Posted on 10/31/2008 12:16:22 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
This election isn't just about whether America is to be ruled by a political party a little to the right or the left of center. This is a uniquely dangerous election in all of our history. The issue is whether we elect a president and a party that will destroy America as we know it and so weaken America's economy, national defense, national security and foreign policy that others will destroy us first.
I have been writing about Sen. Barack Obama five days a week, because I was so appalled at what I found out about him. And the more I investigated his background, associates, collaborators, friends and positions the more frightening the prospect of Sen. Obama in the White House became. Based on everything I've learned, and based on all my instincts and intuition about Sen. Obama and what the mainstream media has been hiding from voters, I'm convinced Sen. Obama would be an unmitigated disaster. I'm convinced if the full truth were known, he would look at least 100 times more dangerous than he does now.
These are the factors that make the future look catastrophic if Sen. Obama is elected:
1. We might well say, "Barack, we hardly know you." The mainstream media has not vetted him. We are essentially buying a cat in a bag. Even the wildly liberal Los Angeles Times, almost totally supportive of Sen. Obama, had to run a story saying reporters who cover him don't even know him or what to expect from him. He is usually scripted (and when he is not he makes horrendous mistakes, as when he finally admitted his socialistic objectives). He is kept from the press. He avoids news conferences. His campaign ignores tough questions.
That's bad enough, but what we do know about him suggests he's a far left liberal extremist and radical and has flown with a platoon of racists, bigots, America-haters, socialists, anti-capitalists and even terrorists. It is inconceivable that such a man would even be considered for the nomination, let alone win the Democratic Party nomination, and be leading in the polls with the days dwindling down to a precious few.
2. If he wins the White House, it is likely that he will have a Congress controlled by the same radical liberal wing of the Democratic Party that he represents - Sen. Harry Reid in the Senate with a filibuster-proof majority and Rep. Nancy Pelosi holding sway in the House also with a supermajority. Already they are talking about taking us down the most radical path in history with more spending bills in the works, with tax hikes of all kinds likely to kill business, with the "spread the wealth" philosophy in the air and with the standard Democratic Party cry of cutting defense spending.
They represent the old Democratic Party's approach of endless taxing, spending, expansion of government, limitation of freedom, and a feeble military and foreign policy. But the Obama presidency would take that all to a power of ten, and would add on a stream of radical liberalism that we've never seen before.
3. This also means Sen. Obama, if elected, will be naming perhaps three or more justices to the Supreme Court. And he is already on record as favoring a living constitution - code words for forgetting the intent of the Founding Fathers and legislating from the bench. He has also said he wants judges who empathize with the single mother, the disabled and other vulnerable people.
This is his way of saying he wants judges who decide on emotions and sympathy rather than on the rule of law. That means there will be an explosion of far-out radical liberal laws and regulations, coming from all three branches of government. This means that the courts will be able to legislate the far-left liberal agenda Sen. Obama represents. That triumvirate is so far out that they make people like Jimmy Carter, Michael Dukakis and George McGovern look like conservatives. It is important to observe that even Mr. McGovern, former presidential nominee, has taken to the air to oppose proposed legislation backed by Sen. Obama, the Democratic Party, and labor bosses that in effect kills the secret ballot for union elections. Unions will be organized by workers just signing cards, subject to intimidation and harassment, and unprotected by the secret ballot. I've also detailed in earlier columns the anti-Democratic and sometimes even Storm Trooper mentality of Sen. Obama and his campaign. Unfortunately, Sen. Obama and the Democrats are more committed to power and winning elections that obeying and protecting democratic principles.
4. And this barrage of radical liberalism will not just be an updated version of the New Deal or LBJ's Great Society. It will be a new form of radicalism that up to now would not even be dreamed of. We will see "spread the wealth" and "redistributive justice" on the face of legislation rolling through Congress and being signed by the president, without any checks and balances from a minority party, without any veto, and without any filibuster.
We will see even more radical ideas that will change the face of America. As Rush Limbaugh reported on Oct. 29, Sen. Obama and the Democrats have big ideas for changing the very face of the nation. Sen. Obama has advocated citizenship for all 12 million of the nation's illegal immigrants. Sen. Obama has said, "... We cannot ... deport all 12 million people. That's why we need to offer those who are willing to make amends a pathway to citizenship. That way, we can reconcile our values as both a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws."
