Prairie-Fire Anger
Why Are People in Revolt?
The approval ratings on nearly every one of the President’s key policy initiatives—cap-and-trade, health care overhaul, government take over of industry and finance, deficit spending, stimulus—are already less than half of polled voters. Obama’s own popularity has fallen dramatically and hovers near fifty percent. A number of well-publicized town meetings have erupted in shouting, as administration and congressional representatives try, often in condescending fashion, to explain the Obama agenda. The Republicans—written off just a few weeks ago as an obsolete party headed for oblivion—are now often polling higher in generic surveys than are Democrats.
Why the sudden uproar?
Bait-and-Switch
There is a growing sense of a “we’ve been had”, bait-and-switch. Millions of moderate Republicans, independents, and conservative Democrats—apparently angry at Bush for Iraq and big deficits, unimpressed by the McCain campaign, intrigued by the revolutionary idea of electing an African-American president—voted for Obama on the assumption that he was sincere about ending red state/blue state animosity. They took him at his word that he was going to end out of control federal spending. They trusted that he had real plans to get us out of the economic doldrums, and that he was not a radical tax-and-spend liberal of the old sort.
Instead, within days Obama set out plans that would triple the annual deficit, and intends to borrow at a record pace that will double the aggregate debt in just eight years.
He not only took over much of the auto- and financial industries, but also did so in a way that privileged unions, politically-correct creditors, and those insider cronies who favor administration initiatives. On matters racial, his administration is shrill and retrograde, not forward-looking. It insists on emphasizing the tired old identify politics that favor a particular sort of racial elite that claims advantage by citing past collective victimization or piggy-backs for advantage on the plight of the minority underclass.
In other words, the Obama swing voter thought he was getting a 21st-century version of pragmatic, triangulating Bill Clinton—and instead got something to the left of 1970s Jimmy Carter.
Those Who Receive and Those Who Dole Out
There is, of course, a growing fear of government—but a new sort of anxiety that transcends the traditional skepticism of statism. Few Americans younger than 60 can recall the magnitude of the current government take-over of the economy that may reach 40-45% of GDP. Evocation of “socialism” is still considered inflammatory by the Left, but it is now simply an empirical term, not a slur, given that America’s tax codes and entitlement spending may look like the social landscape in France or Scandinavia in short order.
Apprehensive voters dread turning their hard-won and paid-for private health care plans into something like the emergency room on Saturday night, where the care reflects the chaos. The new anti-Obamians do not want industry run like the Department of Motor Vehicles, where most time and money are invested mostly in those who do not follow the rules like registering their cars or getting a driver’s license. And it is not just the waste, inefficiency, and lack of accountability inherent in government-run enterprises that bother the growing cadre of angry voters.
There is, again, a mounting anxiety that the current federal expansion is politically-driven in rather radical ways—an effort to create a permanent new constituency of millions who either receive expanded federal largess or are gleefully employed in doling it out. The zealotry of expansive bureaucracy and dependency instills fears, rational or not, of a radicalized huge federal work force, a sort of national version of Acorn to the nth degree that in pack-like fashion is mobilized to target potential naysayers.
Dr. Hanson -
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Your last several posts and articles are insightful and invigorating. Keep up the great work.
Your words and analyses resonate in in the minds of “regular” Americans for a reason; it is the same reason you drive your critics over the edge: truth breaks through the clutter, and nonsense collapses under its weight.
Best regards,
GGA – Dublin, Ohio
Essential vdh
It appears that the cross hairs are now coming into focus and most including vdh are accurately defining and nailing the target.
BHO can be tagged as a communist revolutionary and it is an accurate assessment. He would not agree because he thinks his thoughts are original and not simply indoctrination and ignorance, the result of AA and PC. He is not brilliant just indoctrinated.
The perfumed language of Utopia has always been the cover for communist revolutions and indoctrination– a perfumed scorpion. None of the promises have ever come true—if it was a real state of “grace” for humans and a true resolution for the human “condition” millions would not have to have been killed by Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot or now some of the wannabes like a BHO and the South American piss pots.
The anti American Political machine now operating for BHO is now attacking American citizens who do not agree.
The Utopian language is of course what makes the useful idiots out of the MSM. Words are their reality. Ignorance and stupidity is the mechanism which allows it to occur. They buy into the snake oil of the revolution. Is any one dumber than a Katie Couric? Her idea of the news is like reporting on the Bridesmaid dresses and the facts are treated like dust in the corners.
Politburo, commissars, government run industries, black-market economy, some of us have seen all of that fail before. Now, all of us will be forced to see some of it fail again.
The elevation of the state as the master of the individual is new to America, old everywhere else. Our new form of government reverts to the primitive state of human nature, in which power apportions privilege, tribes retaliate in a show of dominance, intimidation subdues competition, and corruption causes no shame, but is expected.
Political privilege, the power of the state, is without privilege unless it is used to deprecate the standing of others.
Thugs don’t see acting thuggishly as a liability. Their thuggish appearance is a virtue. Intimidation, after all, is the purpose of acting thuggishly and to be acknowledged as a thug, even if intimidation doesn’t work immediately, continues to be a threat for the future.
This is the world of our historic first Islamic apostate president. A vainglorious thug, captivated by the intrigue of imposing the burdens of soviet-style communism on a free society, and impatient to extract retribution from all of us who do not belong to his tribe.
It’s difficult for me to look at or listen to my President. I almost sold my TV rather than possibly hear a leftist accuse me of racism.
I’m tired of people saying I’m a crackpot because I – and I’m guessing everyone on this thread – had never heard of a Certificate Of Live Birth before. For sure everyone on this thread knows what a birth cirtificate looks like. And it ain’t green.
The treasury has become the President’s very own slush fund and he threatens senators who oppose him. He says funds will be withheld if they don’t vote right. Acorn’s flush… waiting in the wings. The Black Panthers are off the hook.
The Metal Of Freedom award was a slap in the face to Jews and soon he may try to dictate what he thinks Israel must do next. He a begger to Iran.
I read somewhere that the mail is 10 or 100 to 1 against the health care bill and our representatives don’t really care. Andrea Mitchell says we don’t know what’s good for us.
The weather is pleasant. We usually complain about the heat this time of year.
My apologies for replicating a comment I made at the Belmont Club, but nevertheless it seems appropriate here as well:
The plain fact is that ideology is usually an illusion. Most people at the top of the political pyramid are there because they crave money, power, or adulation. The ideology they espouse is just the horse they ride to get to the destination. If it dies along the journey it can be replaced, and it frequently is.
For those at the bottom of the pyramid ideology tends to be nothing more than a fashion statement. You adopt the slogans of your peers because thats the “kewl” thing to do. Most people, for example, couldn’t tell you the basic tenets of communism, and a large number of US citizens have no idea as to the identity of the Congressman from “their” district.
For the most part Americans have tended to care little for national politics, mainly because (other than wars) what went on at the national level usually had very little impact on the average person’s life. But now that is changing, and very rapidly. Most people tend to care about their own self-interests. And as a cultural trait, Americans tend to dislike other people who think they have a right to micro-manage their lives.
In the past, the “culture wars” have tended to resemble the “Cold War,” but with recent developments the political class has declared open war on the average American, the people at the bottom of the pyramid.
I think that they shall regret this. As the Japanese Admiral Yamamoto said after the attack on Pearl Harbor, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
Would love to attend one of your talks if you are ever near Chicago. I have had the great pleasure of reading 5 of your books but delay the start of a new one as if it were a tasty dessert.
Listening to President Obama’s diatribe in Indiana today, I was struck by his ridiculously frequent use of the word “America.” Apparently his pollsters have determined that he would be wise to occasionally identify the country he ostensibly represents. Unfortunately, he did not use it as a subject, as an ideal, a model, but merely as a place that embodies his visions and dreams, as in: “We won’t allow that–in America.” “We won’t allow this–in America.”
