Reading Haiku in Obamaland
One must be exceptionally wary of accusing a man who holds the highest and most prestigious political office in the world and who is still respected by many people. Nor does one wish to be dismissed as a conspiracy nut or a raving paranoic. Nonetheless, I have been following his career closely since well before his nomination as the Democratic candidate for the presidency, registering dubious association after scandal after revelation which seemed — and still seems — to come hurtling in by the day. And, as I have suggested, there are only two ways to account for the president’s doubtful behavior.
Either Sarkozy is correct and we are observing an unreconstructed naif completely out of his depth — perhaps the most ingenuous and politically clueless president since Jimmy Carter, and possibly in the entire gamut of POTUS history — or we are dealing with a man whose unspoken intention is to dig away at America’s “secret sanctuary,” to disarm incrementally before rogue nuclear aspirants, to betray his allies, to curry favor with militant aggressor states, to support left-wing demagogues, to bury his country under a mountain of unpayable debt, to maintain ties with corrupt organizations, to pass legislation that a majority of his countrymen oppose, to expand federal powers to such an extent that he may conceivably, as one newsletter worries, put the American Constitution at risk, and, in effect, to render America progressively unrecognizable as America.
For Obama and his entourage, it appears that America is the battlefield. It is there that the war is to be waged, the enemy defeated, a new dispensation to be imposed, a makeover of society to be enacted. At the same time, it is as if the world beyond its borders barely exists in realpolitik terms and can be safely appeased, cajoled, ignored, flattered, and even trusted. This is an error of cataclysmic proportions. Meanwhile, Obama unleashes a massive media blitzkrieg, overexposing himself at every turn, which is strangely reminiscent of the iconic strategy of dictators like Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-il plastering their likenesses in every corner of the public square. From the standpoint of an outsider looking in, the spectacle is scarcely credible. And judging from tea parties, town halls, and the march on Washington, for many insiders, too.
Like most people, I have no solution to the quandary in which the United States now malingers. Governor Rick Perry of Texas is reported to have floated a secession or “resistance” option and has been duly ridiculed for his temerity. And yet the fault lines in the country appear to be growing ever more prominent. In a recent posting of mine on Pajamas Media, I was startled to detect among the comments a distinct odor of secessionism. Will this swell in the future? If at first you don’t secede, try and try again?
Or is there a chance that America will emerge approximately intact after the 2012 election, send Obama packing back to Chicago where he belongs, and gradually recover the strength, dignity, and economic vitality it has forfeited to a charlatan? Might the 2010 congressional elections apply the brakes and at least slow down the nation’s careening descent — what Roger Kimball calls a dégringolade — into impoverishment, stasis, and political and military weakness? Maybe. Maybe not.
Obama reminds me of a Star Wars Imperial Walker, wreaking havoc and devastation with every step, but one who may not be brought down by ordinary Americans who understand the danger he represents. The fear is that Obama has amassed so much power, aided by a Pravda-esque media and backed by a like-minded political clientele among left-wing voters and significant minorities, that he may be invulnerable. But, unfortunately, his country is not.
I return to Tohta Kaneko’s haikus and I read:
At dawn
A giant stalks the shore
Gulping all the waves
I’m glad to see conservative intellectuals like Krauthammer and Solway espousing the view that Obama is not naive. One doesn’t rise to the office of POTUS by being naive. His destruction of America is deliberate. The belief that he is naive is itself naive.
Nor is Obama an empty suit. Inside the red diaper and the royal vestments and messianic crown that adorns his head there is a palpable narcissism dedicated to re-making the world.
I think it’s cool that they gave Obama the gold medal BEFORE the race even started! Now that’s a real change!
The flagrant destruction of America is purposeful, but so outrageous that no one can believe it–not even Limbaugh.
Who ever would have believed that someone like that could become President? But it has happened, alas.
Mr. Solway — this is, in both substance and style — a brilliant piece of writing. The message you convey should frighten every American, and every freedom-loving person on the globe; it certainly frightens me. But it heartens me as well: as long as there are people who think as clearly and write as lucidly as you, there will be hope for Western Civilization. Thank you, sir; you’ve performed a signal service for all of us.
There is a reason why David Solway is considered by many-yes he is-to be one of the best essayists writing today.
Not only does he create magic with his words, but his understanding of our political landscape is second to none.
I have always felt it deep inside my gut-that intuition thing-that Obama knows EXACTLY what he is doing and how he wants to get there, despite his lack of governmental experience per se.
Obama has an agenda and it is decidedly anti-American. He and his fellow comrades have a malevolent plan in place, and they are working assiduously to implement it. Soros is a major string puller in this kabuki dance, his Islamist friends will be the main beneficiaries.
Through their dismantling of the economy; through their takeover of MAJOR companies;through his propping up dictators, AND through weakening the US abroad, Obama is steadily marching the US towards its deconstruction.
Unless one can convince themselves that every destructive thing he is doing is an accident, then there is NO other explanation.
He is by far the most dangerous man on the world stage since Hitler. This is not to say that he will give orders to build killing fields, but this is to say that he is PURPOSEFULLY creating conditions whereby the US will sooner, rather than later, be referred to as the late, great USA.
His goal is to lead a world confederation in one form or another.He is well on his way.
