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.
And FWIW, Jimmy Carter nearly lost the cold war to the USSR in four short years.
He’s not exactly the antichrist...
But if offered the office, he would take it.
obama first acts were to make it easier to kill unborn children,going on TV first with an anti-American network from the Middle East,followed by arrogant demands for trillions of dollars without Congressional debate or public comment.
If not THE Anti-Christ,he'll do for now.
It looks to me that David has received an offer that he can’t refuse. There will be more, I’m sure.
Calm down? When looking forward to retirement and losing half the value of my 401K and someone wants me to calm down?
Without being shrill, hateful, racist, etc., who will answer the following questions:
How can he fire the president of a US company?
How can he take over banks?
How can he back warranties of private companies?
How can he set the wages or bonuses of executives of private companies?
Why is he allowed to direct the activities ACORN thugs or internet Obamabots as if they were the secret police or Sharia law enforcers?
If a President attempts to, or actually pulls off, doing things WELL outside of his powers, is that in itself evidence worthy of 'high crimes and misdemeanors'?
Radicals like Brrack deserve what they get.
This is not the time for conservatives to take lectures from a recovering Trotskyite about the need to accept Obama as a moderate reformer and pragmatic realist. He’s destroying the country and misrepresenting the culture abroad.
Alone he is harmless, but coupled with Congress (checks and balances absent) AND this criminal element he calls an administration, he is far from it, and conservative criticism is based in fact, not panic.
That’s the thing..
There is no Black Helicopter crowd anymore..
We are all in Black Helicopters now..
All those crazy theories are coming true...
5 years ago if I would have told you that the government
was going to try and nationalize the banks, take them over
and then start firing CEO’s of private companies would you have believed me?
Or would I have been part of that Black Helicopter crowd?
Unbelievable!
Oh please. He's been carried by the Nation of Islam all his life and Affirmative action carried him to the presidency. Name one real job he's ever had. Name one thing he's ever done on his own.
On the contrary, Mr. Horowitz , it's about time the right spoke up and utilized OUR freedom of speech. If we don't do it now, we may lose it forever.
Horowitz has a good point. We don’t need to exaggerate. There are no plans afoot to build concentration camps for the purposes of wiping out millions of people.
Instead of making up things about Obama, why not just stick to the facts? He is spending too much money. His foreign policy statements seem rather naive. Some of his actions, such as closing Yucca Mountain while decrying the evils of global warming, seem rather contradictory.
Maybe Obama is a nice guy and a great dad. Maybe he’d be a fine guy to have as a neighbor. I don’t know, and I don’t care. All I know is what policies he has actually implemented. I don’t need to go to jumps of logic that he has some secret plan to do this or that. I can judge him based on what he’s already done and conclude he’s in over his head.
Yep. We will finish the Reagan Revloution, with or without the Republicans. Most likely without.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2217983/postsHorowitz was wrong last week, and he's still wrong now.
ML/NJ
One thing I do agree with Horowitz: BHO is no dummy and he speaks like moderate; usually in platitudes. But BHO is also a hardcore Marxist who knows EXACTLY what he’s doing and EXACTLY where he wants to take the country—to Socialism of course. ANYONE who has studied BHO’s career, writings, and close associations knows this is the case. And Horowitz is right on another point as well: BHO at the age of 48 has already accomplished much. He was elected to the state senate, then the U. S. Senate. Then this little known back bencher first term senator defeated the powerful Clinton machine in the Democrat primaries and then went on to defeated to the veteran and battle tested John McCain in the general election. BHO has already achieved much of his agenda with the passage of his trillion dollar stimulus and budget and there is more socialism, spending, and tax hikes to come when he begins to push through his national health care and cap and trade legislation. We would be fools to underestimate this man. Of course there is the persona of BHO which seems to have captured our nation’s callow youth, MSM, and depraved entertainment industry with his hipness, urban awareness, and politically savvy delivery. But scratch below the surface there remains a hardcore Marxist hellbent on reshaping Anerica forever. David Horowitz, being an intelligent scholar and former radical himself, should be all too familiar with this type. BHO is no way, shape or form a moderate by any reasonable standard.
Am waiting for your breathless support of your chosen one and his policies......
Heh...
This author shows a surprising lack situational awareness.
This author is either deaf, dumb and blind and depending upon a “liberal” to sign in his hand or hes just another pretend “conservative”.
We are closer than we have ever been to radicalizing a critical mass of “conservatives” in this country. The ONLY way we are going to remove the socialist influence over our lives is to actually get to critical mass. That IS the goal after all... Removing the influence of collectivists from our lives and reestablishing freedom and liberty for the individual.
Take these kinds of articles for what they are...
A good measure of our momentum...
The thing is, David, it worked for them. The libs have mastered the art of carping and complaining and taking potshots at everything they disagreed with, and guess what? It worked. They now own the WH, Congress, and much of the court system.
Republicans seem determined to refuse to learn about PR and how to sway public opnion. Your highbrow, Buckely-esque, "reasoned discourse" approach is never going to cut it with the American Idol majority, and you will continue to fail.
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