Far too many Americans continue to see Obama as just another Democrat politician who, when he inevitably drifts too far to the left, will tack back toward the center when adults in the White House become alarmed by falling poll numbers and force him to be expedient. Too many find it hard to believe that our president not only does not think America is anything special, but that America is evil, responsible for much, if not all, of what is wrong in the world. Too many can’t fathom that a POTUS would not only fail to do what is right for America, but would actively and consistently try to harm America. So when Obama acts as what he is, a marxist true believer, people still scratch their heads and say “but I don’t get it; why would he do that? It just doesn’t make sense.” Many even shrink from calling Obama a marxist despite the fact that virtually everything he is doing is taken directly from the marxist handbook, as though it would somehow impolite. Yes, I know there is no such book as “The Marxist Handbook.” I’m using figurative language and a bit of irony.
History has been singularly unkind to socialism and every attempt at utopianism, yet Obama pursues both with singleminded conviction, demonizing any who would oppose him, constructing legions of straw men, telling outright, blatant, glaringly obvious lies, and encouraging citizens to report the word and thoughtcrimes of those who oppose his magnificence. His Chicago thugs even threaten members of his own party–to whatever degree democrats can be considered members of Obama’s party–for insufficient political fervor and loyalty, as does Obama himself. Is this not marxism? Are these not the actions of the despot?
Obama self identifies most clearly perhaps in demonizing those who actually make a profit. The profit margins of the insurance companies are low by the standards of many industries, yet Obama and his minions and the drool bucket brigades of the press scream that the insurers are making obscene profits never before seen. Capitalism is not a zero sum game. When I make a dollar, that does not mean that no one else can make a dollar. It is good that anyone, through hard work and skill can make a fortune, for if they can, so can I. But to attack the very nature of capitalism, of democracy, goes beyond mere political pandering and enters squarely into marxist orthodoxy. Obama isn’t saying and doing these things because he thinks they will achieve pedestrian political goals. He’s doing them because he believes them, because they express his deepest convictions, consequences be damned.
I believe it was Admiral Yamamoto who, told of the great Japanese victory at Pearl Harbor said that he feared that all the Japanese accomplished was to awake a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve. We can only hope that Obama and his brutish Chicago thugs are in the process of doing just that.
Dito,Dito,Dito.
Thank you for this. I have been warning people around me about this very thing before he was even elected.
I just hope it sinks in this time and we all wake up.
We need to go to term limits on all Government offices, and more serious restrictions on just what thoughs office holders can do and not do.
The absolute disrespect of our Constitution rips at my heart and is discusting in more ways then one.
I did not fight for the freedom of the president to destroy this country, my country, our country.
The most important thing for any one to remember and teach their children is this phase, ” For the people, by the people”. As far as I can see, Bam-Bam thinks it’s ” for me on the peoples backs”.
Semper Fi.
VDH:
Great post. I think you are in touch with the anger, confusion and distrust many Americans now feel toward their government, perhaps for the first time in their lives. Most of my adult life I have viewed our government as operating along a spectrum from marginally competent to mostly inept (with the historical trajectory the last two decades from former to latter). Distrust of our government as a whole, however, is a new concept for me. But, for the reasons you outline here, how can one not distrust the current Administration and Congress? Clearly, they are working for what is in their best interest, and pretend to tell us what is in ours.
I would add one more reason to your list: You cannot trust government without a vigorous press holding elected your officials accountable. Lacking that, as we surely do, the distrust and anger will only grow.
For the record:
I strongly disagree with the current healthcare reform legislation pending before Congress. This legislation carries all the hallmarks of previous bait and switch “reforms” passed by Congress this session (c.f. VDH above). As a physician I find their version of healthcare reform reprehensible for reasons too numerous to count.
For wandering trolls who find this email “fishy”:
Don’t bother forwarding this to . I have already reported myself and plan to do so every day until the government takes down that ridiculous un-American site. You would do better to inform your masters that Americans are angry regarding this legislation because they no longer trust their government.
“In Obama world, the fact that you will pay 40% federal tax, a health care surcharge, higher state taxes, and FICA on most of your income, is proof that you should have paid those tax rates all along, and will pay even more in the future.”
… and …
“I assumed his prepped oratory, youth and ‘cool’, transracial profile, media sycophants, and ‘Bush did it’ excuses would ensure that his ratings stayed well above 60% at least through the midterm elections.”
Agreed, Dr VDH, agreed!!!
The noose is tightening around The Dear Leader’s neck. I predict he’ll act irrationally as (1) he can’t possible believe people are against Him–how dare they!!– and (2) he is so utterly thin-skinned.
Will he learn to triangulate as Clinton did post-’94? I just don’t think He can.
Andy in SJ
I think he has run through his political capital so fast because all the “compassion” pleading and calls for selflessness are revealing the essential anger below the surface. His “cool” is shallow and is increasingly transparent to the public. They are beginning to understand that it conceals the trenchant rage and anomie that is the hallmark of the progressive. This is how I described it in a recent post…
http://breathofthebeast.blogspot.com/2009/08/blame-virtue-and-evil.html
“…If you want to be counted as a good person, or a moral nation, everything you do has to fit the template of Compassion, Selflessness and “the good of mankind”. But the aggression and anger does not go away it just sublimates and gets expressed in other ways. As I pointed out in my post A Most Savage Compassion, “Virtue is more than a sham- it is the prim, ruthless face of coercion. It is aimed outward, at others, as a self-justification; an accusation and, above all, a yearning for Utopia.” Small wonder that progressives exhibit such self destructive, and cultural deconstructive rage against their own culture and people- they can’t express rage outward so it turns inward.
“Virtue” acts as an autoimmune disorder in which the body politick’s defenses are destroyed by progressivism which eats away the natural defenses from the inside while it encourages the external enemies to feast on the outside…”
I do have one corrective to what VDH wrote. I seriously doubt that the Obama administration will ever go after actual accumulated wealth. There are too many powerful Democrats (Rockefeller, the Kennedys, Kerry, Gore et al) who have large accumulated fortunes of their own. Instead, the aim is instead at those who are currently accumulating wealth, instead of those who already did, or who inherited their wealth from ancestors. Those who inherited a large fortune have this strange disdain for anyone trying to earn large amounts of money, because it’s so money-grubbing and common, I guess.
Here in Canada we have a socialist political party called the “New Democratic Party” (NDP). They have lusted after forming a national government but don’t have a chance of doing that in Canada. How ironic that the NDP has, at last, formed a national government but it happened in the US.
But, the NDP in Canada has sometimes been elected to form a Provincial (State) government. In every case they have wrecked the joint and it takes 8-10 years for a Province to recover.
The one thing the NDP can’t handle is ridicule and general amusement at their moonbat policies and actions. Once regular folks start to openly laugh at them (even if it’s bitter laughter), they are done like dinner.
So the indignation is good, but if these townhall meetings included frequent audience laughter that would be better. For example, people whose ONLY job is to read legislation, but who (you understand) just don’t have the time to do it, are objects of ridicule as much as they are objects of anger.
Go laugh at them.
Mr. Hanson, reading this article still makes me shake my head about you, as well educated in history thus knowing (or one would think you did) that man (all men and women) are self centered horrific act capable animals weather we are in caveman society or 21st, that the expressions and delusions of so many like yourself (Educated) through history have lead to the most monstrous leaders and most deprived acts to humans! get real Mr. Hanson, stop the wishful think and start being a mature adult! Quit wishing for a utopian future in people who achieve stature without dirtying their hands. Some of the wisest phases ever learned always lead to the truth. A persons actions speak volumes more than a person’s words! (note not one action but the life time), Birds of a feather do flock together, Tigers don’t change their stripes. Only time a tiger changes its stripes is after that person has gone thru a rebirth. There is absolute truth! Justice does come to all, love will save you from the fate of every man. DNA proves God created it all.
#7 Torqued Marine:
Thank you for your service and dedication to this country that is spelled AMERICA, not like the the mullah obamaham spells it: AmeriKa.My grandfather and several uncles would be up in arms over what has been happening to this country since 1/20/09.
I have too many relatives who spilled their blood and gave the ultimate sacrifice for this country that they loved and were willing to die for.
VDH: excellent article and you have your hand on the pulse of the of this country that some of us have been mad and spreading the word about this evil empire, what it’s true intentions are. I knew long before the election and haveing done my homework on Obama, I tried to get people to listen, do your homework before you vote. Now the truth is out and many are sorry the voted for this islamosympathizing loser that call himself
president of the United States. He is not president and never will be.