I have no doubt about Obama’s real intent and deliberate action. However, the countermeasures are the same as if he were simply naive. Replace the members of congress [Obama's enablers] with people who have the best interests of America in their hearts.
This is, indeed, very scary stuff. Thanks to Mr. Solway for making my Halloween even more horrifying than I thought possible.
Obama is a menace. He intends to be. To do what he has done in good faith and with good intentions would make him the most abysmally moronic individual ever to be elected to any public office.
The sabotage is not accidental. For Obama, the people who perished in the 9/11 attacks and their families got what was coming to them. For Obama, people who have suffered economically because of his party’s punitive (not incompetent) policies and, more recently, because of his policies, got what was coming to them. Israeli and American victims of Mideast terror groups like Hezbollah and Hamas got what was coming to them. Neda Agha-Soltan got what was coming to her.
You are correct that our newest President does not have alot of experience in foreign affairs. Indeed, as you know he also inherited a disastorous economic meltdown, a couple of wars going the wrong way and the middle east filled with problems caused mainly by two entities that havent learned about building real peace in 2+thousand years. Also, he has a few other continents to the south, east and west of him that are making noises too… so you see, his plate is just a tad full. And is he managing it all?….uhm, yes.
I believe President Obama’s willingness to destroy America will return to him as his precious cult of personality consumes him & destroys him from within & without; I’m just glad Obama is an incompetent boob.
#5.
“Unless one can convince themselves that every destructive thing he is doing is an accident, then there is NO other explanation.”
This insight is the only possibility to me. Obama has shown that he is through and through an agent of unrestrained absolutism. Be it absolute ideology or absolute stupidity, there is not one sincere or reasonable bone in his body…except of course when it comes to feeding his own ego.
…so you see, his plate is just a tad full. And is he managing it all?….uhm, yes.
————–
…uhm, no!
David ….unreconstructed naif completely out of his depth — perhaps the most ingenuous and politically clueless
I’m going with the clueless naif completely out of his depth.
regards
Poor Citizen:
It hurts to think, doesn’t it?
Poor Citizen: If you truly are a poor citizen, you may want to head to the Cobo Arena in Detroit. I hear the Gov’t is handing out cash (stimulus money). Here are actual quotes when interviewed by a reporter (Rogulski) from Detroit’s WJR:
ROGULSKI: Why are you here?
WOMAN #1: To get some money.
ROGULSKI: What kind of money?
WOMAN #1: Obama money.
ROGULSKI: Where’s it coming from?
WOMAN #1: Obama.
ROGULSKI: And where did Obama get it?
WOMAN #1: I don’t know, his stash. I don’t know. (laughter) I don’t know where he got it from, but he givin’ it to us, to help us.
WOMAN #2: And we love him.
WOMAN #1: We love him. That’s why we voted for him!
WOMEN: (chanting) Obama! Obama! Obama! (laughing)
So is this how you save our economy??
In autumn sunlight
A young bird soars
- a pane of glass awaits
Norwegian tin echoes
off late summer winds
rusts before our eyes
Alley cats screeching
hot breath in cold air
purr only when petted
Shadows lengthen
Israel listens
And awaits the dawn
Friends scatter
Enemies gather
Happy New Year
A tiger asked me to dance
November moonlight
Suggested bared teeth were a smile
In the end
Winter comes
to us all
Loons landing
Face first
summer lake
Preening thrushes
Shedding plumage
hope and change-molting
cfbleachers bravo. It’s both heartbreaking and symbolic that we turn to haiku seeking for comfort and insight. Obama could do worse.
Thank you David Solway, cfbleachers and ReNae. Yes. Sadly. Yes.
Who would have thought that the 60′s generation of screaming “flower children” — brainlessly screaming “down with the system” from the comfort of their “system” liberty and prosperity — wouldn’t have grown up?
Instead, they remained infantile and irrational, have diseased the minds of the young in the schools and universities —
Obama is their evil spawn —
and will soon live to see the devastation that they will have brought on their own future generations — and the world — with their pure, unadulterated, all-consuming, stupidity.
It seems they will get their wish.
I hope they live long enough to witness and personally suffer under the ugly results they will have wrought — and with their many millions of dying breaths — have a moment where they can no longer blame and deny — but bitterly — very bitterly — regret.
I have tended to favour the incompetent fool/fantasist over the conspiracy theory. And I am generally averse to “third way” perspectives, these being themselves a mark of a Gnostic fantasist; nonetheless, should we not consider that Obama represents a widespread left-liberal resentment that is only partly incompetent and only partly worldly and intent on “real change” (as opposed to endlessly reproducing the fantasy that they will achieve “real change” by dint of their inherent specialness)? In other words they are the bright students who while “smart” and learned in certain techniques have nonetheless failed, in the end, to be properly initiated into society; they are the privileged drop-outs who have been given affirmative action jobs or media-academic-government sinecures in attempts to make it appear they are not drop outs but part of the system.
Or, in other words, the current secessionists are not the tea-party conservatives but the Wall St.-Washington-media-academic crowd. In their exodus, yes they allow things to fall apart; but ultimately they are not so much able to destroy America from within, as they are not fully within. So what we are now faced with is the curious dynamic of elitist exodus vs. the yet powerless tea party. And you can’t stage a real fight on those terms if the elite are trying to run instead of trying to squash the republicans and thus allowing the fight to take real shape. Mass confusion reigns.