Posted on 03/30/2009 5:42:17 AM PDT by SJackson
I have been watching an interesting phenomenon on the Right, which is beginning to cause me concern. I am referring to the over-the-top hysteria in response to the first months in office of our new president, which distinctly reminds me of the “Bush Is Hitler” crowd on the Left.
Speaking of this crowd, have you seen any “I am so sorry” postings from that quarter as Obama continues and even escalates the former president's war policy in Afghanistan and attempts to consolidate his military occupation of Iraq?
Conservatives, please. Let's not duplicate the manias of the Left as we figure out how to deal with Mr. Obama. He is not exactly the anti-Christ, although a disturbing number of people on the Right are convinced he is.
I have recently received commentaries that claim that "Obama's speeches are unlike any political speech we have heard in American history" and "never has a politician in this land had such a quasi-religious impact on so many people" and "Obama is a narcissist," which leads the author to then compare Obama to David Koresh, Charles Manson, Stalin and Saddam Hussein. Excuse me while I blow my nose.
This fellow has failed to notice that all politicians are narcissists – and that a recent American president was a world-class exponent of the imperial me. So what? Political egos are one of the reasons the Founders put checks and balances on executive power. As for serial lying, is there a politician that cannot be accused of that? And once, the same recent president set a pretty a high bar in this category, and we survived it. As for Obama's speeches, they are hardly in the Huey Long, Louie Farrakhan, Fidel Castro vein. They are in fact eloquently and cleverly centrist and sober.
So what's the panic? It is true that Obama has shown surprising ineptitude in his first months in office, but he's not a zero with no accomplishments as many conservatives seem to think – unless you regard beating the Clinton machine and winning the presidency as nothing. But in doing this you fall into the “Bush-is-an-idiot” bag of liberal miasmas.
It is also true Obama has ceded his domestic economic agenda to the House Democrats and spent a lot of money in the process. But what’s the surprise in this? After all, Bush and McCain both proposed (and in Bush's case pushed through) massive government giveaways (which amount to government takeovers as well). This is bad, but it doesn't make Obama a closet Mussolini, however deplorable the conservatives among us may regard it. Moreover, he's already run into political resistance even within his own party. Charlie Rangel has made it clear that the itemized deduction tax hike is not going through his committee – and that should tell you that the American system, the one the Founders created, is still in place.
Even as astute a conservative thinker as Mark Steyn has been swept up in the tide that thinks Obama is a “transformative” radical. But look again at his approach to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In both cases, as noted, he is carrying out the Bush policies – the same that he once joined his fellow Democrats in condemning. And that should be reassuring to anyone concerned about where he is heading as commander-in-chief.
In other words, while it's reasonable to be unhappy with a Democratic administration and even concerned because the Democrats are now a socialist party in the European sense, we are not witnessing the coming of the anti-Christ. A good strategy for political conflicts is to understand your opponent first – not to underestimate him, but not to overestimate him either.
Once conservatives do that, they will find some silver linings in the first moves of the Obama administration. Through a combination of ineptitude and zeal, Obama has in two short months locked down the conservative and Republican base. On fetal stem-cell research, on borders (e-verification), on spending, on unions, on shutting down talk radio, Obama has flexed the leftist muscle so nakedly and unmistakably that there isn’t a conservative left who will vote Democratic in the next election (and there were many who did so in the last).
As we move forward, Obama faces increasingly tough choices in the wars against Islamic fascism in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Gaza and Iran. Hopefully, he will make the right choices, and should he do so conservatives will need to be there to support him. If he makes the wrong choices, conservatives will need to be there to oppose him. But neither our support nor our opposition should be based on hysterical responses to policies that we just don't like. Let’s leave that kind of behavior to the liberals who invented it.
Oh my, you've sipped some of the kool-aid.
Look David....Obama is the MOST DANGEROUS and ANTI-AMERICAN President we have EVER had.
I have a lot of respect for David Horowitz, but I have yet to see B Hussein Obama make a right choice on just about anything since January 20th, from cabinet member selection to Guantanamo to missile defense to protocol with respect to visiting heads of state to all his moves regarding the economy....
Well said.
In Afghanistan and Iraq he is essentially following the Bush policies. In Afghanistan I think he’s escalating the war beyond what Bush had planned.
I’m happy with those policies, although I’m not with most of them.
It is a fine line. I catch myself sounding insane about this doofus most days.
However, my main concern is the speed with which socialism is being crammed down our throats and the end of America as it was originally design via our Constitution. While I wouldn’t share a beer with the Elitist in Chief today, I wouldn’t share one with any Socialist.
The previous ‘BDS crowd’ struck me as being most concerned about spending everyones money but their own to provide abortion on demand, facilitate the brainwashing of our kids via Public School, getting God out of every aspect of our lives and ruining the economy while saying they’re just ‘evening the playing field.’ And, of course, funding for the Global Warming scam.
I can see a CLEAR difference in concerns, but maybe I am nuts? Time will tell. :)
I’m a birther so there’s no hope for me.
SLAP! Snap out of it Horowitz! Look around man! SLAP!
That’ll teach you not to sleep while there’s a large pod lying on your pool table...
No, we do not need to do any such thing.
Fat chance of us being presented with any such dilemma - other than his radical full speed dismantling of the American free market system.
However, I wholeheartedly support his resignation.
If ONLY their very affluent party were socialist.
But they have made the US Socialist.
They now decide who runs which corps!
gag
As we move forward, Obama faces increasingly tough choices in the wars against Islamic fascism in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Gaza and Iran. Hopefully, he will make the right choices, and should he do so conservatives will need to be there to support him. If he makes the wrong choices, conservatives will need to be there to oppose him. But neither our support nor our opposition should be based on hysterical responses to policies that we just don’t like. Let’s leave that kind of behavior to the liberals who invented it.
This is the best part of the entire article. We need to support him when he is right, which hasn’t happened yet. And we need to oppose him when he is wrong, just like we should do to ALL politicians. But we need to do it without the behavior of the left.
We can’t act like them if we are trying to defeat them.
...Founders put checks and balances on executive power.
Ummm...so far I don’t see congress or 0bama respecting those.
So it’s like criticizing Hitler and Stalin....We don’t want to sound just like they acted but.......
The wizards of smart are proving to not be so much so ...
One of the beauties of our free country, is each gets to decide what works for them.
Obama is a commie, can’t hide it anymore.
BDS was just that, deranged leftards. If you cannot recognize real threat, when it emerges, then you should do something else, like knitting baskets out of hemp and reeds.
But you did save your library card, didn’t you? Medical records, not so much so. You decide.
Domestically, Obama has us on the fast track to socialism and national bankruptcy. We won't be able to afford guns and butter any more. Obama is cutting defense and will have to cut even more in the coming years. We now pay over $400 billion in interest payments just to service the national debt. This is the third largest expenditure in the federal budget after the entitlement programs and defense. In less than a decade, we will be spending over $800 billion a year to service the debt and our entitlement costs will be increasing leaving even less for such "discretionary" items as defense.
Horowitz has jumped the shark. Or maybe he has been a socialist all along.
Good article.
It is pretty simple though, attack the policies where warranted without having to resort to loaded language
The funny thing is, it isn’t that hard to do. His policies thus far are so awful the criticism is quite easy. Resorting to ODS, talking about birth certificates, Kenya and socialism just hurt our cause when it is RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR FACES WHAT HE IS DOING!
Its easy, attack these awful policies. Where we agree (like Afghanistan, Pakistan and continuing Bush’s Iraq policy) support the man
What a steaming load of cah-cah.
Horowitz’ cheese has slid right off his cracker.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.