No guns! No pens! What’s fishy is your grin!
LOL! At least he can now claim he “inherited” Bush’s poll numbers too.
“Let me be clear, my collapsing support is not due to my socialist policies, its because Americans are stupid and Bush is evil.” ROTFLMAO!
Prof. Hanson,
With every post you drill deeper into the heart of what is going on. I rate this as your best ever on the Obama lead, liberal utopia drive. I would make one addition:
“I underestimated the righteous anger of those who are daily deprecated by the Utopian class”
Perhaps I am projecting my personal feelings on to a larger mass of folks, but I feel that deep seated fear is present in at least equal measure with anger.
The insane policies that make up this utopian wave threaten to destroy the very fabric of the American dream that has been the basis of our dynamic culture. The fact that, should the utopians be succesful, my children will have little hope of doing better than their father truly frightens me. The thought of America converting itself to the same weak nanny state that I have lived first hand in Europe is to me reprehensible. The crony capitalism model that is rapidly becoming the norm is something I have lived first hand in various “developing countries” & is to me, a cancer at the heart of our vibrant society. The converting of a serious fiscal situation into an insoluble mess that will relegate the USA to banana republic status is as incomprehensible to me as it is terrifying.
I view this as a fight for our way of life that, if not won, will have at a minimum very long lasting and hugely negative repercussions.
Phooey. Pure projection on your part. The Tea Party / Town Hall crowd people have always been with us — a minority we see now only because the internet lets people organize.
Meanwhile in Washington, where what happens matters, the news informs us careerist Republican senators are getting ready to do what they always do — work with the Democrats in a bipartisan way “to get [socialist] things done.”
Election to gerrymandered campaign-finance-protected national office in America is effectively elevation to life tenure in the aristocracy. The game is rigged. Government works for those who govern. Nothing you or I or the Tea Party special interest people do is going to change that.
Dr. Hanson:
Excellent piece, sir. I wish I had the sophistication or mettle to comment somewhat intelligently about it. The current White House and Congress are making enemies of the people and it shows. Dr. Hanson continues to do well at lighting brush fires in the minds of men.
Keep it up sir.
An incisive analysis as always, Doctor Hanson.
The Prez appears to believe he can say anything, do anything, and we will all meekly accept his blatant hypocrisy. We are the “Sheeple,” who will tolerate any lie, any outrage.
I do believe he is about to be educated to the contrary.
What makes it nearly impossible to support this guy is he seems to have a zero-sum solution to everything. He is so focused on redistribution that he is not doing enough related to growth, innovation, prosperity, and expanding the possibilities for all. He is talking nonsense about bending cost curves down and other than Axelrod, Emmanuel, and Obama, NO ONE BELIEVES THIS CRAP. The One who is supposed to be so intelligent is insulting the intelligence of the people he works for on a daily basis.
Obama thinks if he describes the awful health care reform in better poll-tested language the sheeple will eventually see it his way. And when we “act up” at events expressing disagreement, we the people are being manipulated by the GOP. Say what? No, we’re just not willing to be bamboozled and okie-doked into supporting ideas that are lousy and we came to that all by our little selves, without any prompting by any political party.
Uh-oh, I guess I’m expressing a little anger, mine is the flyover country variety, the midwestern, close to the rust belt, you know, the place where “the jobs aren’t coming back” because our President DOES NOT HAVE A CLUE ABOUT ECONOMICS and even worse, he does not care. Oh, I better get to work now so I can earn some money so it can be taken and given to others. I hear Michelle needs a new pair of tennis shoes.
Have you seen any agreement on anything lately?
Everything is 50/50.
Elections, polls, divorce rates, you name it.
What’s new, José?
Your comments on the decline of President Barack Obama’s popularity are dead on but I was wondering why you Dr. Hanson have not seen fit to
comment on the increasing concentration of America’s wealth and
capital in the hands of fewer and fewer corporations and
individuals and how this narrative was instrumental in bringing Mr. Obama and his Left wing cronies into power? I suggest that the reason that the wealthiest ten
percent of the
American population pay around 80% of the taxes there is because
they control practically that much of the nation’s wealth. And the concentration of
that wealth in their hands is growing every passing day.
Thus the vast majority of Americans now have real reason to believe that they have to struggle among themselves in order to obtain even a fraction of the little wealth
which has not yet been acquired by the super wealthy.
I am no fan of Barack Obama and his juvenile Socialism with it’s barely disguised agenda of redistributing America’s wealth more fairly because all he is doing is putting that wealth in the hands
of the government while at the same time imposing government control over what remains of the free market economy which has brought so much prosperity to so many Americans.
That said, I can understand the reasons behind Barack Obama’s popular plans to heavily tax the wealthiest Americans to try to redistribute some of their wealth while I dispute and strongly disagree with his
methods. The government does have the moral responsibility to restrict just how much of the nation’s wealth and capital should be
concentrated in the hands of the uber wealthy few. This is
especially true when that concentration of wealth comes at the
detriment of the increasingly impoverished many, but absolutely true
when that concentration of wealth was achieved by using the power of
that wealth to improperly and unethically influence Congressional
and Senate lawmakers. As a historian Dr. Hanson you must be aware of the Robber Barons like the Fisk’s and the Rockefellers of the past. Just as in the 19th century the United States government used it’s immense power to bring the Robber Barons of that century to heel and break their stranglehold over America’s free market, it may just take government intervention now to break the power of the modern day Robber Barons whose greed, lack of ethics, and even outright criminal behavior brought about the recent economic meltdown.
With all the disagreement with this administration’s policies and the recent vocal outrage at town hall meetings as well as the “Tea Parties” that are taking place is nice to see that real people are not happy with this new administration.
I just got my voter registration and plan to vote out those democrats that I can and hope that many more will do the same in the 2010 election. I would like for the Republicans to return to solid conservative principles and voice not only opposition but alternatives to policies up before the Congress.
“I underestimated the righteous anger of those who are daily deprecated by a utopian class – one that has neither the ability nor the fortitude to achieve what it now wishes to undo in others.” Perfect!
However, sad to say, this utopian class still has at this point in time the political ability and fortitude to undo in others what it damn well pleases, and to run circles around all of their righteous anger.
Blue dogs, for one, under utopian pressure, turn yellow.
Bingo! Spot on accurate regarding the population’s views of the president and his philosophy. Sadly, some are saying this is racism, when it is patriotism.
“There is a cascading anger at a new sort of left-wing elitism and hypocrisy”
Dr. Hanson:
In your above quote you rightly cite the anger, but as of late I have come to sense that it is not only directed at the left but at all those that sit in the halls of power no matter which side of the polictical aisle they sit upon.
The fact is, good doctor, that the average American Joe is just plain tired of the elites period. There are of course more on the left but recently we, yourself included I am sure, have seen conservatives preaching this go along to get along idea. Columnists such as Peggy Noonan, Parker and others are now just the other side of an elitist coin.
However there is good news, not a lot, but some, and that is that many of those that voted these elites in are coming to their senses and now suffer from buyer’s remorse.
To borrow President Obama’s catchphrase, Hope and Change, is one the way.
Are you still proud that you voted for Obama …. really?
Sir–Two thoughts–
You are rapidly becoming the latter day Tom Paine!
Your pen to God’s eyes!
Our leftwing radical president and the power-crazed Democrats are doing their best to subvert American freedoms too many of us still take for granted. They are not granted. We must fight daily battles lest we lose too much ground to the subversive forces of the fanatic Left. The Progressive plan is simple: To subvert the government and society, they must first control them.
They are at the controls now and it’s up to us to unplug the overheated, sputtering engine of State from its power source: American citizens. If we fail, the whole thing crashes and burns.
Vintage VDH, at his very best~!
Doctor, it seems you have the ability to take the very thoughts from our heads and express them with such crystal clarity. Thank you.
Now,,, if only we could somehow convince similar men of such clear vision to seek public office,[sigh]… Until we can get men like VDH involved in Washington, we will be left only with the corrupt political hacks.
Professor, you may recall, I asked you years ago to consider a run at public life, you said “no”, I asked “why”, the answer was that you were happy where you are. Are you still all that happy?
And the Republicans are any better?
