Posted on 04/06/2009 8:55:07 AM PDT by Borges
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.
Conservatives, please. Let's not duplicate the manias of the left as we figure out how to deal with President Obama. He is not exactly the antichrist, 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, Joseph Stalin and Saddam Hussein. Excuse me while I blow my nose.
This fellow has failed to notice that all politicians are narcissists. 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, a recent president set a pretty high bar in this category, and we survived it. As for Obama's speeches, they are hardly in the Huey Long, Louis 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, George W. Bush and John 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 has 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 the American system 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, 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 antichrist. A good strategy for political conflicts is to understand your opponent first -- not to underestimate him, but not to overestimate him, either.
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.
Calm down?
I think not.
And now the posts to prove the author right.
There were plenty of Germans who spent years waiting for “legitimate” means of removing Hitler.
David, take off the blinders.
Wow. Someone hacked David Horowitz’s password.
I'm sorry David but this doesn't pass the sniff test. The Media appointed Obama. He didn't do anything but read a teleprompter to win the Presidency. He was also running against an incompetent opponent.
Do you think he is uninformed or has he converted to a rino?
How could he not see the danger of Obama taking over the banking and finance industry, the car industry, the health care, medicine and research industries...and whatever else he can get his grubby hands on. Horowitz is not stupid...
Just sit back and relax while the nation moves towards a grinding economic malaise and socialistic hell under the clumsily guided moves of a Manchurian candidate bent on its destruction. Everything will be fine. Who knows, you might even like working for and sharing everything you own with the government and your new neighbors.
BOAKAOM.
Bend over and Keep an Open Mind.
>>>As we move forward, Obama faces increasingly tough choices in the wars against Islamic fascism in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Gaza and Iran.<<<
Let’s not forget North Korea. Hmm... and how has Hussein handled the above mentioned problems? Badly. Very Badly. And not just ineptly bad.
On inauguration day I was split 50/50 on the question of whether he was a Machiavellian or just a Moron. I’m now leaning towards the former.
Batten down the hatches, my friend. A storm is coming your way.
There is a key difference between Bush and Obama.
Obama is using his position from the outset to change the political and economic machinery of this country.
Bush, before 9/11, was basically, pushing for uninteresting budgets, a tax cut, No Child Left Behind and Government Financed Prescription benefits. In other words, he was simply doing ordinary stuff (whether we like the individual items or not). Even after 9/11 he avoided monkeying with political machinery.
Yes, it is a VERY BIG deal when the Census is politicized. It is a VERY BIG DEAL when the banks have either been Finlandized, or are afraid of outright take-overs. Yes, it is a VERY BIG DEAL when all business has been warned that they could be next. Yes, it is a VERY BIG DEAL when mandatory national service can be used to control entire demographic groups participation in the political process.
Neocons...
However, he NEVER apologized to our enemies for being American.
Obama done this and continues to do this. Obama is the one who wants to change America!!!
He is the one who told GM to fire their CEO and get a new one. He is the one who lowering America to the level of our enemies instead of lifting the morals of our enemies so that they can reach out to us, and America to them and pathe a new path to freedom that means exactly that, freedom to think and speak with out fear of death.
Read your Bible Mr Horowitz.
Calm down?
We’re just getting warmed up.
OMG, what IS this world coming to? Horowitz drinking the Kool Aid? Time to check out...
“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”
He just proved the point...winning the election IS all he has ever done.
I’m sure the good Germans just wanted to give the young Austrian a chance.
I’ll Calm Down when they pry it from my Cold Dead Fingers! ! !
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