The Democrats will rush that citizenship, as they want to permanently tip the balance of power in favor of the Democrats. There has been a fine balance of power between the two parties, which will be ended by 12 million new voters who will favor the Democrats. That's because minorities and immigrants tend to like the big, benevolent, tax-and-spend governments that hand out welfare, benefits and cradle-to-grave security. Dick Morris, in his book Fleeced, points out how Sen. Obama wants to include even illegal immigrants in his universal health-care system. He argues that is sure to overload the system and create such new demand for health care that rationing will be in order. He goes on to point out that means that our senior citizens will probably have to be turned down for the most expensive treatments and surgeries, taking a back seat to younger immigrants and insureds, as their will not be the medical resources to go around.
Senior citizens don't fair well in a system applying rationing of medical care. What 47 million new insureds will do to the cost, inflation rate and quality of health care is too frightening and too obvious to even need further explanation. Sen. Obama, by his tax plans, his socialistic schemes, and his new welfare programs, will destroy the health-care system and the economy in short order. Small businesses, subjected to tax increases probably even far in excess of those talked about during the campaign, will be dead as a dodo. The only question is whether we will be thus destroyed by Sen. Obama's domestic policies, or whether we will be first destroyed by his foreign policy that will weaken our national defense, demonstrate weakness too our enemies and invite attacks and the destruction of America.
5. This all is more problematic in view of the demonstrated dishonesty of Sen. Obama in explaining his associations and positions. For more details see my column, "Obama Tells the Greatest Lies Ever Told, Even Before Beings Elected" (Oct. 30,) at www.thebulletin.us. Further adding to the grim picture is the whiff of corruption involving Sen.Obama and his campaign due to both of their connections to ACORN and its furtherance of voter fraud. During the debates, he said his only connection with ACORN was as a lawyer, but he omitted the more than $800,000 his campaign gave to an ACORN subsidiary and his work as an organizer for ACORN. It should also be noted Sen. Obama would have trouble getting a security clearance if he were applying for a federal job, due to questions about his loyalty and reliability flowing from his long standing association and collaboration with terrorists, subversives, radicals and hate-America types.
6. The best demonstration of how Sen. Obama's foreign policy would destroy America comes from Melanie Phillips, who wrote the classic book Londonistan, on the ongoing conquest of the United Kingdom by Islam. She writes in The Spectator, a British publication, that the impact of the financial crisis has obscured the most important issue facing America. She says if Sen. Obama becomes president, "U.S. defenses will be emasculated at a time of unprecedented international peril and the enemies of America and the free world will seize their opportunity to destroy the west."
Ms. Phillips writes that to understand the choice between Sen. John McCain and Sen. Obama you have to view each man in the round, and get a total picture of each man's world view, philosophy and values. Here is some of Ms. Phillips' reasoning:
* "McCain believes in protecting and defending America as it is. Obama tells the world he is ashamed of America and wants to change it into something else. McCain stands for American exceptionalism, the belief that American values are superior to tyrannies. Obama stands for the expiation of America's original sin in oppressing black people, the third world and the poor."
* "Obama thinks world conflicts are basically the west's fault, and so it must right the injustices it has inflicted. That's why he believes in 'soft power' - diplomacy, aid, rectifying 'grievances' (thus legitimizing them, encouraging terror and promoting injustice) and resolving conflict by talking. As a result, he will take an axe to America's defenses at the very time when they need to be built up. He has said he will 'cut investments in unproven missile defense systems'; he will 'not weaponize space'; he will 'slow our development of future combat systems' and he will also 'not develop nuclear weapons,' pledging to seek 'deep cuts' in America's arsenal, thus unilaterally disabling the nuclear deterrent as Russian and China engage in massive military buildups."
Sen. McCain knows we have to fight Islamofascism and win that fight. Sen. Obama sees the source of evil in the world as America. He has said, "A lot of evil's been perpetuated based on the claim that we were fighting evil." He has said Iran is a tiny country and not a real threat. He quickly reversed himself but that tells you something about his worldview. He said Hezbollah and Hamas, the terrorist organizations that have murdered Americans and are now doing so, have "legitimate grievances." Ms. Phillips doesn't know what those "legitimate grievances" are and I'd venture to say no other rational man does.
To solve the conflict, writes Ms. Phillips, "Obama places his faith in the UN club of terror and tyranny." Sen. McCain knows better, and also knows Israel is the victim rather than the victimizer. Sen. McCain knows that Israel is surrounded by genocidal enemies that just want to destroy the Jewish state. He also knows Israel is the first line of defense of the free world and that Israel is the first target in the Islamofascists attack on the free world.