You should know Mr. Hanson that “Culture defines Politics”. When our media is cultural marxism, when our academia are cultural marxists, what do you expect? Ann Dunham was a communist and it was her father that got Marshall Davies, a black communist, to mentor his grandchild. You have Bill Ayers, a domectic communist terrorist that got Obama into politics and Saul Alinsky, a Jewish communist, was a coworker with Obama—what do you expect? Political Correctness, which is Marxist ideology, the ruling morality and ethics–and Hussein Obama is the incarnation of political correctness—what do you expect?
America is a Marxist nation. Has been for 100 years. Obama is just the fruition of the Marxist culture we live in. We don’t live in a John Wayne Culture anymore.
And the Republicans any better? Hell no. They are just as clueless as anybody else. America is Novus Ordo and hence revolutionary at its core anyway. We’re screwed.
It is difficult for me to understand anybody who expresses surprise or puzzlement of this president’s policies. Either they wore a bucket on their head throughout the entire presidential campaign (and Obama’s stretched back two years) or they they were enthralled by the novelty of the choice. Or, they are congenital imbeciles.
great piece Mr. Hanson
thank you
Why the sudden uproar? Because people are believing the lies YOU people are telling them, about how Obama is gonna put a pillow over Granny’s face while she sleeps and about the evils of “government medicine,” because they don’t understand Medicare and Medicaid ARE “socialized medicine.” You are the tool of the insurance industry and the stink of your shame pervades the internet.
TCobb:
I read your comment at Wretchard’s and find it excellent the second time through.
Tcobb and MikeMcDaniel:
LOL! Great minds, and all that. The “sleeping giant” metaphor is surely appropriate.
My sense of what’s gathering is that our country has had a low-grade infection for many years, and now the body politic is marshalling the antibodies to throw it off. It’s hard to know, but I believe many people now feel as I do: Whatever it takes. If necessary, to the knife.
“But I erred in one key regard: I assumed his prepped oratory, youth and “cool”, transracial profile, media sycophants, and “Bush did it” excuses would ensure that his ratings stayed well above 60% at least through the midterm elections.
In other words, I underestimated the righteous anger of those who are daily deprecated by a utopian class—one that has neither the ability nor the fortitude to achieve what it now wishes to undo in others.”
Amen. And the palpable righteous anger that seems to be growing daily as The One’s team seems to be growing desperate gives me hope.
Victor, I lived many years in both Scandinavia and France whom you think we may rival for socialist stupidities.
The U.S. has long exceeded them, while they themselves pulled back some in the last 15 years.
What no one ever counts when they compare the U.S. with smaller, more homogenic states: the layeredness of American government, including the non-government government (think TelCo and utilities taxes). We pay more in taxes and receive less. Our representation dilutes with our mass. America now consists of a nation of useful idiots, indoctrinated in Cold War disinformation about collectivism.
After 50 years of media and academia pushing false precepts, you haven’t a chance of stopping the train. Three hundred million Americans CAN be, and ARE, wrong.
We are now in 1933. The thugs in the White House have their Brownshirts marching while they giggle their way from one power-grabbing conspiracy to another, staying miles ahead of any opposition.
It does not encourage me to see scales falling from the eyes of the few. They are the same bunch that laughed at the Ayn Rand Objectivists and the Birchers in the 60s and 70s, and now laugh at the Libertarians. Welcome to your personally authorized Holocaust, guys.
VDH, a month or so ago I was beginning to think you had lost faith. Your trip to the Greek Isles has been your ‘coming out of the wilderness’! Thanks for putting our feelings into words, we will not let them take our FREEDOM!
A good post to illustrate the ignorance of the teabaggers.
Out and out lies, obfuscations, and some fear mongering thrown in. And I can’t believe you left out the part where Obama wants to kill Grandma. Though I did notice a birther post I am surprised that no one has mentioned Obama is a secret Muslim.
Thank God only 20% of American’s are dim witted enough to buy into your utter nonsense.
Dear Dr. Hansen:
Thank you for your great essay. We are small business people, our business has survived 88 years. We fear for the future. Four generations of our family have worked hard and saved, and now we are not rich, but the wolf is not at the door. We are in a service business, but we do not employ illegals. If Obama and the Dems force card check, we just might give up, rather than knuckle under to a union.
I also feel that the very weathy and government elites have joined forces with the underclass to savage the middle class. My husband and are old, our children are well educated, so they do need our business to survive. We employ students and low skilled people, not great jobs, but jobs all the same. If the government places more expensive mandates on us, we will consider selling, and there will be a few less jobs, as the new owners would not operate in the same manner. If the Obama people want jobs, perhaps they should be a little kinder to small business.
11. Yaacov Ben Moshe:
http://breathofthebeast.blogspot.com/2009/08/blame-virtue-and-evil.html
I went to your blog …excellent piece.
thank you for posting
This administration seems to operate on the following premises:
1. Winning is getting slightly more than 50% of the popular vote, grants carte blanche to said winners and constitutes a mandate to institute and “change” government according to pre-set ideology;
2. In instituting components of pre-set ideology, facts, statistics, financial realities (e.g. CBO report) & history do not matter;
3. Opposition to said agenda must be marginalized, squelched, even, shockingly enough, demonized, demonstrated amply by David Axelrod’s attempt to demonize tea parties in April and more recent (and astonishing) efforts by sundry democrats & White House spokespersons, see especially Robert Gibbs;
4. You can rest assured that conversations in the Oval Office revolve around tactics to ram through a “healthcare” bill by the end of September & do not in any way focus on mundane matters like cost & value of their proposal. (to cover those matters, platitudes and generalizations are tossed out at the public) The voting device of “reconciliation” is on their minds, passing the bill in the Senate by a simple majority instead of the 2/3 vote required in the Constitution.
Just this past week, both Dick Durbin and this President have assured us that a “healthcare” bill will happen by the end of September, opposition be damned.
Based on the flurry of remarks demonizing frustrated individuals speaking out in Townhalls, this government considers me a fringy, demonizable naysayer.
I am beyond appalled, near speechless at their ignorance and their arrogance.
TLM: wonderful Idea! I have followed your example and posted the suggestion on my blog-
Hey, Tovarish! Turn Yourself In for Re-education Now! http://breathofthebeast.blogspot.com/2009/08/hey-tovarish-turn-yourself-in-for-re.html
The Democratic party has indeed arrived at their “Waterloo” moment in history. Not only are they forcing through unread legislation, they are spending money at a rate that makes Bush’s spending look like a lemonade stand and they are now in the beginning stages of discounting the outrage of half (and growing) of the US population.
How dare the Democratic leaders discount CITIZENS speaking out at their townhall meetings. The arrogance of Obama has apparently infiltrated the entire DNC. They are now disregarding a growing movement of ORDINARY CITIZENS speaking out as an “organized” effort. Unwittingly they have now fanned a flame that will (and is) growing out of their control.
God Bless America. The citizens WILL BE HEARD.
Great article on how we arrived at this point in time.
Now the issue is will Congress roll over to Obama? Washington is all about payoffs (outright bribes, those via gov program payments, power distributions). There will be a bill in the House and one in the Senate. I don’t think there’s enough in Congress to really care much about the 2010 elections, provided they get theirs. Pandora box has been destroyed and we’re all about to reap the results.
Obama’s election just shows that most still live in some fantasy and are really, really shallow until their little world hits the brick wall of socialism.
Underlying all of this is the corruption of the media and how they’ve manipulated the masses into believing things that simply aren’t true.
We keep hearing the phrase “health-care crisis” and I have yet to meet anyone who knows where this crisis is happening. Same for global warming/climate change – or whatever they are calling it this week. A decade of cooling and the emergence of more qualified scientist saying the whole issue is nonsense are pushed aside because it doesn’t fit the narrative.
And now leading democrats claim people are just looking to hurt the President by opposing his initiatives. Odd, for eight years they slandered, maligned and ridiculed George Bush and I don’t recall the democrats fretting about it. If this were a Republican administration the howls from the media and democrats would be deafening. I guess corruption and elitist snobbery are fine so long as it’s your team in charge.
The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise.
You write:
“One senses that a number of the successful are already detaching themselves psychologically from the American scene—and figuring out how to reduce, shield, and avoid income.”
