Mr. Magoo Goes to Washington
“Mr. Magoo,” my friend said: “He’s like the cartoon character Mr. Magoo, stumbling around blindly, somehow avoiding the open manholes, careening buses, and other deadly hazards that surround us.”
We were talking about Barack Obama, his petulant prose poem to higher taxes — a.k.a., his speech on the deficit last week — as well as his unscripted comments to Democratic donors (“You think we’re stupid?”) and his attack on Paul Ryan’s budget proposals over the weekend.
“To restore fiscal responsibility,” he said, “we all need to share in the sacrifice — but we don’t have to sacrifice the America we believe in.”
As his dismal rankings in the polls show — every week, it seems, the headline reads “Obama’s Approval Hits New Low” — the bloom is off the rose.
The bloom is gone, the magic dissipated (remember: “this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow”?). And what’s left?
My friend and I were pondering that. Arrogance. That’s one thing that’s continued unabated — a function, I suggested, of the Magoo myopia.
And then the penny dropped. Obama’s arrogance is often remarked upon, even by his less starry-eyed supporters. Arrogance, a chilly disconnection with common reality. (Don’t like the price of gas? Buy a new, smaller, more fuel-efficient car. How many kids do you have, for God’s sake?) Some diagnose narcissism. Maybe so. But here’s the extraordinary thing:
Obama actually believes he is doing a good job.
That thought struck me like a thunderclap. It seems improbable, I know. And I don’t discount for a second the thuggishness and habit of calculation ingrained by his Chicago background and cronies. But watching Obama perform these last weeks, I suspect that there is something more than political calculation behind his brittle contempt for his GOP opponents, his Marie-Antoinette disdain for ordinary Americans, his tone-deaf self-absorption and sense of entitlement. What is it?
The delusion of competence.
Listen to those off-the-cuff remarks, linked above, to some of his high-rolling donors: Obama actually seems to believe that his disastrous policies have made things better. $14-point-something trillion in federal debt (excluding unfunded entitlement liabilities). A current deficit north of $1.6 trillion. (How easy it is to inscribe those numbers: how difficult to comprehend the misery they portend.) Soaring gasoline prices. Food prices skyrocketing. Real unemployment above 10 percent. The housing market in the tank. Inflation churning ominously in the wings. The flight, internationally, from the dollar (“The Toxic Dollar: Why Nobody Seems to Want U.S. Currency”). **UPDATE** This just in: Standard and Poors moves the U.S. long-term credit rating from “stable” to “negative”: that crashing sound you hear are the markets reacting.
In short, a litany of disaster — a sort of Napoleon’s-retreat-from-Russia scenario but without the consoling prelude of strategic brilliance.
And it’s not just the economy that is suffering. In foreign affairs, Obama’s combination of sanctimoniousness, on the one hand, and indecision, on the other, has made the U.S. a worrying laughing stock on the world stage. Who are our friends? Who are our enemies? Can we tell the difference?
Good one, Roger, as usual, except they aren’t Socialists. They really are Fascists. (Control of the economy by controlling business.)
When it doesn’t work as prescribed, well, they have ways of making us obey.
Exactly. And it doesn’t mean Obama = Hitler, or even Obama = Mussolini, but it is fascism.
And he thinks he’s doing a good job because that’s what his anti-American puppetmaster George Soros texts him on his Blackberry.
We can quibble over terminology. I, for example, disagree that Obama and Gang are fascists; I consider them socialists…but, both ideologies are collectivist, central authoritarian govt control, anti-individual, anti-private enterprise and utopian.
Fascism, in my view, believes in an a priori utopian ideology that posits that at one time, a pure perfect nation or people existed..and has degenerated. The remedy is to ‘purify’ and control the people, make them homogeneous in belief and behavior…to achieve this utopia.
Socialism, in my view, believes in a future utopia, that posits that IF individualism is rejected and collectivism in belief and behavior is embraced, then, a pure and perfect society will exist..and, as Obama assured us, the oceans will cease to rise and peace will exist on earth.
