Obama's Summer of Discontent

So we are to have a French health-care system without a French tradition of political protest. It is odd that American liberalism, in a veritable state of insurrection during the Bush presidency, now seeks political quiescence. These "townhallers" who have come forth to challenge ObamaCare have been labeled "evil-mongers" (Harry Reid), "un-American" (Nancy Pelosi), agitators and rowdies and worse.

A political class, and a media elite, that glamorized the protest against the Iraq war, that branded the Bush presidency as a reign of usurpation, now wishes to be done with the tumult of political debate. President Barack Obama himself, the community organizer par excellence, is full of lament that the "loudest voices" are running away with the national debate. Liberalism in righteous opposition, liberalism in power: The rules have changed.

It was true to script, and to necessity, that Mr. Obama would try to push through his sweeping program—the change in the health-care system, a huge budget deficit, the stimulus package, the takeover of the automotive industry—in record time. He and his handlers must have feared that the spell would soon be broken, that the coalition that carried Mr. Obama to power was destined to come apart, that a country anxious and frightened in the fall of 2008 could recover its poise and self-confidence. Historically, this republic, unlike the Old World and the command economies of the Third World, had trusted the society rather than the state. In a perilous moment, that balance had shifted, and Mr. Obama was the beneficiary of that shift.

Remember all those people he said he had signed up like 13M — I have come to the conclusion that they are as phoney as the ballots they cast and the donations they made. I don’t think a large portion of them even exist, or they would not have had to call out the public service union.

We have been scammed by the snake oil salesman. The donations were put in people’s names but Soros money covered all those small donations that are unaccounted for that go into the millions and millions and millions. Just who are these new voters and why are we not hearing from them? Are their names and addresses figments of ACORN?

I do not believe he has this Army of supporters. In fact, Sarah was drawing much larger crowds then ZERO’s bused in crowds.

His Army of supporters are an Army on paper only. Most of the young people at the Town Halls are against Obamacare. Kind of like Howard Dean’s massive ground swell that never materialized once it had to be put on display and left the internet.

Snake oil salesman pulled it off with help from George Soros the man behind the throne of ZERO. When you have over 100,000 people that voted in FL and two other states out in the open not counting behind the scenes no telling how many manufactured votes he had. Look what he did to Hillary in the primary by using the caucus system to cheat.

He is the Scam Artist in Chief with the most unethical thugs surrounding him. They had to pass everything in a hurry before the American people figured out what was going on with ZERO and his two Lt’s in the House and Senate. Thanks to whoever decided that Congress needs an August recess.

PKM

Nailed It!

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Terrific article, and thanks for posting.

We were led to this summer of discontent by the very nature of the coalition that brought Mr. Obama, and the political class around him, to power, and by the circumstances of his victory. The man was elected amid economic distress. Faith in the country's institutions, perhaps in the free-enterprise system itself, had given way. Mr. Obama had ridden that distress. His politics of charisma was reminiscent of the Third World.

Oh, my yes, from the "Si, se puede" nonsense that reminds us of Huey Chavez, not Cesar Chavez, to the styrofoam Greek columns in a Denver sports stadium. Give him a balcony and one of Michael Jackson's old coats and Mussolini would ride again.

...there is joylessness in Mr. Obama. He is a scold, the "Yes we can!" mantra is shallow, and at any rate, it is about the coming to power of a man, and a political class, invested in its own sense of smarts and wisdom, and its right to alter the social contract of the land. In this view, the country had lost its way and the new leader and the political class arrayed around him will bring it back to the right path.

There is quite a bit of this class warfare inherent in 0bama's fringe support and more than a little of his mainstream support, the notion that opposition to any single point of his program constitutes membership in an enemy class that is to be crushed. There is more than a whiff of fascism in this approach to politics - the real kind, not the sort mindlessly invoked by adolescents who have never seen the genuine article in action. Consensus is only to be reached within the ruling class; the rest of us have to shut up and obey. That isn't a new thing in American politics and traditionally it has a very short half-life. We might be there already.

Thus the moment of crisis would become an opportunity to push through a political economy of redistribution and a foreign policy of American penance. The independent voters were the first to break ranks. They hadn't underwritten this fundamental change in the American polity when they cast their votes for Mr. Obama.

Of course not. These were, after all, largely people who voted for "not-Bush," which ended up being a vote for an individual with no experience, no programs, just vague assurances that anything he and his progressive enthusiasts wanted was, ipso facto, the right thing to do regardless of results. "Blame Bush" has run its course and it turns out that not everyone is entirely happy about quadrupling the deficit in the short space of three months and expanding the government's reach into everyone's life.

Hence the dismay and fury with which the progressives have viewed the widespread rejection of their two big-ticket programs, socialized medicine and centralized control of industry through 0bamaCare and Cap & Trade respectively. They mistook the high tide of their appeal for the new mean, and it's already receding. Things tend to get a little choppy at the water's edge when that happens, and the Town Halls and Tea Parties are all part of the churn.

Frankly, a Republican Congress might be the best thing to happen to this putative ruling class. Theirs is an appeal, an approach, more suited to minority status than majority. Lord knows it's making a hash of the latter.

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