Right you are. Many folks whose wealth is in one or more small businesses, rather than large corporations, will shift to a barter system. They will trade a sofa for a refrigerator and keep the transaction off the books. And why shouldn’t they? Love for the way that Obama squanders our taxes is very weak motivation indeed. The president who made these points most often was Ronald Reagan.
“Millions of moderate Republicans, independents, and conservative Democrats—apparently angry at Bush for Iraq and big deficits, unimpressed by the McCain campaign, intrigued by the revolutionary idea of electing an African-American president—voted for Obama on the assumption that he was sincere about ending red state/blue state animosity.”
As an Obama supporter, I was never under any illusion that he could possibly end the red state/blue state animosity. It takes two to tangle, and when the GOP has created an entire electoral strategy around baiting disaffected whites into hating immigrants, Yankees, intellectuals and minorities, one begins to see what an utterly sisyphean labor it becomes for a president, especially a Democratic one, to try to calm down the embers of animosity continually stoked by right-wing leaders for political gain, and by media personalities for financial gain.
In other words, you want peace in the valley? Don’t look to the president – look to the right-wing hatemongers on talk radio and FOX News who get paid generously for channeling vitriol and division.
Yes, you people are revolting. And as andy of san jose so eloquently states, “The noose is tightening around The Dear Leader’s NecK.” But you should note that troubling juxtaposition of righteous indignation and the language of lynching. That is why these protests are successfully being characterized as mobs. And coming on the heels of the birther movement makes it that much easier to show the two as one. You just can’t help yourselves.
And soon some idiot birther will threaten a politician or pull out a gun or attack a staffer and that will be that. Of course the conservatives will claim, with zero proof, that the guilty nutcase was a plant. But that won’t matter because America will have dismissed the “angry white voter” as nothing more than the media-generated outrage that it is. And when that happens you will actually have gained ground rather than continuing to lose it.
The calls for compassion and selflessness smack of the typical liberal stance wherein the proper emotion, the proper feeling, is more important then the actual outcome of an action. If you have the proper feeling you are good. If you don’t, you are evil and bad.
The Obama voters cannot be excused. The information on this Marxist was out during his run for nomination. Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Saul Alinsky, Acorn, it was all there. When one does not take the time to learn about a candidate, one should not vote. The rest of us, who are responsible voters, must take the consequences of the actions of the lazy. Those who claim little interest in what they call “politics”, and vote, directly affect my life. Those who voted for Obama will be guilty of and for every denial of care, wait time and all of the other results if this bill passes.
There are no excuses.
Awww… y’all really think there are a lot of you, don’t you? That’s kind of sweet in a way.
I am encouraged to see grassroots (not astroturfing, Mr. Axelrod — that’s your domain) activism in response to what seems like an administration and Congress completely disconnected from those who elected them. Now our “betters” tell us that in spite of polls showing most people are against Obama’s health “care” plan, they’re going to push it through anyway — just like the bailouts, just like the so-called stimulus.
As a conservative who has been represented by Democrats for far too long, I am used to having my views ignored, but when even life-long Democrats in my district are saying STOP! NO! DO NOT DO THIS! and they just go ahead with it anyway — that’s when I start to get alarmed.
I don’t particularly trust Republicans either, but some of them seem to have woken up at last. Nevertheless, I think it’s high time we had term limits for Congress, and I intend to encourage everyone I know to keep voting out incumbents until all the filth in DC is washed away. ‘
Nice try, folks, but the memo from FreedomWorks leaked out which outlines the tactics being used to disrupt town meetings. It’s provided a bonanza for Jon Stewart and a lesson for the rest of us who remember the Republican “rent-a-riot” which stopped the 2000 recount. Low-road tactics may have worked 9 years ago (and we’re still paying for them), but they ain’t gonna work now.
Isn’t the liberal response to ANYONE speaking out against Obama interesting? Why, now our Dear Leader Obama is asking his kook-aid army to “report” those who voice dissenting opinions. Very American wouldn’t you agree?
We’re only taking a page out of Obama’s playbook. Remember the call to his followers to
“Get in their faces!”? We heard and now obey. Unfortunately not quite the outcome Obama had hoped for though.
Nice to finally see the GOP version of HopeNChange.
President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, et al, do not possess enough power to persuade or intimidate enough of Congress to muscle through this unhealthy healthcare legislation. The Obama Administration is now attempting to bully and demonize the very citizens whose power is loaned to it in order to govern. There are too many of us for them to win this battle. There loan is about to be called.
Remember this: Anything Obama & Co. does; can and will be undone. Midterm elections are next year. This attempt to steal Americans’ freedom will fail. Radical leftists don’t have the strength to defeat us, their strength belongs to us. We’re going to repossess it.
#10:
“For wandering trolls who find this email “fishy”:
Don’t bother forwarding this to . I have already reported myself and plan to do so every day until the government takes down that ridiculous un-American site. You would do better to inform your masters that Americans are angry regarding this legislation because they no longer trust their government.”
TLM, I won’t report your comment as being fishy. It just makes sense. I am, however, reporting many fishy comments to be found on the nutroots sites and recommend others do their patriotic duty as well. If you want fishy, try Huffpost, Kos, Zandar, etc., etc. How do you like that, Harpo?
This is all very interesting, but the right question is still not being asked. The question is not what Obama believes. It doesn’t matter. Obama is an actor; a teleprompter-reading ventriloquist dummy. The question that should be asked is: who is writing the script? Who is that “man behind the curtain”? Who is standing in for Edgar Bergen? And who or what controls the media? Take your eyes off Obama and start looking for the people who put him there.
And forget the Republicans. When they repudiated their “Contract With America” they lost all claim to our respect. They have no program and no ideas. We have to find candidates for office who support the Constitution and love this country; whatever party they run in.
For 7 decades I have watched presidents come and go, but with Barak Obama while a smart and clever man, he has to be the dumbest man in my lifetime to occupy that office. Even Carter had some technical and scientific education with no help from any affirmative action program to become an officer on a nuclear submarine.
I take this position from the notion of Ann Coulter’s as expressed in the title of her book, “If Democrats Had Any Brains, they’d be Republicans.” She exhibited a hint of perspicacious genius when she came up with that title as opposed to “mental disorder” as a cause for liberalism.
It’s fine to question authority and government, but the way that people have behaved in these town halls is nothing short of disgusting and grown people should know how to behave better.
I don’t know if it’s because these people are sheepies to special interest, political, or lobbying groups, or if their actions are just a waste-product of living in the Paris Hilton-era where making a jacka*s of yourself gets you somewhere, but I don’t think it is going help Republicans in the long run where they’ll be written off more and more as raving extremists.
Drew, #58: As a conservative who has been represented by Democrats for far too long, I am used to having my views ignored, but when even life-long Democrats in my district are saying STOP! NO! DO NOT DO THIS! and they just go ahead with it anyway — that’s when I start to get alarmed.
This is where I suspect the revolt will eventually begin in earnest – within Obama’s own party. And I’m not just talking about the “Blue Dogs” who are the ones most at risk in 2010, but other Democrats who don’t want to go down with the Obamatanic.
If the Dems suffer big losses in Congress next November, don’t be surprised to start hearing calls from Obama’s fellow Dems not to even run for a second term, a la LBJ in 1968. If that happens, Obama will be forced to turn his machine against his fellow Dems, and we will find out just how enthralled his party still is with him. At the very least it should be a fascinating spectacle, in a train-wreck sort of way.
59. biblio44 wrote:
Nice try, folks, but the memo from FreedomWorks…
Peter asks: And just what is FreedomWorks? Some kind of job placement aganecy? Never heard of it.
61. FairWitness: “Radical leftists don’t have the strength to defeat us, their strength belongs to us.”
Lucky for us, we don’t need strength, we just need votes. And boy do we got ‘em.
Maybe it would help the Whitehouse to think of the folks at the town hall meetings as COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS!
Does that sound less fishy, Mr. Obama?
43. jharp and 38. Deep Brain Diarist got their marching orders late today I see. They give me a chuckle however they are becoming shriller as the days go by. They must see the light at the end of the tunnel and now they are hearing the train coming.