Whatever – the result is, an Obama-state, which is one that rejects democracy (as he rejects Congress), that rejects individual freedom, that rejects the right and freedom of the individual to prosper and produce wealth and instead, defines wealth and productivity as ‘by right’, belonging to and only to The State…to be redistributed as the King sees fit.
We’ve already seen how the King redistributes his Obama-health care waivers. His cronies, the unions, are exempt from his health care requirements, and many other big businesses are also exempt..Over 1,000 waivers have been given out. In return for donations? The unions are a major financial backer of Obama..and the public service unions get ALL their money from the taxpayer. Laundered money…to Obama.
Well, in this old complicated world, it’s tough to find any ‘ism’ in pure form. Most often it’s a little this and a little of that get mashed up together.
But there’s a pretty good argument to be made that we’re steaming quickly toward being fascistic corporatists – that unholy amalgam of big government, big business and big labour which conspires to set and dominate public policy.
“Big labor” is big business.
While I don’t disagree with the gist of your comment, I’d remind you that socialism is a Marxist economic theory while fascism is merely government coercion. In other words, the former is an economic plan and the latter is the methodology to implement the plan.
We have trouble correctly labeling the current Democratic agenda because we are making at least two incorrect assumptions:
1. They want to their policies (and the country) to succeed.
2. There agenda is in any way based on logic.
Earlier forms of Leftist government – Marxism and Fascism – were based on some form of logic (albeit deeply flawed assumptions of human nature). The old logical / evil leftists have been replaced with pandering incompetent dimwits. Both are dangerous and should be vigorously opposed.
Don’t bother pointing out the flaws in their reasoning – they don’t do logic. Just attack.
Oops! I Should have said that “European Socialists” are simply Fascists. (With a smiley face, I guess, for a while.)
Mr. Magoo was no fascist and no socialist. Instead, he was a good-hearted character whose unfailing pluck and optimism won the hearts of the viewers.
Here’s a great answer to Obama’s fuel price fiasco:
Gas Pump Activism: Print This Poster!
As I’ve said, to tedium, Obama is a clinical narcissist. This isn’t a mild state of political egoism, it’s a pathology that has moved him out of touch with reality – and into a virtual realm.
Simply put, Obama is totally disconnected from the real world. The world of facts rather than fancy. The world of direct actions-and-their-results. The world of data, of actual amounts in the bank, of actual production and consumption, of actual costs, actual taxation results…Obama cannot relate to any of this.
Instead, Obamam lives entirely in a virtual world. Of words. He probably moved into this as a young boy and has managed, all his life, to surround himself with ‘work’ and people that have enabled him to maintain this disconnection with reality…and to live entirely within His Words. I suspect that the disconnect between his words and factual reality is a key reason why his entire education and work history is sealed from the public.
We do know, however, that he has ‘sidelined’ himself from work and accountability all his life. As editor of the Harvard Law Review, he did no editing, leaving all the work to others and coming in from time to time only to ‘grin-and-wave’. As a lecturer on law, he merely followed the course outline. As a community organizer, he merely exorted others to ‘go out and activate’. As Senator, he merely voted present.
The pattern is: Obama himself makes no decisions about reality. He simply follows the wave-in-power. That is, he sides with power. This moves him into another characteristic: he’s a pathological liar.
Obama – and this mode of behavior is becoming increasingly public – will say one thing to one audience..and then..two days later say the opposite to another audience. THis is a basic pattern. Obama’s words are unconnected to reality. Obama’s words are not connected to any external reality, they are not connected to any hard data that exists in the objective world. Instead – they are ‘virtual’; they are words with a different purpose that refering to real hard data. They are unconnected to any objective reference. Their agenda is personal, emotional; they are meant to manipulate you into connecting yourself..not to that external objective reality…but to Obama.
Get the difference? For most people, words are connected to an objective reference. When we say ‘a disabled person’ we refer to real people either individually or generally who have a real disability. When Obama uses that same phrase – the reference, the connection, is between You and Him. He is setting up and emotional connection between Himself-as-Savior-of-the-Disabled and You as grateful for his goodness.
All of Obama’s words are used in this way. They have no connection to an objective reality. They are meant to manipulate you, the listener, and to move you into an emotional state of adulation and subservience to Him.