Sen. Obama's incredible naïveté is demonstrated many times, but no more dramatically than by his willingness to negotiate without preconditions with such genocidal maniacs as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and by his opposition to declaring the Iranian Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization. A move to so declare it passed the Senate by a wide margin.
His statements (often quoted in this column) show he believes "Islamic terrorism is driven by despair, poverty, and inflammatory US policy and the American presence on Muslim soil in the Persian Gulf." Thus he adopts the agenda of the Islamofascists.
This drift of his thinking should surprise no one as he has closely associated with those in the Islamists' camp. He has multiple links to anti-Americans, terrorists, and subversives. The latest such association involves Rashid Khalidi, former spokesman for a terrorist organization. Mr. Khalidi, Sen. Obama, and the unrepentant terrorists William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn all attended an Israel-bashing party when Mr. Khalidi left Chicago to go to Columbia University. What's worse, most of his foreign policy advisers have that typically radical liberal view of blaming the ills of the world on Israel and America. He brought in a few for cosmetic purposes, such as Dennis Ross, but his initial selection and his circle of collaborators and friends show where he really stands.
Ms. Phillips summarizes her views of the meaning of a Sen. Obama presidency for the future of America:
"There are, alas, many in the west for whom all this is music to their ears. Whether through wickedness, ideology, stupidity or derangement they firmly believe that the ultimate source of conflict in the world derives at root from America and Israel, whose societies, culture and values they want to see emasculated or destroyed altogether. They are drooling at the prospect that an Obama presidency will bring that about. The rest of us can't sleep at night."
But we can still vote. And we better consider that vote carefully and not vote for a charismatic demagogue, who gives pretty speeches, but whose reality is the opposite of his rhetoric, who is inexperienced and shows it every time he gets off his teleprompter, who has a razor-thin resume, who has never done anything but run for office and self-promotion, and whose policies, advisers, and philosophy would destroy America as we know it.
Herb Denenberg is a former Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissioner, and professor at the Wharton School. He is a longtime Philadelphia journalist and consumer advocate. He is also a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of the Sciences. His column appears daily in The Bulletin. You can reach him at advocate@thebulletin.us.
You bet! I believe that we have never had a more serious election than this one. This is the left’s last ditch effort...although I’m not saying their last attempt...to destroy and remake America in their own fashion. If America goes down the road to a full socialist state, there will be no turning back. No longer will the masses of people yearning for a better life come here, although the masses yearning for a free handout will.
read later
I will disagree. The end of America comes when the last conservative gives up. The reign of King (or Comrade) Obama will eventually come to end. Conservatives must keep the faith and wait for the opportunity to arise again...as it surely will. There’s no way Obama can fulfill ten percent of the leftist crap he promises. Unlike Bill Clinton, he doesn’t know that ninety-eight percent of liberalism is unadulterated hooey. He and his devoted followers are in for a shock.
Thanks for the support, but you’ve had to endure similar leftists in Canada for many years. Harper and Mulroney are the only two conservative pms I can remember for the last thirty to forty years. Trudeau was a beauty. (smirk) But we’ll survive Obama. And we’ll grab the reins of power again. The damage he’ll do in four or eight years will be considerable, but we’ll get through it.
This election may very well be the right’s last ditch effort.
When our free speech is eliminated, when they take our guns, when they take our money, when they persecute our religion and when they take every other freedom we enjoy, I don’t see a peaceful way to get the country back.
saving
OR
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated....
O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia, and Africa, have long expelled her.—Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind...
That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.
Fool.
This isn't about taxes.
Briefly.
so all this talk about $200,000 or maybe $150,000 and spreading the wealth...that’s the least of our concerns.
EXCELLENT ESSAY
Packs a lot of analysis into a compact package and I agree with it all.
Every day lately I have brace myself that this is actually happening and I won’t wake up from a bad dream. America is likely to pass power to a Socialist and the worst part is that that reality is flying under most Obama supporters’ radar. Most don’t realize they are choosing a Socialist, thanks to their own ignorance, the unprecedented treachery of MSM liberal bias as we have never seen it before and the incompetence of the GOP and McCain.
It would be awful enough if America chose a Socialist in a fair fight, a Eugene Debs or Henry Wallace who admitted his orientation, but to have it happen this way is even more heartbreaking and tragic.