That train is Americans who believe that the individual is more important than the government. That the money we work for is ours and not something the government allows us to have. That those hypocrites in government who do one thing and say another are NOT worthy of respect but only derision. That they have no loyalty to their own convictions. (When have you seen the President’s kids go to public school in DC or even a congressman’s while they fight vouchers for the masses) That speaking out against government when they do it is patriotic but when someone speaks out against their policies that is treason. (Making an enemies list) That those who have opinions opposed to the government must be personally attacked because the proposed policies are so weak.
To paraphrase Wayne’s World, THEY ARE NOT WORTHY! THEY ARE NOT WORTHY!
Well, I just turned myself in to Big Bro at flag@whitehouse.gov. I suppose I better check that my tax files are in order – as the annual IRS audit is probably a done deal. I am going to leave the office early today and spend one final night with my family, before the Black Bags come…..
38. deep brain diarist:
You are correct. Obama only throws HIS grandma under the bus; he doesn’t have time to smother mine. But, he does have time to:
Offend the QofE; Bow to the Saudi king; praise Socialist Evo Morales of Bolivia; expand the Bush kleptocracy; insult Special Olympians; Insult police officers; triple our national debt; appoint tax cheats; buzz NYC in AF1; nationalize the auto industry; politicize the census by bringing it in-house; weaken our missile defense the day AFTER lil’ Elvis launches missiles over JApan; increase our military presence in the ME…..
for your own good, please put the kool-aid down. you absolutely reek of propaganda.
Graham,
news for ya bub, I know you won’t get this but as an act of compassion I am trying to educate you in the hopes you stop embarrassing yourself with your childish projections (I mean seriously, a Dem accusing the GOP of devisiveness a mere 6 months after swing GOP’ers voted the first black president into office? You really want to stick to that line of reasoning? Really? There you go ignoring the empiric again)) and by the way paid “media personalities” enjoy their success because they reflect conservative thought, a philosophy largely untapped by the other 95% of the media. Unlike liberals conservatives don’t rely on our leaders to know what to think and unlike the evershifting poll-dependent tenents of liberalism, conservative principles stand on their own, regardless it’s transitory leadership, not because of it.
The icon dependency of the left helps explain the knee jerk lashing out at dissent. If the main pole falls, the whole tent will come with it.
Perhaps your best essay, Dr. Hanson. Every American should read this…and then weep over what 53% have done to our nation.
I know I shouldn’t encourage a troll, but . . .
Biblio44 at #59 implies that there’s a vast right wing conspiracy to disrupt town hall meetings. Oh sure: http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/20/9/08/think_progress_msnbc_manufactu.asp
On another note, regular readers have noticed the increased presence of liberal commenters here in recent weeks. You’ve been “discovered,” Hanson! Well, that’s a sort of backhand compliment, because vandals always prefer to deface the best art. Although it’s annoying to see their graffiti on this web site, it’s also kind of interesting to see what passes for logic and argument in their twisted little minds. I don’t think we’re going to defeat them with reasoning.
A lot of 0bamas most stench defenders are scurrying for cover: they cannot stand the cold light of day, and with their cess pool quickly drying up, their status has been moved up to b-list victims group, and put them at a higher rate of benefits level, not to mention the extended unemployment benefits. Hey, if you fail, you get a promotion: its the new way.
43. jharp
What else do you have for us today troll? I think you need to go pickup your welfare check.
57. Blarty Blarckleblart
You have to be the most ignorant person.
For you both:
Face it. Obama jumped the shark. People that actually work for their money have seen his real agenda. I’m wondering if either of you dopes have jobs.
65. Middleman
Ok. So voter fraud (Acorn) is an acceptable way to behave. Voter intimidation (Black Panthers) is an acceptable way to behave? Chicago thug politics are the way we do business in this country? How many more line items do you want me to put down? Spare us your BS. Obama is hellbent on destroying the middle class and everything we worked for.
Breath of the Beast,
…the “new” “progressive” values of Compassion, Selflessness and “the Good of Mankind” and a systematic effort ot increase the size and power of government have been advanced by The Progressive movement to undermine and replace the founding American value of each person taking personal responsibility for the individual pursuit happiness within a system that set out to guarantee only life and liberty. Progressives advocate incrementally replacing the responsibility and discretion of individuals with a manipulative, centralized authority of “experts” and “agencies” to manipulate and coerce individual behavior.
Of course, compassion etc. aren’t genuine “progressive” values but simply devices for sucking the naive into the real goal, control, “…replacing the responsibility and discretion of individuals with a manipulative, centralized authority of “experts” and “agencies” to manipulate and coerce individual behavior.”
You couldn’t imagine a less selfless crowd than that bunch of self-serving interlopers currently calling the shots in Washington DC.
The “good of mankind” will be served when they’re eventually tossed out of there.
[In the end more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free. -- Edward Gibbon ]
Quote of the day:
“Community organizers can’t bitch when communities organize.”
R. Limbaugh
Biblio44 you dupe, that memo hyped and fraudulently misrepresented by ThinkProgress was sent by an obscure libertarian with NO connection to the RNC or any lobbying group to ten people- some ‘smoking gun’.
The Left has been astroturfing for so long they can’t recognize a genuine popular movement wehen it hits them in the face. I love that you get so indignant that you have to make up stories about conservative4s doing just what ACORN, the SEIU and HCAN do.
Jharp: always ready with name-calling, devoid of content. You’re not just a troll, you’re an incompetent troll.
Graham:
“the GOP has created an entire electoral strategy around baiting disaffected whites into hating immigrants, Yankees, intellectuals and minorities”
The sad thing is you probably actually believe this tripe. Leftist prohjection, again: the Party of Grievance-mongering sees everything through its own lens.
The left wing trolls are here in force. I truly wish they would read the Rules of Engagement posted above.
VDH has written a masterful piece, it’s too bad they didn’t bother to read it.
But then,,, they can’t help themselves.
69, I resemble that remark!
Do you think that just any jack-off can be a community organizer? No! It’s an exclusive brotherhood. And you aren’t invited! We have secret decoder rings, and secret handshakes, and…WHERE’S MY BIKE???
These Hope-a-dopes cant let go of him.
They still show him with a 62% approval rating.
http://www.dailykos.com/
freaking brain dead zombies following his teleprompter off into the graveyards.
VDH has written a masterful piece, it’s too bad they didn’t bother to read it.
I used to read the pieces but finally realized that all I needed to read was the title to know what blather would follow. My current hypothesis is that I don’t even need to read the title since all these posts are essentially the same.
great article VDH.
the left are basicly herd animals-apprehensive and constantly craving guidence.their leadership’s recent,undeniable hypocisy will be a useful implement to plummel them with in 2010.
20.alice.”The game is rigged. Government works for those who govern. Nothing you or I or the Tea Party special interest people do is going to change that.”
wrong attitude,the “game” is unraveling,new opportunities abound.
Iowahawk humor.
80. tommyd:
Quote of the day:
“Community organizers can’t bitch when communities organize.”
R. Limbaugh
great quote …but apparently that doesn’t stop them from bitching.
Joshua, #66: It has occurred to me that if the Democrats lose big in 2010 (and at this point, polls suggest they probably will) then the DNC may strongly suggest that Obama not run in 2012. If the President refuses to go quietly, I will enjoy the schadenfreude as the Democratic Party destroys itself.
However, I certainly want to put Republicans on notice as well. If they can’t get the fiscal house in order, then I will be happy to remove them from office, too.
I have friends who still bark like Pavlovian dogs at the name of Ronald Reagan, because their cushy federal jobs were cut during his administration. But I’m afraid that the only option left is to severely reduce the size of government. And now that government is the largest employer in the nation, that’s necessarily going to cause some unemployment. But this is a necessary evil.
57. Blarty Blarckleblart:
…actually blurtty there are a lot, you may know them as tax payers
The precise analysis by Professor Hanson made me think about the Soviet nomenklatura: the regime top cats had their wonderful villas (the famous “dachas”) while the general population had to share little apartments, in which two or three families had to live. And while the dissidents enjoyed the weather of Siberia, the top cats had their (second) villas on the shores of the Black Sea.
Our “CAVIAR MARXISTS” have learned their lessons from there.