Obama is all about feeling that He controls You. That’s the function of his words. Not to refer to reality – to the war, to the economy, to the borders, to jobs…No. The function of his words is to render you emotionally controlled and bonded..to Him.
Then, there are the basic axioms of Obama’s mindset. I hesitate to define this mindset as an ideology, for I maintain that Obama is intellectually ignorant of history and economics, is intellectually lazy and shallow, and has relied all his life – not on facts and reason and theory – but on his ability to emotionally manipulate others to get his way.
This mindset, embedded within his upbringing – is anti-American, anti-capitalist, anti-white and adversarial. He probably isn’t even aware of this because he lacks intellectual curiosity to examine himself or any theory. But you can see it in his words, his speeches, his 20 year long adherence to Rev Wright’s Black Liberation Theology (anti-American, anti-white)..and his choice of close followers (czars)..all of whom follow this mindset.
Is he a socialist? I consider him not an intellectual socialist, for the same reasons as above but a psychological socialist. That’s because socialism is the only political infrastructure that sets up Rulers over the Ruler. And Obama, psychologically, must feel that he controls you.
His disdain for ordinary Americans, his contempt for Congress – which represents the people – are obvious. Most certainly, he thinks he’s great; he’s the messiah. Psychologically, Obama needs to maintain this self-image; it’s his only mode of life. And if someone tries to intrude on and harm this mode of life, and his virtual reality – Obama can become vicious and malicious. Make no mistake: Obama has no principles and no morality. Try to confront and reduce his powers – and he’ll use any and all powers to break you – and that includes the American people.
Excellent analysis. The same thoughts have been running through my head, but I couldn’t pin them down so succinctly.
Can only echo: excellent.
You nailed it! He has a ‘god complex’, amplified by his media.
He is a dangerous mix of being devious, malicious, seething with revenge, hateful, if not outright evil.
Observing him since the November 2010 election shows cracks in his veneer, and it’s not pretty. He’s more dangerous now, then he’s ever been, and more unpredictable. Things are not going his way, and as the old saying goes ‘a wounded animal when cornered will literally attack, and bite’.
We need to be careful, should his re-election be in jeopardy (although he must be stopped from gaining another term)what he’ll do. He won’t give up his power without inflicting more damage to the USA. His supporters, the racist Black Panthers are already beginning to stir up trouble. He’s counting on it.
Donald Trump is also getting to him-the pressure is on; Holder has assisted him in his schemes so far, but how far will be enough?
We are living in troubled times just alone having this man, and his wife (who’s no different) in the hite House. Something has to give.
“the bloom is off the rose” Since he claims to be from Hawaii, I like to say, “The bloom is off the hibiscus.”
I wonder if they have roses in Kenya?
Well, in all fairness to Barack Obama, the rise of the oceans HAS begun to slow.
See this at Watts Up With That?
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/04/17/doing-it-yourself-the-latest-global-sea-level-data-from-jason-shows-a-sharp-downtick-and-downtrend/
And what do you know the OZONE LAYER HOLE has healed too and Global Warming is NON EXISTENT. Whats that ALL these are Green NAZI scams. Well I know that of course.
There’s actual global warming news. We can’t get away from it. There actually is global warming news — not “climate change” news, but “global warming” news. “What Happened to the Climate Refugees?” Now, this story is from last week. “In 2005, the United Nations Environment Programme predicted that climate change would create 50 million climate refugees by 2010. ” That’s kind of like the Ted Danson prediction in 1988 that if we didn’t clean up the oceans in ten years, that there’d be death and pestilence everywhere on the seas.
The United Nations five years ago predicted that these climate refugees would be fleeing from areas that “are actually among the fastest growing regions in the world.” It’s just like Paul Ehrlich — who, I understand, is very irritated every time anyone talks about him and his book The Population Bomb and the bet that he made with Julian Simon. Frankly, I didn’t know that Paul Ehrlich was still around. So I’m happy to know that he is. “In 2005, the United Nations Environment Programme predicted that climate change would create 50 million climate refugees by 2010.
