Posted on 12/30/2009 6:40:20 AM PST by reaganaut1
America is at a day of reckoning that it never quite expected to face.
Not long ago, tired of eight years of Republican rule, terrified by the September 2008 financial panic, unimpressed by the campaign of John McCain, and mesmerized by the hope-and-change elixirs and landmark candidacy of Barack Obama, the American people voted for change.
But change of what sort?
I think voters wanted an end to the Bush deficits. Big government and Wall Street insiders sickened them. They were tired of the expense of two wars. By 2006, the scandals of the Republican Congress had turned them off. But mostly voters just wanted an end to the shrill politics that had torn the country in two.
Barack Obama saw all that. So he gave the crowds what they wanted: promises of vetoes of wasteful spending, no more lobbyists, an honest Congress for once, financial sobriety, and no more red-state/blue-state, at-your-throat politics. For millions of believers, Obama was to be our version of Truman or Eisenhower — centrist competence, but spiced up with 21st-century postracial pizzazz.
The people took Obama at his word, and here we are a year later with the largest drop in popularity of a first-year president in poll-taking history. A clear majority of the country is now opposed to almost all of the Obama program — more stimuli, bailouts, deficits, and takeovers; statist health care; cap-and-trade; and therapeutic-apology/reset-button diplomacy abroad.
I think it is a fair generalization to say that both the Right and the Left agree that Obama ran as a moderate in order to move America sharply to the left. The former calls it perfidy; the latter, necessary politics to achieve the desired ends.
(Excerpt) Read more at article.nationalreview.com ...
I nopw hear people calling into talk radio to defend obama by saying America is now respected in the world
oh, really? BY who? The Noble peace “committee” and obsequious “thank you sir may I have another” Gordon Brown are about the only ones who come to mind
Obama and Holder want to close Gitmo to show the world we are better than who? Al Qaeda? Iran? North Korea? Cuba?
As Ann Coulter said, if the world hasn’t already figured that out, screw them.
I honestly NEVER thought I would miss Jimmah.
I don't miss Jimmah but I would take him in a heartbeat over the BOZO in there NOW. At least Jimmah was a veteran. . . . .
I don’t think one day went by this year when he didn’t say or do something outrageous.
Chilling prophecy at the end, but unfortunately probably accurate.
It’s never as bad as you think it is...except this time. Not trying to use hyperbole or melodrama, but I am afraid for this country for the first time in my life.
Obama and his cronies are killing the meritocracy that made this nation prosper. Atlas is beginning to shrug.
The people who saw Obama as a savior and not a politician got us into this mess.
Now some/most of them are left scratching their heads, unable to admit their guilt. I have these people in my family, my office... I’ve found it hard not to be bitter and angry at them. My faith tells me to love thy neighbor, however, I have contempt for their stupidity.
I still wonder how Obama even got as far as he did, the trickery and deceit he spewed on a daily basis. After the election last year, I called my brother who is a flaming liberal. I told him that I hoped his vote was worth it. He was smug and gleeful, of course. I told him that a year from now, he won’t be so excited. He’ll be questioning his own values and morals, knowing he had a hand in the country’s demise. At the time, he had his predictable comments about Bush and the mess he got into. I told him I agree to an extent. There’s no denying Bush had a hand in where we stand. But Obama will have the hand in where we fall. And I hung up.
While he is not exactly seeing the light, he’s come around to at least admit this wasn’t what he voted for.
“
Our Year of Obama
“
Now is the winter of our discontent,
made more bitter by having an anti-American Socialist running and
ruining our beloved country.
(Shakespeare, I ain’t!!!)
BTTT
In my rather long adult life I have never seen a President who so directly effected individual citizen’s lives. A friend and I were comparing notes, such as:
1. Our laying off of entire staff and restructuring to avoid ever having to hire anyone
2. Absolutely eliminating buying anything on credit and even closing out business lines of credit
3. Not investing in RE
4. Not investing in anything in the U.S.
5. Advising our children to not become entrepreneurs
6. Suggesting to young people that they get a job with the Federal Government because that is the only place where a future lies at the present time
7. Suggesting to young people that they get involved in local politics, such as on school boards and thus begin the long, slow process (if even possible) of taking back the seats held by the pony-tail (now grey) crowd who took them over three and four decades ago.
