Posted on 11/06/2013 2:33:06 PM PST by Kaslin
President Obama is a gifted politician. He is gifted with rhetoric virtuosity. He is gifted with the ability to lie directly to camera without blinking. And he is gifted with some of the most incompetent conservative opposition in the history of the country.
How else to explain the fact that after years of President Obama holding up one hand to wave a wand to grab attention while using the second hand to stuff a rabbit into his hat, Republicans are still staring slack-jawed at the wand?
The wand, in this case, is social policy. Buffeted by the winds of his administration's incompetence and an unexpected level of media blowback over the rollout of Obamacare, President Obama has fallen back on the oldest trick in the book: talking about gays and lesbians. This week's episode of "Distract a Republican" began with the Senate launching the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a boondoggle designed to please gay rights advocates and trial lawyers. The bill would supposedly stop discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in the workplace. In reality, the bill creates a vaguely defined protected class that would take precedence over religious Americans.
The bill's language suggests that an "individual's actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity" must never be the basis for a job dismissal. But this phrase means nothing. "Actual or perceived" is Orwellian language, a legal catchall. And what does "gender identity" mean according to the terms of the law? "The gender-related identity, appearance, or mannerisms ... of an individual, with or without regard to the individual's designated sex at birth." So if you run a Hooters and one day Mandy shows up deciding she's Bill, you're out of luck. And if you run an elementary school and Mr. Adams shows up as Ms. Eve one day, firing is out of the question.
Beyond such questions lies the question of when litigation is appropriate. The free market makes clear that those who baselessly discriminate pay the price in terms of losing the best labor. The greatest force for tolerance and diversity in human history has been capitalism; government involvement suggests that the government can pick winners and losers rather than allowing voluntary transactions to do so.
These are all problems with the bill. But the biggest problem is this: It's a political loser for Republicans no matter how they slice it. That's why President Obama is pushing it. And that's why Republicans would be smart to simply state that this is an important debate that can wait for another time, given the crisis in our health care system.
Instead, however, Republicans have jumped into the debate with both feet or rather, jumped onto the political landmine with both feet. And that's typical. Show Republicans a shiny pro-life or pro-marriage issue and they'd much rather address that controversial topic than keep pressing on the tyranny that Obamacare represents. That's not to say that the conservative perspective on social issues should be buried -- it shouldn't. But conservatives should stop allowing the left to choose the time and place of such culture wars. Until they do, the magician president will continue to pull rabbits out of his hat.
distract my ass.
the media is covering for him.
I have seen more crap about this punk on the Miami Dolphins in the media the past week than I have about THOUSANDS of people losing their health coverage.
I don’t want to argue, but I’ve seen a lot of Obamacare coverage, much of it negative, in the MSM in the last 2 weeks.
With Caliph Baraq safely in office til Jan 17, they can buff their “objectivity” credentials safely now.
Now the begin the case for “fixer” Hillary to come in and handle the next phase.
0bama is a gifted parrot.
I shudder when I think of the horror in store for people who have rejected God and follow these paths.
Funny, I initially misread "buff" as "bluff". Guess what -- either one works.
Yeah, either one.
Every time I think I’m getting too cynical, some added info comes out on the regime...
It's like 1931: If you told a German schoolteacher, for example, what was going to happen to Germany and its armed forces in the next 14 years, and to the Jewish and Romany Gypsy communities in Germany, he just couldn't believe you because he'd have had no frame of reference. It's like that line in Ship of Fools: "What are they going to do? Kill us all?"
Now we have both the German and Russian examples before us -- and Turks/Armenians, Rwanda, Cambodia, Uganda -- and still people won't believe how dangerous these people are.
True. I like to plant viruses in the computer. For example, with relativists, I will ask, "is it true that there's no such thing as truth?," and then walk away, leaving the virus to work its magic.
I can't think of a phrase that will work against all liberals, but that should be our goal. You have to understand your target's first principles, and then attack those with a "virus."
Ah, yes ....
What is the truth? said jesting Pilate,
And would not stay for an answer.
Although I think Pilate actually said "Quis est veritas?" (Unless he spoke in Greek.)
I’m watching live local news coverage of the gum-chomping Prez prancing around Love Field cozying up to assorted leftist leg humping sycophants on his way to raise money at a $15,000/plate dinner tonight as he presses Forward. Makes me wanna puke.
Not necessarily too terribly admirable; Hitler did much the same thing.
The Republicans in Congress could convene panels to investigate Obama over just a few of his many scandals and destroy him in weeks. Obama knows this. But behold how he treats Republicans. He mocks them, he harasses them with his effete nasal tonality that gives Chris Matthews tingles, and when he really wants to sting them, he reaches down deep and pulls out the only masculinity he is capable of—his impression of Arsenio Hall. While his poll numbers are tanking, he wants to enter the House and broker a deal to “help” Republicans, and the Republican attitude is that Obama “doth bestride the narrow world/Like a Colossus, and we petty men/
Walk under his huge legs and peep about to fine ourselves dishonorable gaves.” Whatever all the dynamics are that go into making complete idiots, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell have successfully mastered them all.
Conservatives have no power to set the political agenda or the terms of debate.
The MSM has been doing that for at least 50 years.
However, the Republican leadership has NEVER had a serious strategic plan to stop the MSM.
Instead, every time the RINO’s and the GOP elite have a problem with Conservatives, they run straight to the Hard Left MSM and dump their garbage all over us.
"Opposition" is the wrong term for the GOP-e, who are more interested in reaching across the aisle and power-swapping with the Dems. The true Conservative leadership against Obama is quite competent, but has been meticulously marginalized & demonized by all other sides, particularly the MSM ...
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.