“These people, it was said, would flee a range of disasters including sea level rise, increases in the numbers and severity of hurricanes, and disruption to food production. The UNEP even provided a handy map,” and we’ve got a copy of the map here. Now, it’s too small to show you. I guess I can. Here, let me… I’m going to turn the camera off and zoom in on this. I don’t want to do the zoom live. Let’s see how tight we can get it. Well, it might be okay, might be okay. There it is. Okay, there is… Ah, the legend is too small. I can’t read the legend so I can’t tell you what the colors mean, but here we go.
There’s the map. You see? I think the purple and the yellow is where there were gonna be massive refugees because of climate change. You can see even in the US there’s some purple and yellow. I’m sure purple has gotta be one of these because of the sea level rise. You see, Florida would have climate refugees. You see there. So, at any rate, ladies and gentlemen… (chuckles) You’re getting nothing but my mouth here, which I know is attractive to some. Let me zoom back out. There we go. I wish I could read the legend here. But it was basically places at most risk. “The map shows us the places most at risk including the very sensitive low lying islands of the Pacific and Caribbean.
“It so happens that just a few of these islands and other places most at risk have since had censuses,” and their populations are in fact growing. So the title of the story here is: What Happened to the Climate Refugees?” There are 50 million people missing. “Meanwhile, far from being places where people are fleeing, no fewer than the top six of the very fastest growing cities in China, Shenzzen, Dongguan, Foshan, Zhuhai, Puning and Jinjiang, are absolutely smack bang within the shaded areas identified as being likely sources of climate refugees,” but their populations are skyrocketing.
So it’s another example: A huge story of the environmentalist wackos being entirely wrong. Imagine they predict 50 million climate refugees, and there are none, and there are no sea level increases. From Reuters: “Scientists Want Climate Change Early-Warning System — A better monitoring network for greenhouses gases is needed to warn of significant changes and to keep countries that have agreed to cut their emissions honest, scientists said in papers published on Monday. ‘What we’re hoping to do is see if the warming is feeding the warming, particularly in the Arctic,’ said Euan Nisbet, a specialist in methane emissions…”
What does that mean? He’s got his nose in cow rear ends?
“Our monitoring network is very, very limited. We feel more observation is needed.” Such measurement could warn of possible climate tipping points, scientists said in papers published by Britain’s science academy, the Royal Society. … The Earth’s climate in the past has changed in a relatively short period of time, warming rapidly about 12,000 years ago at the end of the most recent glacial period. Scientists are not sure why that happened, and have warned of possible climate tipping points from man-made emissions.
“They are concerned, for example, that as Arctic permafrost melts it would allow plant matter to rot and vent methane, a greenhouse gas which could trigger more warming.” Okay, so an “early-warning system for global warming,” even though the worst effects are not for 50 years so they say. Then Jon Ham at the John Locke Foundation: The Ozone Hole scam was the Green NAZI’s Global Warming scam warm-up act.” You may not be old enough to remember this but many of you are. Back in the seventies, eighties, we had to get rid of Freon. We had to stop using aerosol spray cans ’cause that he was creating the hole in the ozone.
Do you remember that, Dawn? You don’t. You weren’t old enough at the time to remember it.
Folks, the panic over the ozone hole was as big awe panic as any of you who remember any panic associated with global warming. I mean, it was big. They had maps, they had charts, they showed the us how big the hole was and it was gonna lead to skin cancers and it was going to lead to global warming. It was going to be an absolute disaster, and the hole was getting bigger! They finally “found out” it was aerosol causing it, so people started making jokes about spraying Right Guard was causing an ozone hole. Of course back then I, your host, was as big a skeptic then as now. I laughed at it.
“What are you talking about? Are you really trying to tell us — you really want us to believe — that aerosol spray cans are causing a hole in atmospheric ozone?” And they were dead serious! “The Montreal Protocol to ban freons was the warm-up exercise for the IPCC. Many current IPCC players gained fame then by stampeding the US Congress into supporting the Montreal Protocol. They learned to use dramatized, phony scientific claims like ‘ozone holes over Kennebunkport.’ The ozone crusade also had business opportunities for firms like Dupont to market proprietary ‘ozone-friendly’ refrigerants at much [higher] prices than the conventional (and more easily used) freons…”
In other words, folks, we got rid of Freon for no reason. The bottom line of this story is, the ozone “hole” is still there, and it’s still as big as ever despite all these reforms. We got rid of all those propellants and refrigerants and all the causes. New research shows that it’s not changed the hole significantly at all. “This must have far-reaching consequences. If the measurements are correct we can basically no longer say we understand how ozone holes come into being.” This is from one of the big scientists who was responsible for this SCAM , a guy named Markus Rex, an atmosphere scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute of Polar and Marine Research in Potsdam, Germany.
