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.
Calm down? We’ve got a 6 year old who has trouble with tricycles trying to fly an F-22.
Well, if Ears finds that Great Britain is aligning with the indian tribes to foment rebellion and is forcing US citizens to work on its naval ships, I’ll support him if he declares war.
That is an interesting perspective.
I remember a while ago he advocated that Republicans (rinos) advocate for the expansion of government to get election. It was something like - do and say whatever you must to get elected. He reminds me of Bill Krystal.
He should take a Midol if he is getting too upset and excited over colorful conservatism criticism of Obama.
Your knowledge of history stinks.
(If my last didn’t make it obvious, the point is you aren’t hurting him with your hyperbole, you are only hurting yourself, and us).
Oh...but we, the moral ones, are expected to play by the proper rules of etiquette, play nice and stay in the fence, while the commies cavort with crooks and play without even a pretense of anything called honor. They attack Palin's every breath and that of her children, slaughtering us at every turn and moving the country further and further toward complete loss of freedom with each new generation of brainwashed youth.
"Unfortunately the matter did not end in honourable battle, but left a stain on [their] bravery. They captured many of the “soldiers, fair-haired women, little boys, servants, kerne, horseboys, and herdsmen,” making of them “one universal litter of slaughter, butchering both prisoners and cattle.”
Now I think he’s a moron with a plan to actively destroy the United States.
I told my husband the exact thing last week. He is evil, evil, evil.
I will NOT clam down.
Once a communist... (?)
How is all of the past, present, and future legislative “leftist damage” on all of the issues successfully fixed to conservative, free market solutions instead for always, even if conservatives are ever successfully elected as a political majority sometime in the future? What the present leftists along with all of their friends are already seriously doing to the entire U.S. on all of the issues, is more than reason for all non-leftists to be profoundly concerned for both the short-term future and long-term future! It also should be seriously noted that this “leftist domination” is and has been an ongoing and worsening worldwide “leftist domination” and not just a problem for the U.S.!
I am not sure “boots on the ground” in Afghanistan, is a very good idea.
No foreign power has EVER controlled that area. Historically, that area has NEVER really been under the control of one tribe or leader.
The geography is terrible. The drug business will be impossible to stop. Religious fanatics will NEVER go away.
It will be far, far harder to bring Afghanistan into the civilized world than it was with Iraq.
I think drones and fast attacks from the air, when we know where the Taliban is hiding, would make more sense.
I am not sure “boots on the ground” in Afghanistan, is a very good idea.
No foreign power has EVER controlled that area. Historically, that area has NEVER really been under the control of one tribe or leader.
The geography is terrible. The drug business will be impossible to stop. Religious fanatics will NEVER go away.
It will be far, far harder to bring Afghanistan into the civilized world than it was with Iraq.
I think drones and fast attacks from the air, when we know where the Taliban is hiding, would make more sense.
The author can see that far ahead, as can I. You can't, and repeat whatever the headlines scream about ephermal stuff that will be gone and over in a year's time. When you could be making an intelligent and principled case against Obama's expansion of government or inaction on Iran or whatever, instead you are betting the party and movement on a rhetorical overreach long-shot that doesn't have a chance in hell of materializing.
He's right, you're wrong, snap out of it.
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