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.
Understanding BamBam is not difficult if you understand the Left. To the extent that the left is divided on a whole host of sub-issues and paranoias BamBam will be thwarted in a lot of what he would like to accomplish. What is accomplished will be decay of the nation, at a somewhat slower rate. To the extent that the left unites itself behind him it is not possible to underestimate the damage he will do to this nation.
Likewise, to the extent that Republicans stand fast on conservative principle (a difficult task, it seems) the congressional Democrats will remain scared and hesitant to give BamBam complete support. As Republican rinos cave to their own leftism, so support for BamBam will grow.
Life will then, as they say, “happen”, and even the Democrats will bemoan the result.
I think its time for people to begin thinking of some legal strategies to get this bum out of the White House.
RINOs, Horowitz, others are life long paperpushers. Physically fearful people. The type that had over their wallets and watches and wife’s purse to street punks. This physical, real, actual low level of physical courage colors their language and thoughts, so they jump through self made intellectual hoops not to call a thug a thug, a thief a thief, or Obama a cheese weasel, affirmative action air head Marxist.
Let’s put it this way. You and your wife are walking down a Washington DC street at night. You meet the usual suspect gutter thief. Who do you want with you, a RNC lawyer? A ex commie Jewish academic, or a brick layer ex-Marine in his twice a year suit?
Who you are, and what you do, conditions you to how you respond, and how you describe reality. It wasn’t by accident that Lech Walesa a shipyard electrician had the balls to lead Solidarity against the regime.
Our first Revolution came out of tradesmen and bars. It will again.
What we see in this article is a type of person trying to build a justification for inaction. Bluntly, a coward.
I hadn't seen anything by the man in months and I was thinking "The worst ideas of the sixties radicals are now being pushed in Washington. It's like the Black Panthers are in charge. Everything that Horowitz has railed against for years is now going on right in front of our face. How come I don't see him writing editorials?"
And now I see this. I'm tremendously disppointed.
The half-life of some of the ‘60’s drugs are still running through your brain cells, Horowitz.
First, both Bush and Obama are seen as illegitimate presidents. Bush because he is believed to have 'stolen' Florida in 2000. Obama, because he is seen as not being a natural born citizen.
Second is that both presidents are seen as causing a terrible disaster to further their own agenda. Troofers believe that the Bush Administration deliberately caused 9/11 so he could wage a war against Iraq. For Obama, many believe that he is deliberately tanking the economy so he can impose his socialist agenda.
Someone got to him
Bolton is terrific. One of my pet peeves about Dubya was the half-hearted way he “supported” Bolton—Bolton should have been named Sec. of State in the last administration—instead we got Spastic Colin and Melanin Albright—how’d that work out?
Horowitz has done a lot of good over the past several years-but to some extent I think he has a gutless streak when push comes to shove-this shows it. By all means, we shouldn’t be hysterical about things-but, this guy 0 is a different breed of cat than anyone we’ve had to deal with before, and issues now exist that we’ve never even had to consider, much less deal with.
Makes one wonder if Horowitz has succumbed to stealth intimidation.
I think what he might be saying here, is that Obamas speeches at times sound reasonable. They did during the campaign too. That’s exactly what caused some independents and conservatives to vote for him! He actually sounded conservative at times! He was quite a chameleon, like B. Clinton!
Of course many of us were not fooled. But I was surprised to say the least, and dismayed to see how many independents, Republicans, and conservatives of both groups, who did fall for it. You’d think they would’ve seen through him; you’d think they would know better, but they didn’t! They fell for it, and crossed over to vote for him anyway!
I don’t know if they became enthralled by his sugar-coated rhetoric, or if they just wanted to give a black person a chance in order to unite, were afraid of riots, of being called a racist, etc.. I guess we’ll just never understand. I don’t think even a lot of them understand or can explain it!
I didn’t expect Obama to come out wearing a workers cap singing The Internationale with the ex-Soviet flag in the background. But look at his actions since elected. Obama campaigned on stepping up activity in Afghanistan. He couldn’t back down from that and retain any credibility with the defense sector. However can anyone doubt he is the most leftist president in history in just a brief two months? Dave is really giving Obama the benefit of the doubt. I don’t think there’s much doubt left.
Last fall, AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
(putting my flame retardant underwear on...just a moment).
David Horowitz is right. (ducking...) I yell at my TV on an hourly basis. If my doctor knew I watched as much TV news as I do, he would probably advise me to stop to prevent my blood pressure from killing me (wait, maybe that is the secret socialist strategy for Rush Limbaugh....hmmmm)
But when we oppose Obama - and we will - we need to do it based on real fact, real principles and real conservative ideology. He is, as the military calls it, a target rich environment.
We don’t need to point out that his wife looks like a bulldog or that his ears would only fit somebody with a head as large as keith olbermann.
We need to oppose him based on his socialist policies. We need to oppose him on the things which will help us get back Congress and eventually win back the White House. The media will take everything we say out of context. Despite the fact that the Left is far, far, far, far, far, far, far more vicious, noxious, vitriolic or ad hominem than anything you find on the Right, the MSM will pick out a handful of quotes to attempt to balance out the entire Lefty echo chamber. And we will all be painted as Obama-haters just like we did in the 90s when the last Elvis of the DNC was in office.
Mostly this is a suggestion for the political class in the GOP and the punditocracy (not us out here in the grassroots). But realize that everything we say is going to be twisted and turned into something racial or hateful.
Let our opposition be principled, insightful, funny and absolutely CONSERVATIVE.
(okay, let ‘er rip, guys)
KMA David. He’s a Communist hell bent on destroying this country. Drink some more Kool Aid
Next time around he, and the dems, will have to run on deeds rather than words. He's far more vulnerable there.
That's a perfect example. As I noted during the campaign I thought this was an issue McCain should have raised. But not in the context of he's a communist/muslim/racist/Jewhater, rather that he's comfortable in their company, a clear reflection on his judgement. And I think it's fair to say that his appointments have been wanting, not because they're communists/muslims/racists/Jewhaters, rather because he's a poor judge of talent and overlooks character.
Wrong reply in my last post. While I don’t see anything positive he’s done so far, including Afghanistan, I think Horowitz is right, Obama must be engaged on the issues. He’s vulnerable there. It’s the voters in the middle that need to be won over, and he’s Hitler, a muslim, the antichrist, a communist simply won’t win them over. His actions will. As to broad themes, Big Government anyone remember Reagan. The deficit, remember the little guy from Texas. Tax and Spend, he owns spending, and will own taxes by 2010. Personal attacks are nothing more than a distraction.
Well in 70 days, please list for me any , any right decisions this naif in the WH has made. Nati. Sec.?? Nope. Downgrades our military, cuts defense spending, does away with needed weapons’ systems, and wants an end to our nuclear superiority. Domestic issues: just name one where he has been right or where he could garner Pub, conserv, Libertarian support. Not one. His Budget alone is worthless as one which will rebuild capitalism.
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