So, again: They recently measured and the ozone hole’s the same size, and it fluctuates. It changes in size year to year. “If the measurements are correct we can basically no longer say we understand how ozone holes come into being.” It was the same hoax the same SCAM. It was the same tactic. It was the same technique. In fact the New York Times, in January of 2010, had a story on how the ozone hole is mending. “That the hole in Earth’s ozone layer is slowly mending is considered a big victory for environmental policy makers. But in a new report, scientists say there is a downside: its repair may contribute to global warming.” So a year ago, the hole was reducing, but that was causing global warming.
Now, since there’s no warming and the hole has opened up again despite getting rid of all “the causes,” this klutz ( otherwise known as an Environmental EXPERT like all Green NAZI scam merchants are) previously accepted as a scientific authority: Well, we no longer understand how ozone holes come into being. Look at what economic tumult we caused to try to fix it. Typical. This is more evidence, folks. As I tell you, the simplest thing to do when you hear an apocalyptic, cataclysmic prediction involving the climate or the environment — or, hell, even economics — if it’s being made by a liberal, just don’t believe it. It isn’t true. It is being made up. THE ECONOMIC DAMAGE THIS CAUSED TO THE WORLD ECONOMY OF COURSE IS IRREPARABLE.
There’s more evidence of Obama’s Virtual World reality, in his approach to economics.
Consider Obama’s ‘tax the rich’ tactic (and since when is an income of 200,000 defined as a millionaire?…it is so economically ignorant I can’t believe his Handlers allowed him to say it.
Obama’s tactic to ‘solve the economic problem’ assumes: that ‘the rich’ are a refilling Magical Golden Well. Take and take and take..and it keeps refilling. This is so stupid as to be beyond discussion. But remember, Obama lives in a virtual world made up totally of words that are unconnected to factual reality. The words..are the reality.
So, Obama’s tactic assumes that wealth is an a priori emerging, essentialist Force..that bubbles up from the earth….Very mystical, very primitive.
Because it inserts a magical component to wealth – it ignores the FACT that wealth is created. By man.
A real-world understanding of wealth understands that it’s a result of human productivity. This means..that man must WORK, generate surplus…not consume it all..and then, INVEST this surplus wealth into infrastructure, ie, small and medium businesses, new technology, innovations…to make more wealth.
Obama, who lives in the virtual not factual world…just as he considers himself a magical force…doesn’t accept the reality of wealth production. How could his handlers let him say this? Are they all such sycophantic idiots? Think: Tax the ‘rich’….and when you run out of their magical money? Then what?
What are you worried about, ETAB? If we need more money, President Obama will order the public mint to print some.
You are right. I’ll be he’ll insist that it have a picture of Him on it.
The S&P have downgraded the US economy – and what is the WH/Obama’s reaction? They rejected it..they said it was made out of ‘partisan politics’. Remember, this accusation that if you criticize Obama’s Will and Policies, then this means that you are biased, that you are partisan, racist, bigoted, ethnically..whatever…that’s a key tactic that Obama uses to deflect criticism. From him..to you.
Oh..and they said that all we have to do is wait, and everything will turn out OK. That’s another part of Obama’s re-election tactic – he tells we peasants that we are too impatient and must wait for Him and His Magic Powers to function…So if things are bad, it’s due to our impatience. Not to Obama and his incompetence and bad policies.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/42645647
Is it just me, or is America now having to deal with its own Mugabe nightmare??
Nazism is but the German version of the Italian Fascism.
What is Nazism? Nazism is short for National Socialism.
