama in the Oval Office so that the people would ultimately be forced to reconnect with the intentions of the Founding Fathers, as reflected by the Constitution, in order to protect themselves from Obama.
I never said he “stands for the 2nd”. But it’s been widely reported that he pissed off a lot of gun-grabbers when he was running the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006 and recruited and promoted pro-RKBA candidates. I have no reason to believe that he has any principles at all, on this issue or any other. But he apparently identified “gun control” as a losing issue that had been a drag on Democrats running for elective office, and determined that running pro-RKBA candidates was an important part of a strategy to regain Democrat control of the House.
“Gun control” is still a losing issue, and I expect he’ll firmly remind any Democrat who needs reminding, to shut up about gun control already. I’m also quite sure he doesn’t give a crap about all the widdle chilldrun (up to age 24) that the Brady Bunch is always wailing about getting killed by guns. He’d probably be happy to kill them all himself, if it would help keep him and his cronies in power.
In short, he seems like the sort of lemon that may be good for making lemonade.
THE POSTER HASN’T RESPONDED TO ANYBODY!!
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Nice try! NO! he was most definitely NOT talking about funding police... and his transition website even states there will be mandatory public service from middle school through college. Charlie Rangle has been demanding the draft be reinstated. I think many of you will have major buyers remourse in a very short period of time...
and BTW I lived through the Carter term and you "kids" have no idea what this country has in store for it with Obama, he is Carter x 10 and we are still paying for Carters mistakes... where do you think the current Iran issues stem from? IF you said Carter you win...
oh, and like your buddy Barack, Carter didn't believe in domestic energy and regularly told us all to just wear sweaters... it was under Carter we had gas lines and could only fill our tanks every other day, depending on what our license tags last number was -- odd or even...
So we hear today not only does Barack want to get rid of our missile defense -- while Russia is working with Cuba to possibly arm them (I don't suppose you know about the Cuban Missile Crisis do you?) he wants rid of all nuclear... well, he will likely unarm us while Pakistan, Iran, North Korea all arm to the teeth... and speaking of Pakistan, who do you think allowed them to arm with nukes in the first place? Clinton.. that is who...
For all you libs blaming your woes on Bush, it is democrats who have led to almost every problem this country faces and has faced... but it is people, like you, who believe their socialist crap that is going to get us all killed; and speaking of Socialism... what has happened to this country that people have lost the desire for small government and individual responsibility and freedom and working hard to get ahead.. actually thinking it is good to get ahead??
I'll tell you! Liberal schools.. schools who refuse to teach kis to believe in exceptualism.. wanting everyone to be the same instead... they claim this is not to hurt your widdle little feelings, but, in fact it is only making you nice little Obmakins.... people who never question "The One" and in turn believe his civilian force isn't what he said it is, but funding police... I fear for this country because to totally turn everyone into Obamakins they will now do away with homeschooling, Christian schooling and anything left that creates individual thinking instead of group think.
McCain may have lost the election, but the real losers are those of you who bought into his lies.... and voted for him for all his freebies he has promised the people too lazy to work for a better future without a government handout... there is a name for this... it's called selling your soul to the devil.
Unfortunately, Obama’s early actions don’t show any sign of planning to be anything but as hard left as he can get away with.
Fortunately, I think there’s only so much he’ll be able to get away with.
Yours is post 35 and I have not read past yet but part of his "service" mantra was that retirees should have mandated "voluntary" service and it should be tied to Social Security.
If you do not work for Him you will not receive the check.
Or, perhaps, a patriot trap. Collecting the screen names of the opposition for later followup by the Civilian Security Force...
Rahm Emanuel was President Clinton's chosen man to push the Assault Weapons Ban through Congress:
For years, Emanuel was the political brains of Bill Clinton's White House. Intense to the point of ferocity, he was known for taking on the most daunting tasks — the ones no one else wanted — and pulling off the seemingly impossible, from banning assault weapons to beating back the Republican-led impeachment. "Clinton loved Rahm," recalls one staffer, "because he knew that if he asked Rahm to do something, he would move Heaven and Earth — not necessarily in that order — to get it done." ( The Enforcer)
In 2005, he was also one of the 94 co-sponsors of Congresswoman McCarthy's bill to reinstatement of the Assault Weapons Ban, H.R. 1312 (Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2005). (Rahm Emanuel).
I don’t have a good feeling about the future.
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