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Obama’s Great Race to Change America (If he doesn't achieve his initiatives soon, he never will)
National Review ^ | 8/6/2009 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 08/06/2009 6:53:34 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Why does President Obama want to implement radical changes in American foreign policy, environmental policy, education, health care, and the tax code all at once?

The answer is easy: If he does not achieve these initiatives soon, he never will.

Almost none of Obama’s proposed policies any longer enjoy majority support among voters — and many of them were not clearly outlined to voters during the campaign.

Current polls show more Americans are against than in favor of his version of health-care reform. Nearly seven in ten are wary of government takeovers of the economy, like the bank and car bailouts. Over half do not want more borrowing and higher deficits.

In response, Obama and the technocrats around him insist they know better than the average voter what is in America’s long-term environmental, health, educational, and financial interests. So they’re rushing to save us from ourselves by planning all sorts of legislation that would change our lifestyles.

Even without popular support for individual policy changes, a still-personally-popular Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress hope to ram these policies through based on the president’s charisma and their legislative majorities.

White House politicos hold up Franklin Delano Roosevelt as their model. He likewise came into office after economic upheaval and spoke with eloquence — and used both to permanently move American society markedly to the left in ways undreamed of a few years earlier.

Unfortunately for Obama, there is some indication that, despite his constant TV appearances and nonstop interviews, time is running out — and he may not remain popular long enough to push through his liberal agenda.

Why is he winded?

First, he ran on a promise not to raise taxes on 95 percent of American households. But even with his proposed new income, payroll, and surcharge taxes on the so-called wealthy, his administration will run a $2 trillion annual deficit.

Even members of the Obama administration, like Timothy Geithner, the Treasury secretary, are now not ruling out some sort of new tax on everyone.

Second, Obama billed himself as a novel, transcendent candidate above partisanship, racial politics, and the usual Washington sleaze.

But he has earned almost no bipartisan support for his proposed legislation. After six months in office, he still blames George Bush for much of the country’s problems.

When Attorney General Eric Holder called Americans “cowards” for not discussing race honestly, when Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor claimed Latina judges would make wiser decisions than white male judges in some cases, and when the president himself said police had “stupidly” arrested his friend Henry Louis Gates, the public saw more of the old tired identity politics.

And despite promises of a new ethics in Washington, there are still tax avoiders and revolving-door lobbyists in the Obama administration, just like in any other past presidency.

Third, there is a vague sense of foreboding about the future and the direction the country is taking. The amount of money George Bush proposed the government borrow at the end of his presidency now looks small. “Trillion” has replaced “billion” as the common referent for deficits.

If things are tough now, what will we do when interest rates rise from their present historic lows and we must pay back the borrowing at much higher rates?

There are plenty more questions. Will gas prices climb when the economy improves? And if so, why aren’t we talking more about developing more domestic oil, gas, shale, tar sands, and nuclear energy, in addition to wind and solar power?

Is it wise to alienate democratic Israel while making overtures with Iran? If apologizing abroad wins applause in the short term, will such contrition only earn contempt and invite some hostile countries to try things they otherwise would not?

So, will Obama race through his agenda before his approval ratings drop further, and he becomes personally as unpopular as his radical initiatives?

If, in the next few months, the economy surges back, if Obama and his advisers avoid any more divisive racial sermonizing, if the world abroad remains quiet, if the opposition fails to offer constructive alternatives, and if Obama does not renege on more past promises, then he may yet win his race to change America.

But right now that’s a lot of ifs.

— Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a recipient of the 2007 National Humanities Medal. © 2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: bho44; change; obama; third100days; vdh; victordavishanson
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1 posted on 08/06/2009 6:53:34 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

http://www.bornagainamerican.org/


2 posted on 08/06/2009 6:56:36 AM PDT by ExTexasRedhead
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To: SeekAndFind

Cool the Democrat Congersscommies are afraid to go home and face those who they are supposed to represent. They can not wait to get back to DC to be with their fellow travelers. They are skulking around and hiding out while back in their districts.