Ergo, fascism = socialism = a bunch of power hungry people use the power of the govt to control other people for their own gains
ic,
Thank’s for pointing this fact out. It rattles liberals like nothing else when you point out that the Nazis were a left wing offshoot of Marxism, not a right wing ideology.
We on the right come from free markets and freedom, and unlike our liberal counterparts who are constantly trying to obfuscate the trail of their ideology, we are more than happy to disclose ours.
“….we don’t have to sacrifice the America we believe in.”
The America I believe in is the one set up by 50 or so guys in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 which has been under assault by various “Obamas” since about 1900. Obama doesn’t believe in that America. He doesn’t believe in the liberty it espouses or the free market that is at its heart. He is a Fabian and believes what Clement Atlee believed. Obamacare proves that.
Mr. Kimball is right about the incompetence that has become the signature of Obama and his administration. I suggest that if Obama is Magoo, Biden is, as I have stated before, either Barney Fife or Colonel Klink. Facts and logic don’t matter to this collection of fools. History will well note their confusion and discomfort with reality, and the things they did to further burden the citizenry.
Obama, a little man; master of the inconsequential.
Looks like Americans are waking up.
The people following the Pied Piper were not concerned with his psychological profile. The people following Ø see Ø as ~something~, and only repeated abrupt and painful impacts with the environment have caused these followers to take another look.
Nov. 2008 was my biggest disillusionment with America. That upwards of 40% still are following is alarming. They aren’t looking, just following.
We must all use our judgment and instincts when it comes to politicians who wish to remain a closed book. In the case of Obama, the one thing I think even his supporters would agree on is that what you see is not what you get.
That is a clue as Obama seems even more closed than the usual run of politicians and, like the birth certificate issue, people wonder that if there is nothing to hide then why hide it? Evidently Obama has another agenda, one that the Democratic Party is useful for as far as it goes since it mimics many of Obama’s goals if not shares them for the same reasons.
I think the writer who put the anti-colonialist tag on Obama had it right and I think that what Obama sees as success may not be what we think of as success; it is not concrete and measurable success but a philosophy to disperse like seeding a field.
Obama, in a very real sense, need to do very little to achieve his goal which is one associated very closely with the concept of simply not liking the story of America, not any of it. Immigration is doing Obama’s work for him and he need only shepherd it as you say.
I think Obama is in favor of socialism for the usual reasons, protect the downtrodden, etc. In his case however, this means anyone who isn’t a European and I think that’s where a slight separation from his party occurs though the currents run side by side.
Obama isn’t interested in fiscal responsibility or the American Dream. His version of the American Dream posits that everyone who has it good took it from everyone who has it bad and that is especially so for people of color.
You see a distinct lack of interest from Obama on issues that don’t have a racial dimension and he is usually led rather than a leader at these times.
Obama does want the downfall of America; his ironic reality is that the further he drives the country from what he perceives as its bad past, the further he drives it from what made it successful in the first place, like it or not.
Any one who thinks the exceptionalist America will continue under black Americans and Latinos is entitled to his opinion but there is no evidence that this will occur because there is no paradigm in history and to make them up in your head is faith and not pragmatism. In point of fact there are plenty of examples right in our faces that show otherwise but they have been taken apart by the new American zeitgeist – diced and sliced, and over contextualized and qualified until we have come to think of vagabonds as unlucky or oppresed Einsteins. What was good when I was young is bad now and that is Obama’s raison d’etre and his problem all at once and he is entirely unaware of the latter – it’s called reality.
“this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow”
C’mon, at least give him credit for this:
http://volokh.com/2011/04/17/understanding-the-uns-incentives-in-the-missing-climate-refugees-kerfuffle/
Sadly, he is simply unskilled and completely unaware of it. There have been studies on this phenomena this is a great synopsis here:
http://www.damninteresting.com/unskilled-and-unaware-of-it
Sadly, he is simply unskilled and completely unaware of it. There have been studies on this phenomena; this is a great synopsis here:
http://www.damninteresting.com/unskilled-and-unaware-of-it
Grave incompetence as a temporary custodian of the nation does not preclude supreme competence as a virtuoso hypnotist in chief, at least in his self image. This special combination of rhythm and charm was sufficient to win the election (and receive generous grants of a great many unearned honors before that).
