The latest edition of our Silicon Graffiti video blog is coming to you partially in glorious black & white this week, as a reminder that despite the hip, sleek high tech Internet campaign that Senator Barack Obama ran in 2008, President Obama has governed very much like a boring, mid-20th century old fogy:
- The Keynesian “Stimulus” Plan – yes, that certainly brought a speedy end to the recession, just as when FDR similarly tried to spend his way out of the Great Depression in the mid-1930s.
- Nationalizing two-thirds of the American auto industry? Hey, Congress nationalized the passenger railroad industry in 1971 with Amtrak – and outside of the still-busy Northeast Corridor, most Amtrak trains that continue to run are boondoggles kept alive more to placate congressmen, then to actually serve customers.
- Socialized medicine? Britain went that route immediately after World War II – thus making the still privatized American medical profession the envy of the world.
- Demonizing Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and other conservative news and opinion sources? Welcome back to the days of Nixon’s enemies list, FDR and Harry Truman violating Godwin’s Law, and Woodrow Wilson’s brutal crackdown on dissent during World War I.
- Back in October, the Washington Post ran a headline titled, “Obama Sets Sights on Urban Renewal.” Paging LBJ and his Great Society, which whole-scale demolished perfectly serviceable neighborhoods and trapped millions of urban poor into high-rise war zones. Or as President Reagan said in 1988, the left declared war on poverty. Poverty won.
- So-called green energy and global warming? Kowtowing to foreign dictators? Welcome back Carter!
And even in the wake of Scott Brown’s victory last week, and numerous other examples of public dissatisfaction (to say the least) with President Obama’s policies, the desire to increase command and control out of Washington rolls on.
For 50 or so previous editions of Silicon Graffiti — most of which are in full color! — click here and keep scrolling and watching.
A fake can’t remain a fake forever. A lier can never be trusted . So it is with Barak Hussein Obama.
The Cabrini-Greening of America has begun anew. Behold, O-topia!
it’s not that he’s going back in time and borrowing things; it’s that he’s going back and borrowing the worst things that failed!
ie: we need more reagan and churchill and less carter.
Reliapundit,
Spot-on.
Ed
Reliapundit:
I am with you that what Obama is managing to do is resurrect the worst policy failures of the past and try them on ever-greater scales, with ever-more disastrous results.
But what we need is more of what Reagan CLAIMED to believe in: shrinking the government by reining in Federal spending and reducing government regulation.
Reagan, however, was mostly talk on this point. Over the 8 years of his administration, federal spending DOUBLED and the number of regulations in the federal register increased by over 30%.
One could argue that the spending increases and additional regulations were the fault of Congress, but every spending and regulatory bill that went into effect carried Reagan’s signature.
In truth, all the Republican administrations of the last 50 years have accomplished is to occasionally slow the growth of government somewhat. By posturing as champions of capitalism and free markets while nonetheless aiding and abetting the relentless expansion of the regulatory/welfare state, the Republicans have only succeeded in discrediting capitalism and free markets.
So we don’t need another Reagan. We need someone with the stones to actually push for the complete elimination of entire Federal departments. We need a Margaret Thatcher.
Michael Smith,
Knee-jerk regulation aside, what Reagan did was cut taxes, which ultimately increased federal revenue in the form of private investment and entrepreneurship.
Further, his foreign policy returned America to its proper place as a freedom-loving superpower. And Americans loved it.
I agree, entire departments must be eliminated. I suggest the first to be the Dept. of Education.
I can’t see the video from here… but I hope it includes the line:
“The only political source capable of generating 1.21 gigadollars of deficit is a Democrat Congress.”
#6 Ed: Obama is here for another 7 years… he will go down as one of the best presidents we ever had…
Yes, the same people who admire Jimmy Carter’s decisiveness and crisp global vision will praise the first-class temperament of Mr. Obama.