And the lesson is: nothing for the American People, all (power and money) to the “heroes” of the “proletarian revolution”.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
85. Blarty Blarckleblart:
VDH has written a masterful piece, it’s too bad they didn’t bother to read it.
I used to read the pieces but finally realized that all I needed to read was the title to know what blather would follow. My current hypothesis is that I don’t even need to read the title since all these posts are essentially the same.
…. what a surprise. Blarty doesn’t even read the articals.
but that’s fine since his congressional buddies don’t read the bills they sign.
so then how does it work …someone tells yo where to put you comments? IF NOT ARE YOU SAYING THAT YOU ARE HERE JUST TO BE A D!CKHEAD ?
..oh by the way Blarty that is a retorical question.
Re #80: ““Community organizers can’t bitch when communities organize.””
This is bumper sticker material. Rush definitely knows how to sum it all up doesn’t he?
Awesome!
85. In which Blarty reveals his (and BHO’s) M.O. for all occasions. Vapid certainty backed with arrogant stupidity. Well done!
“I used to read the pieces but finally realized that all I needed to read was the title to know what blather would follow. My current hypothesis is that I don’t even need to read the title since all these posts are essentially the same.”
Note to the mods; why is there no “ignore” feature on this blog? I could save myself, and others, a lot of time if we could simply put the trolls on “ignore”, and then we could continue reading posts from the other interested citizenship. These people (trolls) have nothing positive to contribute to the governance of this country, I say let them languish in the obscurity of nothingness.
Bye-bye,,, nothing to see here,,, move along…
I posted this on another thread, but it appears it might do some good here on this thread too.
From the 7/30/2009 issue of Foster’s Daily Democrat, Dover, NH;
Hired goons not appreciated
To the editor: Reports of recent polls tell us that a large majority of Americans oppose Obamacare, preferring a revised health-care system that is not run by the federal government. Then, I ask, just who are these people who show up at rallies to voice support for Obamacare?
I think I found the answer last week.
On July 17, Americans all across the nation gathered at over 250 local Congressional offices to peacefully voice their objections to the Democrats’ health-care bill. I attended one such event with 40 other taxpayers, outside the offices of Rep. Carol Shea-Porter and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in Dover.
We were immediately obstructed by a bunch of guys wearing purple SEIU (Service Employees International Union) T-shirts. They shouted and harassed us for the hour, refused to speak with us, and as soon as we left, they dispersed.
The next day at the Exeter Independence Festival, I noticed a familiar face delivering materials to Carol Shea-Porter’s tent — one of the purple-shirt guys from the day before. His car had a Massachusetts license plate. Later, I had a chance to speak with him. Yes, he recognized me. I learned that he is from Trinidad, he is not a citizen, and that he is paid to do this “volunteer” work.
Similar bands of SEIU “volunteers” were present at every New Hampshire rally location on July 17.
I wonder whose money is actually paying for these “volunteers?” And isn’t it a sad state of affairs that those who are supposed to represent us in serious issues such as our health and welfare — life and death decisions — appear to be associated with such an operation?
It was a shocking lesson.
D.. B..
Rye Beach
Yes, Blarty does indeed follow Obama’s lead doesn’t he/she (Re #85). Why bother to read anything when you can just spout off first?
I think Blarty deserves a promotion in Obama’s kook-aid army.
These people (trolls) have nothing positive to contribute to the governance of this country…
You mean like:
“freaking brain dead zombies following his teleprompter off into the graveyards.”
Or:
“Do you think that just any jack-off can be a community organizer? No! It’s an exclusive brotherhood. And you aren’t invited! We have secret decoder rings, and secret handshakes, and…WHERE’S MY BIKE???”
Or:
“Thank you for your service and dedication to this country that is spelled AMERICA, not like the the mullah obamaham spells it: AmeriKa.”
I plead guilty. I mean, how could I compete with such trenchant insight and rapier wit?
95. jbaker wrote:
Note to the mods; why is there no “ignore” feature on this blog?
Peter writes: jbaker, there is no need for an ignore button if you are willing to just perform a manual ignore.
When you come across certain post names, like jharp, blarty, shadow, or now & then, simply skip over the posting and move on to the next. You will find it remarkable how quickly you can then make it through a thread without the mindless, inconsiquential blather.
And, should there come some coment that requires ridicule, there is usually either some new person to the thread who doesn’t know better or one of the old stalwarts like Chuck P. who are willing to make note of it and allow the rest of us to notice and add to the ridicule their post deserves.
#92 oreohomo:
People can read the articles or not, I just want the members of congress to read the bills before signing, like their constituents do, so that maybe they might have good reason to hold the same views as their constituents do.
This all seems very fishy
85. In which Blarty reveals his (and BHO’s) M.O. for all occasions. Vapid certainty backed with arrogant stupidity. Well done!
Thanks, we were up all night working on it.
What disturbs me the most is that while I am glad that more people are speaking out, and that 0bama’s ratings are beginning to falter, there is still time for the Left to gain a good portion of their agenda. It must be stopped, or at least slowed down until the mid-terms. And regardless of what you think about the Republicans, they are still the only players who have a chance in doing this. No third party or grass-roots movement will stop the Left.
Because the Left is known for its shrill voice, its hypocritical, double-standard ranting, they will take up the banner proclaiming these new complaintants as shrill ranters, not worthy of being listened to, not worthy of any attention, and they will do it loudly.
And as all the bickering is going on, the “Democratic” congress will quietly move forward with its agenda to remake America as a socialist state. Look for the media to be complicit in this by focusing on the back-and-forth nature of the two sides, while keeping a low profile regarding the passage of unpopular legislation.
Make no mistake, the Left is worried about its agenda being forestalled. That is why they are foaming at the mouth and trying to censor or belittle this growing trend. The left cannot win through a discussion of ideas, but must denigrate the opposition to survive. Witness David Letterman vs. Sarah Palin, or Bill Maher against the US in general and you’ll understand my point.
I suggest that any movement of the Right needs to be confrontational with facts, not rants, and there should be a distribution of information germaine to the issues. If we can argue cogently on the issues, bringing the inconsistencies to light (and laughing at them, and getting others to see the same ridiculousness) then there is a chance. Otherwise, those who value capitalism, working for what you get, a valued and strong military, and individual freedoms will see those values lost.
In all seriousness, we must organize our opposition to the 0bama machine and the Leftist radicals. Make no mistake: the opposition is already mobilized, organized, and hunting for blood.
Thank you VDH, for writing columns that move us in this direction.
” The constant harangue about taxing only those who make over $250,000 (or is it now $200,000?, or $150,000) accentuates the notion that those who run successful businesses, who create profitable medical practices, and who are accomplished professionals are somehow culpable—greedy, conniving, or worse.
Not to mention the ones that create real honest jobs where personal achievement, accomplishment, dpendability, incentive, and character are the standards by which one not only keeps his job, but advances and prospers.
Not so in 0bamas expanding nationalised gang thugocracy where loyalty and willingness to break every ethical standard, no matter the consequences for “the righteous cause” of tribal, race based identity politics is the only thing that matters.
Economy in recession, job losses doubled, businesses forced to relocate away from punitive taxation, bankrupt, debt ridden states, and government is expanding, on the backs of the poorer and soon to be if not already unemployed.
Hey 0bama, did anyone ever share with you the wisdom of the axiom- “Two Wrongs don’t make a Right”?
You know, like a reverend, or a mentor? An elder colleague with years of experience where you worked? Oh, you never really worked? Just showed up for Saul Alinsky’s (coined term) community activism?
This is about retribution, avarice, a new oligarchy, and reparation, as if we haven’t already spent trillions of dollars on those “failed policies of the past” (reparations) since FDR, abused by Alinsky’s “activists”, right on through Johnson’s Great Society, abused again by Alinsky’s second generation wave of “social workers” and repeated and retreated between federal, state and local level wherever democrats are in charge and smell of weakness and capitulation, for these carpetbagging opportunists to circle like sharks on the most vulnerable. The lowest of the low, measured by how much taxpayer loot they can stack against their peers.
And now the failed state of California wants to set federal policy for the other 49 states and set them on the road to ruin as well, aided by 0bamas Chicago thugs and protection rackets.