Here we are, like baffled air traffic controllers, trying to rationalize a random trace on our radar screen, unwilling to consider the possibility of the flight cabin having been taken over by a bunch of wild monkeys having a great time pushing buttons and pulling levers.
This candidate should have been vetted, and he was not, so he is having all the fun, and we have to bear the consequences. Can we muster enough skepticism the next time around?
Somehow, “Mr. ObaMagoo” just rolls off the tongue…
The scary thing is that near 40% of the population agree with Barry.
I swear to god I renamed Obama Mr. Magoo last week…and I thought about what a wonderful reaction I would get from my Liberal Democrat friends when I referred to him this way…so, pardon me, but I was the 99th monkey on this one…
The problem with labeling post-modern leftism is that it is “none of the above”, if you attempt to make a formulaic case for this form of “socialism” or that form of “fascism” or the other form of “communism”.
You wind up swallowing a lot of bad red meat for leftists in the process and are quite likely to suffer a case of the Trotsky’s.
Post-modern leftism is interested in tearing down Western capitalism, remaking the system by bullying pop culture through distortion, propagandizing popular thought through a controlled media, redistributing wealth through fraud, hoax, pummeling the “haves” and infanticizing the “have nots”.
They want to install more “czars” than an entire line of Romanov’s….although their anti-Semitic pogroms are just a tad more sub rosa.
They are in a state of permanent revolution. They admire Che, Fidel, Mao…they prefer their mass murderers to have scalability…so while they might appreciate the fine efforts of Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and Richard Speck, their was no great leftist “cause” to rally behind and the numbers of dead innocents simply is not epic enough.
The post-modern leftist is anti-military…if the military is pro-West. Or Israeli. It is quite fine to plot to have a nail bomb explode…maiming and killing young men in uniform and their dates. You will remain free as a bird and hailed as a guru.
The Department of Justice is a vehicle to offer a protection racket for “hate whitey” groups of militants of all stripes.
They would run the only administration of leadership of a country in the entire world where your own flag was considered the wrong type of patriotism.
Post-modern leftism is …in short…an attempt to lead a country that you hate, from an economic system that you loathe, down a path that implodes its Constitutional framework, into an ending that you don’t care about, while blaming your opponents for every disaster and calamity you cause.
It is the consummate, shakedown, takedown, breakdown of a once great land.
Post-modern leftism is at permanent war with America, Israel and the West.
WE are all Mr. Magoo’s…because we keep trying to say that they aren’t.
You are so right about US being Mr. Magoo. Our despicable Prez is using flak to divert our attention, and we are by and large falling for it.
“the fine efforts of Ted Bundy”
I read this too quickly. At first, I thought it read “the fine efforts of Ted Kennedy”.
Then again, there was that night on Chappaquiddick…
Mr. Magoo was oblivious – Barry “The Weasel” Soetoro is not. He believes he is succeeding because when it comes to his economic and social agenda — he is advancing his cause..he’s advancing the economy toward dependence. His domestic agenda is all he seems to be about. Foreign affairs is an afterthought that gets in the way.
The consistent theme is overwhelming society with debt and high prices — that’s how everyone will “pay” (i.e. leveling). HIgh speed rail, green energy — just jobs programs that depend on government.
The Weasel knows damn well what he’s doing — he’s not oblivious– he’s spectacularly disengenuous and self-satisfied that he’s actually pulling it off.
I think that Roger’s idiosyncratic female conservative friend is a lot closer to the truth than most of the raving here. Many of you are deep into the twilight zone of ODS.
So let me get this straight, with FDR, Truman, LBJ, Carter, Clinton, not to mention Nixon with his wage and price controls, Eisenhauer with his loss of China and eastern Europe, and a combination of them with Vietnam, we had Presidents who apparently were much more competent, and/or benign than our current Obamagoo?
Creative writing classes can come up with all sorts of fanciful things. I understand the general assignment” “Get Obama.” But the number of different ways of seeing his malice, incompetence, narcissism, Magooness etc., etc., etc., etc.,… shows a kind of diversity, even when they contradict each other.
