Obama won reelection because he changed the debate.
He is attempting to change the debate now.
What should the debate truly be about? I am not asking as a partisan Republican or even as the angry conservative that I am, I am asking as patriot. It seems to me that the critical thing for America is not income equality, or increasing inequality in wealth-if that in fact is occurring, or ability to get healthcare insurance, or even our appalling job statistics. It seems to me that the most critical thing for America is that we avoid disintegration, fiscal and then political disintegration.
The debate should be based on the fundamental proposition that if we continue on our current course of piling up debt, debasing the system with quantitative easing, and eviscerating our manufacturing infrastructure, the entire American edifice must simply crash. That crash will not simply be financial it will be social and political and might well see the destruction of our constitutional system and our way of life.
So Obama begins a campaign of political prestidigitation in which he says don't look over there at the underlying causes of our impending crash, look over here at the symptoms, which I will fix for you. Obama wants us to look not at a world of soaring medical costs largely the product of government interference in the marketplace and misguided subsidies, he wants us to look at his fix which is, of course, Obamacare.
Obama does not want us to look at stagnating wages and shrinking jobs which are the result of government overregulation, over taxation, and misguided trade policies, he wants us to look at himself putting a Band-Aid called the minimum wage on our chronic jobs depression.
Obama does not want us to look at increasing disparity of wealth (if in fact that is actually the case) caused by the government foreclosing opportunities, he wants to demagogue the rich, play the class envy card, and intrude further on the free marketplace by distributing wealth rather than opening opportunity. He does not want, like John F. Kennedy wanted, to let a rising tide lifts all boats.
Obama is a very good campaigner and a very good prestidigitator. As many have pointed out on this thread, our leaders in Congress are incapable of competing with Obama. Ted Cruz can do it, Rand Paul can do it, Mike Lee can do it but these three have been hobbled and partially muzzled by the men who cannot do it. The men who cannot do it, however, seem very capable of doing it when the job is to denigrate Republicans. Perhaps they do not want to do it, that is they do not want the fundamental questions addressed?
Which brings us back to the critical question which should trouble every patriot, what do we do to save ourselves and the Republic?
Certainly we should start with the right questions, framing the right debate, then and only then can we hope the electorate will yield the right answers.