Just to be clear, the term Socialist is quite elastic, spanning a spectrum from Sweden to North Korea and Obama is clearly closer to the Swedish than the DPRK variety, but that is small comfort because America is much more important than Sweden for the security, liberty and prosperity of many people all over the world. It is still the indispensable nation. Also an Obama regime (with Pelosi, Reid and many of the senior Dem ‘Progressives’) will wreck America in ways that Swedish Socialism doesn’t wreck Sweden - especially in areas of so-called ‘social justice’ and racially oriented policies, balkanization of language and culture, corruption of education into radical indoctrination, revision of our own history so that the whole concept of our former identity will become a lost memory. Truly the DECONSTRUCTION OF AMERICA, underway by the termites of the Left who never sleep, marching through the institutions for decades already, will be radically accelerated.
It is no exaggeration at all to say this is the most consequential election of my lifetime and one from which America as we have known it may never recover if Obama wins and coattails hefty Dem majorities into Congress, followed by a transformed Supreme Court which will drive the final stakes into our Constitution, our ultimate institutional bulwark of our liberties.
I am no fan of McCain on many issues (esp. Amnesty, Global Warming and McCain-Feingold) but I desperately hope he wins. I have a McCain-Palin sign in a window of my house, the first political sign I have ever so displayed (and a very lonely one in a very liberal town).
A sign that says
NOBAMA
NO SOCIALISM
NO SURRENDER
NO APPEASEMENT
NO REMAKING AMERICA
NO SUPREME COURT OF EMPATHY
would better express my sentiments but it’s not pithy enough
So for now it all rests on
MCCAIN - PALIN
COUNTRY FIRST
“Fool.”
Whoa. We’re among friends here. He/she was just asking a question, not calling you out, take it easy.
The fools are over at DailyKOS.
Tense times, I know, but let’s try to help each other to a common understanding of things, ey?
It is of no importance whatsoever.
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." [Samuel Adams]
I can take it.
I want to clarify because there is a very big difference between Sweden on the one hand and Venezuela on the other. many on the left would like to see the US turn into Sweden, which is bad enough, but even they would be pretty ticked off if Obama was another Hugo Chavez or Mugabe.
“...but we’ll get through it.”
If by “get through it” you mean we’ll have a pulse then, I agree, for the most part.
You are counting on an intelligent population. They’re getting dumber by the minute, I’m afraid.
Multiculturalism, immigration and the general dumbing-down of the population will eventually make you a minority — and not that long from now.
The left runs education and they are not teaching what you and I would like them to. In fact, they are fast becoming institutions of leftist indoctrination.
The left also runs the mainstream media, by-and-large, for the first time in our history — and we know how that turns out.
The Democrats of today are not your grandfather’s democrats. These are hard-core leftists. They do not like America and see it merely as an open canvas to use for their lofty designs.
The lay of the land is drastically different than it has EVER been in this country. Up until recently, you have had pretty much white people with a fairly even culture, mores and political philosophy. That has changed, forever.
The “It can’t happen here.” belief is extremely dangerous at this juncture.
History has shown that the left is quite adept at taking over countries. While I wouldn’t want to kill your optimism I would want to wake you from denial. They mean business. They mean to follow-through on their agenda. For Americans to underestimate them would be a catastrophe in the making.
“It can’t happen here.”
I’m here to tell you that it is already happening.
bump
“If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”
Great quote. Adams was amazing.
“...the tranquility of servitude...”
0bama’s peace-through-surrender ought to please our enemies.
I certainly don’t look at the Obama admin with equanimity or without a certain amount of dread. But I believe even with a troll like Obama in charge, plus a veto-proof Congress, if conservatives stay firm, we can take the country back. Obama’s plans, like all socialists schemes, are doomed to failure the moment they’re implemented. There’s no way he can please even a small percentage of his followers with his grandiose schemes. The people who believe he will change their lives the most will be the most disappointed. But we can’t lose faith. We’ll fight him constantly and oppose his idiot plans. But we can never give up.
“Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us”
Gabba gabba hey, gabba gabba hey!
“But we can never give up.”
I never said “give up”. Quite the opposite, in fact.
To fight we must know them and not underestimate them. They are worthy adversaries, believe me.
There is no high-road with them. There is a tipping point at which time it you will cease to have any recourse as a citizen. Once they get a firm hold you will not break their grip without bloodshed.
Sure, they are doomed to failure but how long will it take?
What will be left of America?
Will America be able to return to her former glory? — I have serious doubts about this one.
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