Is he clueless…or is he pathologically devious? Doesn’t matter.
We can take it as a given that a smart and skillful politician will defend him/herself with about as many different strategies as his opponents will employ to bring him/her down. I am shocked, shocked I tell you to see such things happening.
I certainly would acknowledge that Obama has completely failed to engender the non-political atmosphere which he promised, but I can’t imagine what he could ever do, short of forming a murder-suicide pact with Biden to mollify folks such as yourselves. The left’s reaction to GWB which hated him for being strong, or hated him for being weak, is instructive here. But they couldn’t help it. Hmmmmm.
Ahh, the Obama-Answer. The problem is not with Obama; it’s with the electorate. So…according to Obama, anyone who criticizes him does so, not based on fact but on their own failings; it is they who are bigoted, racist, partisan, and ignorant. Hasn’t Obama used this explanation of people who criticize him? They are the ones at fault; they fail to see His Majesty.
No, Dwight, your attempt to trivialize and deflect criticism of Obama by, first, suggesting that ALL presidents are subject to criticism, and second, that we-who-criticize are sunk in some partisan neurosis of our own…is invalid.
And no, the problem with Obama is not simply that he hasn’t provided the non-partisan atmosphere; it’s his policies: the stimulus, the health care, the no-budget, the debt and deficit, the foreign affairs, the border, the rejection of Congress, …and the sneers and contempt for others.
I’ll stand by my perception that overall the folks here have ODS, which is as clear from the tone of the remarks, as it is from the content. The concept of the loyal opposition has been jettisoned and we now have a choice of either complete empty suit or…traitor to the Republic. Melodrama everywhere. Just as GWB’s personal style drove lefties crazy, when it should have been only a small piece of the response, Obama’s personal style drives you guys crazy.
The other night, I caught Laura Ingraham blasting him for being at a rally in Chicago, when he was reveling, in the Bulls’ recent success. His references to the emergence of Derrick Rose as a superstar, and Jochim Noah as an important contributor are all perfectly understandable to any NBA fan, but to her it was yet one more sign that Obama is just no good. We, indeed, may be living in parallel universes here.
Mr. Simon, I love your articles and your knowledge. However, I have to respectfully disagree with you on this one. Obama is a busy little bee deliberately dismantling and destroying America. This is not incompetence at work but rather achievement of goals opposite to ours. All one has to do is explore his puppetmaster Soros’s past to know exactly what their goal is. Socialists in the real world are simply armed robbers on a national scale, and in this case, Soros’s ambitions are on an international scale. As we all over-analyze each of OweBama’s frightening decisions, we are failing to see the forest for the trees. The simplest explanation is usually the correct one.
Oops, that should be Mr. Kimball. My own incompetence at work.
It’s really scary to think that the man largely in control of our economy wants to wreck it in order to level the playing field for the rest of the world. He is trying to convince us that the U.S. became a world leader because we are “fortunate,” not because of hard work and rock-hard principles.
A great piece Mr. Kimball, I feel differently on only one point.
Mr. Magoo bounced through his destructive travels ‘unintentionally’, I believe that Mr. Obama’s journey is somewhat different in that The Puppet Prince in the White House wants to bring this country to its knees. He holds the American Middle Class in contempt and probably was groomed to do so since childhood.
I also believe he is still marching to the tune played by those who groomed him.
Barry is condescending, petulant, out-of-touch, narcissistic and holier-than-thou precisely because he was rewarded for his (recognized) incompetence.
“Nothing in the world is more haughty than a man of moderate capacity when once raised to power.” (Baron Wessenburg)
“Pride comes before the fall”!
Actually he’s none of the above. He’s a looter, a thief, and a con man. He just dresses better than most and speaks better English. On the inside he’s no different than the looters who take advantage of any excuse to feed themselves on the property of others based on their entitlement mentality.
But in the end, aren’t most politicians the same?
In reference to your comment about Napoleon and his army chased back to Paris. To the end, Napoleon was so impressed with him self – and he was brilliant at war – that he refused to see the signs of failure. Now how do we reach the similar result of the Russian Army in full scarlet battle dress marching down the streets of Paris to capture the French Emperor and take him to prison?