Posted on 01/19/2009 9:28:52 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Faced with 24/7 Obamamania on the media, the 60 million Americans who did not vote for Barack Obama are wondering where we go from here. Will events turn out like 1993, when another liberal president was inaugurated with the support of big majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate?
Under the direction of the activist first lady, the liberals attempted a government takeover of the massive health care industry, in addition to passing new regulations and tax hikes. Bill Clinton rewarded the feminists by passing Joe Biden's nearly-billion-dollar-a-year Violence Against Women Act.
But then came the midterm elections in 1994, and liberals were abruptly reminded how conservative America really is. In a tsunami we hadn't seen since 1946, Republicans won both Houses of Congress by wide margins.
The Speaker of the House, Tom Foley, was defeated for re-election, something that hadn't happened in over a century. President Bill Clinton held onto his power because he was not yet up for re-election, and he quickly changed his stripes to govern more middle-of-the-road.
The new Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) by big majorities, and Clinton signed it into law. DOMA protects states and the federal government against having to recognize same-sex marriages that are performed in other states.
The new Congress passed Welfare Reform to end some of the worst abuses of the system started by Lyndon Johnson's Great Society in the 1960s. After much grumbling, Clinton signed it.
The liberals never forgave Bill Clinton for signing those laws, and conservatives were never fooled by his newfound political religion. Bill signing those laws even hurt Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primary over a decade later.
People who gave Obama up to $750 million to bring about "change" surely expect something in return. But will Obama and the Democrats fulfill Obama's very expensive promises and risk what happened in the 1994 elections?
Obama's push for imposing an additional trillion dollars in debt will benefit special interests at the expense of working Americans. That translates to many thousands of dollars in new costs for the average worker at a time when we can least afford it.
Less than half of Americans support this proposal according to polls, and many view it as yet another bailout like the unpopular one for bankers last fall. Just as New Deal spending programs did nothing to lift the United States out of the Great Depression, Obama's proposed "stimulus" package will simply dig us into a deeper hole.
Obama's proposed stimulus promises to create 3 million new jobs, but even if it reached that implausible goal, the price tag would be over $300,000 per job. And would they be short-term government jobs or jobs with a future?
The proposed stimulus is not even enough for some Obama supporters, perhaps because so little of it will reach average Americans. It "falls far short" in the words of Terence O'Sullivan, general president of the Laborers' International Union.
Of course, it falls short because government spending only bleeds the taxpayers to pay for government jobs, and what we need is private industry jobs. We need the government to stop its overtaxation and micromanagement of the U.S. economy, and to stop the unfair trade agreements and foreign-government policies that invite corporations to move their manufacturing overseas.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, whose approval rating has sunk to 38 percent, may meet the same fate as the speaker of the house 16 years ago. Ramming through anti-business feminist legislation like the Lilly Ledbetter Act, which invites lawsuits against large and small companies, will hurt instead of helping job creation.
Even moderate Republicans are risking the wrath of voters. Sen. Arlen Specter is already hearing the footsteps of a primary challenge from the right.
Nearly 50 House Democrats hold seats that were Republican in 2002, and perhaps another dozen seats long held by Democrats have been trending Republican. Nearly all those Democrats have just opened themselves up to challenge by voting to expose companies to new job-ruining lawsuits.
There is only one path to economic and social prosperity: less and limited government and enforcing a level playing field for international trade. If Obama and the liberals controlling Congress repeat the Democrats' mistake of 1993, it may be, as Yogi Berra famously said, deja vu all over again.
“Obama’s proposed stimulus promises to create 3 million new jobs, but even if it reached that implausible goal, the price tag would be over $300,000 per job. And would they be short-term government jobs or jobs with a future?”
Statistics we can use!!
They don’t forget this lesson either, and will craft the first two years to avoid this trap. Plus, the GOP become terrible at candidate recruitment and advertising, so they need a big turn around on both fronts almost overnight.
“Even moderate Republicans are risking the wrath of voters. Sen. Arlen Specter is already hearing the footsteps of a primary challenge from the right.”
That’s the answer, voting the RINOs out in the primaries.
mark
I think this is the script every time a Democrat is elected president since FDR. The Republicans leave the worst economy in many years and the Democrats bring hope, change, and happy days. Carter, Clinton, and now Obama .
The only protesters of Obama that will get any coverage are the Klan, Arian Nations, and nutjobs like Fred Phelps. So they will categorize anyone who opposes Obama is siding with them.
McCain. 2010. Just do it.
They have ACORN’s army this time around.
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Correct. As well as the MSM propaganda wing, which has dropped any pretense of fairness, and also the changing demographics, which make the country look a lot different in 1994 than it will in 2010.
I have been a lurker on FR for a couple of years and this is my first posted reply. I believe the problem with the voters of this country is a direct result of the very poor education the children have and are getting. They don’t even understand the difference between a republic and a democracy. What are they teaching in civics anyway? How can we expect any ethics when there is no ethics taught? I must say we do have a severely stacked deck when the children become adults and only learn how bad the country has been. Shame on the teachers!
Call them socialists every day, all day long.
Have you ever held discussions w/ these “teachers?” some of my friends’ parents are teachers as well as some of my college grad friends and they are certainly not the brightest bulbs in box... of course you do have some that are intelligent but they are blind to the truth and teach exactly what they are taught - never straying away or researching to think for themselves just like lemmings. One of my friends who is a teacher talked to me about the election beforehand and he said he didn’t know everything I was telling him and agreed that I was probably right but it didn’t matter because he is part of the union so he is liberal and will continue to vote and teach that way... good to know right?
You’re right AR. The new public school generations are a growing demographic problem. To appeal for their votes we have to appeal to their “trendiness” instead of their principles or sound judgement.
We’re in a world of hurt. I remember Mrs. Lucille Eakin many years ago telling my mother that “we are on a sinking ship.” Today we’re sinking faster. Some of our best decks are alrready below the water line.
I’m reading the Forgotten Man right now and it’s disturbing how eerily similar this situation is to what happened during the great depression and the election of FDR - same “progressive” mentality began and became more prevalent throughout the education system and the “elite intellectual movement” as well as the minorities - they were in awe of the Soviet Union’s Communist structure of govt. and economy... SCARY!
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If the conservatives keep on trying to reform government from Washington; it's not "deja vu"- it's Bill Murray's movie "Groundhog's Day"-
Red States have to form a "Red State Union"- support and consolidate and rip the power from DC- because Moscow on the Potomac is never going to give it up.
ACORN should not go unchallenged.
You are correct. The leftwing indoctrination camps that public schools have devolved into are a bug reason why we’re in this mess.
Er, and a big reason too. Sigh.
True. Western civilization is no longer a subject taught in our schools.
“I have been a lurker on FR for a couple of years and this is my first posted reply. I believe the problem with the voters of this country is a direct result of the very poor education the children have and are getting. They don’t even understand the difference between a republic and a democracy. What are they teaching in civics anyway? How can we expect any ethics when there is no ethics taught? I must say we do have a severely stacked deck when the children become adults and only learn how bad the country has been. Shame on the teachers!”
Sadly many teachers and profs are libs and are brainwashing our children.
And sometimes, it’s the curriculum that the teachers have to follow, and they don’t like it either.
Those who can should try to work on a school board to change the curriculum.
Nor unindicted, nor unconvicted, nor unjailed. And the same for their contributors/paymasters.
But, the Republicans did nothing as ACORN honed their organization over the last 8 years of elections.
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