3 posted on 08/06/2009 6:57:30 AM PDT by screaminsunshine (!!)
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To: SeekAndFind

He’ll never get it to pass in 2010. That’s an election year when all the Congress-Critters cower in fear of their voter base and don’t want to upset them. It’s 2009, or bust!


4 posted on 08/06/2009 6:58:11 AM PDT by avacado
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To: SeekAndFind

EZEKIEL EMANUEL (MENGLE) AND THE OBAMA-CARE FINAL SOLUTION

(Must Read)


MY LETTER TO THE WHITEHOUSE AND OBAMA ABOUT FREE SPEECH

A PETITION ON FACEBOOK FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RESTORATION

5 posted on 08/06/2009 6:58:54 AM PDT by Jeff Head (Freedom is not free...never has been, never will be. (www.dragonsfuryseries.com))
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To: SeekAndFind

He is in a race to get it done before the American people find out what he is really trying to do. The longer it takes, the more the people learn about his plans and they ain’t liken it.


6 posted on 08/06/2009 7:04:28 AM PDT by RC2
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To: SeekAndFind

“Almost none of Obama’s proposed policies any longer enjoy majority support among voters — and many of them were not clearly outlined to voters during the campaign.”

NONE of these prospective programs were clearly outlined...NOTHING was clearly outlined during the O’zer’s campaign. The amorphous hope and change mantra was nothing more than a smoke-screen to cover the radical left’s landing zone.


7 posted on 08/06/2009 7:04:43 AM PDT by downtownconservative (As Obama lies, liberty dies!)
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To: SeekAndFind

I often agree with VDH....but whether Obama achievs or does not achieve...is up to We the People....


8 posted on 08/06/2009 7:05:52 AM PDT by mo
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To: SeekAndFind
"— and many of them were not clearly outlined to voters during the campaign."

Thats because media was desperately covering up who and what Obama really is and what he's really all about.

And they still are.

9 posted on 08/06/2009 7:05:54 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: SeekAndFind

In short: even the most ignorant of American citizens are beginning to come out of the ether. Facts and truth have made their way past the media wall of silence, whether via talk radio or the internet, alerting millions as to the desire of Hussein’s minions to enslave, control and rule. The “stimulus” was passed well before anyone knew it to be nothing more than a welfare piggy bank for the left. But the rest of his majesty’s programs have been exposed. We’ll see what happens.


10 posted on 08/06/2009 7:09:53 AM PDT by Oldpuppymax (AGENDA OF THE LEFT EXPOSED)
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To: SeekAndFind
As posted on another thread:

America's ordinary citizens--"We, the People"--using common sense and technology, are figuring out these things. That's what the so-called Tea Parties are demonstrating. By doing so, those who wish to enslave us through accumulating all power in Washington are meeting strong and unexpected resistance to their massive power grab. This is what the Founders intended when they structured a government (Constitution) for a free people. It required a vigilant and informed electorate.

The following essay, reprinted with permission, is from a 1987 book entitled, "Our Ageless Constitution."

An Enlightened, Committed People Who Understand The Principles Of Our Constitution

- The Most Effective Means Of Preserving Liberty

"Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant - they have been cheated; asleep - they have been surprised; divided - the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson? ...the people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government they should watch over it.... It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently free." James Madison

America's Constitution is the means by which knowledgeable and free people, capable of self-government, can bind and control their elected representatives in government. In order to remain free, the Founders said, the people themselves must clearly understand the ideas and principles upon which their Constitu­tional government is based. Through such understanding, they will be able to prevent those in power from eroding their Constitutional protections.

The Founders established schools and seminaries for the distinct purpose of instilling in youth the lessons of history and the ideas of liberty. And, in their day, they were successful. Tocqueville, eminent French jurist, traveled America and in his 1830's work, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, wrote:

".every citizen ... is taught . the doctrines and the evidences of his religion, the history of his country, and the leading features of its Constitution ... it is extremely rare to find a man imperfectly acquainted with all these things, and a person wholly ignorant of them is a sort of phenomenon."