Now, many of you will disagree, saying that this approach is ‘caving’ but the passage of more than five decades and an understanding of history says otherwise. Also, more than five decades of sloshing in the business world makes one rather hard and realistic.
“
I nopw hear people calling into talk radio to defend obama by saying
America is now respected in the world
“
Too bad you didn’t listen to the trucking talk-radio show on
WBAP 820AM out of Dallas-Ft. Worth last night.
The host spent an hour letting three callers (in sequence) call in
to explain how Obama has “made us safer”.
Their comments were all gooey comments about how “he respects the
Constitution”, “the world now respects us”, blah, blah, blah.
The host said not one of them came even close to answering the actual
question “how has Obama made us safer”.
And I agree with the host. It was more like listening to religious
followers with glazed-over eyes explaining their devotion to their
messiah.
(Please note that’s a “small m” messiah!)
“I nopw hear people calling into talk radio to defend obama by saying America is now respected in the world”
Yes, I have heard this too. I equate it to a young male virgin who is finally persuaded by his marginal friends to visit a whore house. When he comes out, his friends slap him on the back and say, “You’re one of us now!”
I don’t think BO “ran as a moderate” as VDH states.
a six-year old kid could see through his BS—even last year when he tried to gift-wrap it a bit.
God damn the useful idiots who fell for it......
I’m with you on this. Obama was remarkably open about his socialist plans all along. He never ran as a moderate.
I think the real danger is the unwillingness of the average educated Obama voter to admit they were wrong--the 20-30 somethings I work with have based their intellectual identities on all the liberal hogwash they were fed in college--they are motivated by what they see as social justice with no historical understanding of how fascist dictatorships seize power--they rarely go to church but they believe in the sermons of the Left about a secular Utopia. I wouldn't mind them losing their freedom if they're too stupid to recognize what's going on but I don't want my family to lose theirs so I see their arrogant and willful ignorance as a serious threat. Thank God for VDH and the other voices out there and for Barack Obama's stupidity since he is turning out to look like a dumbass. Mr. Slick is starting to look like a jive turkey for all to see. His snorkeling/ golfing vacation reminds of John Kerry's windsurfing photo.
And exactly where did that shrillness come from to start with, and who were the people that used it day after day, week after week? I liken it to a fire department that starts fires then wants credit for putting them out.
I have given up on the idea that enough of us will come to our senses to recognize what's happening and put a stop to it. Not because I lack faith in America, but more because I know how badly we've been dumbed-down and how ardently the MSM works to use that dumbness to reinforce the idea that Bush was bad and anything would be better.
Bush went to Washington with the avowed purpose of bring bipartisanship to national politics. Gawd, how I hate that word! The GOP Senate agreed to ‘share power’ with the dethroned Democrats. And how did that work out for us, and them!
He ran to the left of Hillary in the primary. In the general election, he ran as a centrist and pragmatist. He counted on the ignorance of the moderates and independents. Now, we all pay the price for their ignorance.
A Pragmatic Look at Obama's Pragmatism
Obama came into office swearing he was a pragmatist who would support any approach that worked.
--snip--
Alas, there's another way of reading recent events. Critics always claimed that Obama was a very left-wing fellow who was never the centrist he claimed to be.
Google Obama centrist pragmatist. Google claims 189,000 hits.
Have you accepted Barack Hussein Obama as your personal saviour? (mmm, mmm, mmm)
Cheers!
Ping !
Let me know if you want in or out. Links:
FR Index of his articles: http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/victordavishanson/index NRO archive: http://author.nationalreview.com/?q=MjI1MQ== Pajamasmedia: http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/ His website: http://victorhanson.com/
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