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.
Who are you referring to as the neocons???
I know, I KNOW!!! And I don’t think I called him a RINO - drinking Kool Aid, unless done habitually, with functioning kidneys is a temporary thing - I suspect he may have had a bad night the night before. I don’t think being passionate in discourse about someone you honestly think is ruining the country is so off-putting - if it is, you can’t talk to them rationally anyway. They need to learn from experience such as working butt off for nothing but taxes, no good schooling for kids, etc which takes these snot nosed brats in college a long time to get...I admire Horowitz but thought his comments unworthy of his supporters...
David wrote a similar piece on conservative objections to the McCain/Soros relationship right after McSoros was given the nomination.
He definitely has had some disappointing moments lately.
He is getting the same respect that President Bush got; no more, no less.
No, but I do believe he's pushing abortion, going to give our enemies an advantage by letting our guard down, is mortgaging our future and damaging the economy, uses questionable techniques to get (re-)elected, wants to suppress free-speech, wants to disarm law-abiding citizens, etc.
Mark Levin has the right take on this. We must resist statist expansion and tyranny. And call it out when we see it.
There are ALWAYS extremists exaggerating threats and making the Right sound kooky. In this case, Obama is the kook. The shoe fits. The chatter about him is not the problem. The tanking economy, the soaring deficits, and the threats to freedom from Obammunism are the problem. He is NOT a moderate reformer who won't be so bad.
The reasoning in the article is very sloppy. It sounds like liberal propaganda: "Republicans need to help Obama because he is a moderate whose ideas on Afghanistan aren't too bad." His ideas on the Constitution, the economy, taxation, abortion, and stem cell research funding ARE bad. Very bad. The worst we have EVER seen in our lifetime. Obammunism is a menace. Fouad Ajami was right when he compared the crowd adulation and swooning at Obama rallies to mob hysteria in Third World politics.
No kidding! When you least suspect it - they turn! Maybe he’s suffering from a political form of combat fatigue...God bless him. I’ll give him another chance but...
(Oh, and kinda wierd that Donald is Jack Bauer’s father!?! I like John Voight better!)
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And for all of his claims that he knows radical leftists like the back of his hand (being a former radical leftist), he apparently has no idea how much REAL damage to our country an America hating, Black Liberation Theology believing, Frank Marshall Davis following, Bill Ayers pal-ling, Rashid Khalidi befriending, Community Oraganizer agitating, ACORN supporting, New Party belonging, Malcom X worshiping, gun grabbing, Eric Holder selecting, Loius Farrakhan respecting, birth certificate and college record hiding, Defense Department neutering, abortion cheerleading, both houses of congress possessing globalist fraud can do.
>>Converted to a RINO<<
David Horowitz is a Marxist who has taken public exception to certain Marxist practices, and hence he is a traitor in the eyes of communists.
This does not make him a conservative.
True. You do realize that many here are also advocating loss of free speech by asking David Horowitz not state the obvious.
Obama scares the heck out of me but if you talk conspiracy garbage people will rightfully think of you as a kook.
I don't think you have any idea of what you are talking about. He is warning us that going overboard, at this point in time, is self-defeating. I guess that fits. A lot of Freepers who either sat out the election or voted for a 3rd party candidate seem self-defeating.
Why worry about the “Black Helicopter Types” -— are YOU not strong enough to maintain your views, when around others who you feel are “extreme”?
In order to beat back Obama and the Marxists in Congress, we must associate with lots of people who disagree with us on MINOR issues!
(And you know something, more than a few conservatives have started wondering, openly, “were the Black Helicopter folks right?”)
No, I do not believe that America will go the totalitarian, statist path, not for long.
However, we WON'T go there, PRECISELY because the American people will not allow that to happen.
Again, try hard not to be a political snob. I do not know you, and I do not know the details of your situation.
However, there are FEW reasons to disassociate from any political effort if that effort is directed against Obama.
IF they wear sheets and are overtly racist? YES, stay away.
IF they openly advocate violence? YES, stay away.
However, if you wait for movement that you agree with, and for leaders who do not “embarrass” you -— you will be waiting a very long time for your leader.
LOL! Close, but not exactly. Just what we need for CIC!!!1
So the recovering Trotskyites who present themselves as neocons want Obama? Since when does waging a war in Afghanistan mean surrendering our freedoms, culture, and way of life at home? This is very strange logic. That conservatives need to help Obama out here? Conservatives should not be backing down on opposing these statist policies. No one should want this buffoon running this country.
Trust me. The Tea Party movement will be killed by the media interviewing the Alex Jones crowds that show up at these events. If we do not get a grip we can suffer losing a lot of good ground. Reason needs to win on this. There is too much at stake to let the loons run the show.
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