On the frontier, he noted that "...no sort of comparison can be drawn between the pioneer and the dwelling that shelters him.... He wears the dress and speaks the language of the cities; he is acquainted with the past, curious about the future, and ready for argument about the present.... I do not think that so much intellectual activity exists in the most enlightened and populous districts of France' " He continued, "It cannot be doubted that in the United States the instruction of the people powerfully contri­butes to the support of the democratic republic; and such must always be the case...where the instruction which enlightens the understanding is not separated from the moral education.."

Possessing a clear understanding of the failure of previous civilizations to achieve and sustain freedom for individuals, our forefathers discovered some timeless truths about human nature, the struggle for individual liberty, the human tendency toward abuse of power, and the means for curbing that tendency through Constitutional self-government. Jefferson's Bill For The More General Diffusion Of Knowledge For Virginia declared:

"...experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government), those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate...the minds of the people...to give them knowledge of those facts, which history exhibiteth. History, by apprizing them of the past, will enable them to judge of the future...it will qualify them judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views.."

"Education was not perceived by the Founders to be a mere process for teaching basic skills. It was much, much more. Educa­tion included the very process by which the people of America would understand and be able to preserve their liberty and secure their Creator-endowed rights. Understanding the nature and origin of their rights and the means of preserving them, the people would be capable of self government, for they would recognize any threats to liberty and "nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud." (Adams)"

 


11 posted on 08/06/2009 7:10:47 AM PDT by loveliberty2
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To: SeekAndFind

If he wins the race, then what? If you had a job in the Depression you were fine. Problem was if you didn’t, you couldn’t get one. After about 10 years most of those who originally supported FDR realized nothing was working and were abandoning the socialist ship. FDR only stayed in power because of the onset of the war. Zero may win the race, but he won’t have returned prosperity because FDR never did.


12 posted on 08/06/2009 7:14:34 AM PDT by throwback
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To: SeekAndFind

The country is on the CUSP -—Very Scary


13 posted on 08/06/2009 7:14:55 AM PDT by uncbob
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To: throwback
Zero may win the race, but he won’t have returned prosperity because FDR never did.

But he will have turned the USA into a Marxist basket case
14 posted on 08/06/2009 7:16:41 AM PDT by uncbob
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To: uncbob

I know it’s depressing. Not much consolation to finish out our days being able to say I told you so.


15 posted on 08/06/2009 7:22:16 AM PDT by throwback
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To: SeekAndFind
If he doesn't achieve his initiatives soon, he never will


"You're Going to Destroy My Presidency!"

16 posted on 08/06/2009 7:23:41 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ("Media: quit making things up." --Sarah Palin)
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To: uncbob

They failed to disarm us before collapsing the country to make it back in their own image.


17 posted on 08/06/2009 7:27:31 AM PDT by MrB (Go Galt now, save Bowman for later)
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To: Southside_Chicago_Republican

Marked.


18 posted on 08/06/2009 7:38:31 AM PDT by Southside_Chicago_Republican ("During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." --Orwell)
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To: uncbob

Just wake me when the shooting starts.......


19 posted on 08/06/2009 7:39:56 AM PDT by DCBryan1 ( Arm Pilots&Teachers. Build the Wall. Export Illegals. Profile Muslims. Execute child molesters RFN!)
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To: RC2
BINGO! In addition to the stimulus crap he and his minions in congress shoved down our throats already, and now health care....just wait to see what's coming in another month or so....immigration "reform." Reform my a$$! This is all about amnesty for illegals.

We'll just be catching our breath over the disgust of health care "reform" ram-rodding through, only to have the wind knocked out of us with the immigration issue. Then, next comes establishing his brown-shirt brigade....Obama's plan for a civil corp the size of the military, or some such crap.

Yes, folks...this enemy of America knows precisely what he's doing...anyone who thinks he's just naive and/or inexperienced is only fooling themselves. It has always been about pushing this crap through from the get-go at lightning speed before middle America caught on. Now we're in the fight of our lives to save the country from this leftist/marxist/commie (and I might add...closet muslim) and those riding his train (Rahm, Axelrod, Reid, Pelosi, Boxer, Schumer, Waxman, Dodd, Kerry, .... fill in the blank with whomever...).

Gosh! What a nightmare!

20 posted on 08/06/2009 7:45:28 AM PDT by nfldgirl
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