Bloody disgraceful, but some have no shame, or souls either.
“Al the kingdoms of the world shall be yours if you but bow down and worship me.”
The arrogrance of Congress at the people who elect them is astounding. Congress insulates themselves from the people who have to live in the world that Congress does not have too. They fly 1st class or military instead of commercial to keep a distance from individuals. Town Hall meetings are more vocal so leaders now move to phone call ins. To fully understand opposition you have to see and hear the drum roar. This new leadership closes their eyes and ears. This is serious legislation and the course Congress is taking way off base. They have to go.
VDH hits it out of the park again. Obama has built his career on agitating and pushing hard. We need to push back. Hard. Obama is part conventional Chicago politician and part out of touch left wing elitist. And it is showing.
VDH,
Obama is about to learn the first rule of politics — Don’t attack an opponent’s vital interests unless you are willing to risk your own.
This is something Bill Clinton knew in his bones, which was why he dropped healthcare reform in exchange for the more popular Republican style welfare reform.
The people who the Democrats have pissed off with the threat of single payer healthcare destroying private medical insurance have both money and options.
They have had good private insurance medical care their whole lives *and* they also have the resources to sue private insurers for cause and win.
They can’t do that with the Federal government. For them, government universal healthcare represents a clear and present danger to their survival and their quality of life.
Please consider that the Baby Boomer generation was subject to the draft and has gotten a lot of bad medical care from the Federal Government’s Veterans Administration hospitals with no ability to sue.
And stories of how badly Veterans Administration hospitals treated WW2, Korean & Vietnam vets are a staple of those who served in those age cohorts.
Stories about people losing healthcare for pre-existing conditions don’t mean jack to those voters compared to what they have to lose and what the VA hospitals have already done to the ones they loved.
Another Democratic problem is that the party overall has devoted more than 30 years of effort into single-payer in terms of study, think-tanks, candidate development, etc. I.e., the Democratic party overall simply cannot back away from this one, however much individual candidates, even most of them, might want to.
The Democrats have invested too much into single-payer for them to abandon it.
This is a self-identification issue.
In terms of political effects, though, it’s their tar baby. They can’t let go of it and will keep pushing it long after it is politically hopeless. Plus their continued pushing of it will remind senior voters with money that the Democrats threaten the seniors’ survival interests.
It looks like a perfect storm, politically, because Obama never lost an election like Clinton did in Arkansas.
Obama doesn’t think he will ever lose power. That possibility just isn’t real to him, so he isn’t as street smart as Bill Clinton was about meeting people’s wants, needs & concerns.
Obama should be focusing on the economy to the exclusion of everything else to save Congressional Democrats in 2010 and himself in 2012. It is why he was elected, after all.
He isn’t.
It is a hell of a thing to see that the smartest man in the Obama Administration is Vice President Joe Biden, because he has been the only one going to high unemployment states and talking up the President’s economic programs.
This is what Obama needs to do, but isn’t.
Instead we got “Stimulus” that wasn’t, Single Payer Health Care, and Cap & trade, while American unemployment gets worse than anytime since the Great Depression.
The American people turn their libtard savior over, and find the hidden stalinist within!Absolutely delicious! Let’s hope this leads to militant resistance to our home grown Hugo Chavez,and the corrupt,Stalinist party backing him.
President Obama & the Democrats are unraveling from the pressure coming from “we the people”; in the meantime, while Nancy Pelosi accuses “we the people” to be Nazi’s & astroturfers, President Obama is doing the astroturfing with his calls to various unions to counter the protests. However, I believe this will all backfire–like pouring gasoline on a bomb–big. The Democrats really believe “we the people” are too stupid to organize ourselves. It’s time to show these congress critters that WE THE PEOPLE are their bosses.
The more Obama pushes against the we the people, the lower his precious ratings & polls will sink to lower depths.
Interesting about the SEIU goons. Wouldn’t surprise me if these useful idiots were funded through ACORN, which received at least a billion in Swindle-us funds. Or perhaps Soros and other foreign billionaires, ala Zerobama’s illegal campaign donations. Follow the money.
“the GOP has created an entire electoral strategy around baiting disaffected whites into hating immigrants, Yankees, intellectuals and minorities,”
What do you think when I say “Sarah Palin”? And who made you think it? Projection, thy name is Democrat.
Interesting about the SEIU goons. Wouldn’t surprise me if these useful idiots were funded through ACORN, which received at least a billion in Swindle-us funds. Or perhaps Soros and other foreign billionaires, ala Zerobama’s illegal campaign donations. Follow the money.
It’s interesting to see how the trolls work. They employ the same tactics as their dear leader. They seek to demoralize and demean. But just like with their dear leader, they don’t realize this only infuriates us more. There’s not a lot of us? 30% of the population in the colonies was all it took for the first revolution to succeed.
Like VDH, I had the wheels coming off much later for Barry but then I didn’t think he would go as whole-hog as he has. The Lakoffs of this world would have you believe that America is a Lefty country and the precepts of the Left only fail to be enacted due to malign semantic skills on the other side. Ooops! Looks like once this stuff is taken seriously enough to actually be implemented EVERYONE’S ox is being gored hard enough that they notice. God bless you, America! You aren’t as dumb as we feared.
Its finally becoming apparent to the mislead that the Emperor has no clothes. He is a bare naked socialist and intends for them to submit to his ‘we know better than you’ ideology as to how to spend your money, how you should live your life, and what you should think. Dissent will not be tolerated. What extremes will this regime go to in order to suppress we the Astroturf Mob – who knows. But they should remember astroturf leaves a nasty, nasty carpet burn and mobs did bring down Frankenstein and the Bastille.
BB – you have to wonder if VHD applies the same bias to his books. He has become completely predictable. Some people are able to compartmetnalize though and leave their brains at the doorstep when they talk about politics
Dr. Hanson, another great piece! I couldn’t agree with you more on the points you made but there is ome area that you did not touch on. That area is the “Big Brotherism” that BHO’s admin. is pushing on us. This belittling of the townies and tea-ers shows that he has no interest in dissent from any source. Now we have the you-must-report any “Fishy” web sites that are anti-Obama or anti-BHO healthcare. Look at the DOJ and we can tell that there will be no Justice for the masses unless you DON’T look like the men on our dollar bills! This man and his Chicago gangsters are trying to take over our beloved country. Keep up the good work sir.
The President is revealing what he truly is. He is a shallow man; he has no sense of responsibility as to his duties under the Constitution. Daily he increasingly portrays the image of a political hack, with an agenda the real object of which is to create a nation wholly dependent on the federal government while at the same tme self reliant citizens ae condemned as selfish and extremist. The anger being manifested by individuals at “town hall meegtings” is more than justified and will grow. It must be encouraged to do ao.
Hey, Blarty,
I honestly like the way you write, and you can spell, too.
Now answer this directly: Why should we buy any of this health care plan when Congresspersons will not subject themselves and family members to it?
If you can’t answer that, you have lost the argument. Like Perot would say, It’s that simple, Larry.
Daily the President increasingly reveals his true self. He is not the candidate who sought the presidency. That candidate was a sham, a deceit. The anger being manifested by self reliant America at “town hall meetings” is more than justified and is an honest reflection of the feelings held by many, myself included, that we have been duped; we have been deliberatelly and intentionally misled. The anger being manifested by self reliant America must be encouraged and supported so that it may grow even more prominent and insistent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4q9qV1soTw
This link is to an interview on how the State of Arizona is changing its constitution to avoid Obamacare for all its citizens.
You know, I truly resent that my deep discontent and disagreements against socialized medicine are considered “mob”-worthy. I resent that my opinion is just another invitation to a riot, according to the Democrats. We all better remember that the Democrats are Masters at the Art of Getting on People’s Faces: they’ve perfected this art over many decades. They have power now, and will do anything they can to keep it all for themselves. Their tactics are Soviet-worthy. Papa Joe (Stalin) would be proud, and give them a “That’s my boy!” before taking them to the next level.
Funny that the movie line that I remember now is from the LOTR. “There is one Lord of the Ring. One who can wield it to his will. And he does not share power.” The Devil does not share power, people. There never was “honor among thieves”. Why should we think they will have that now, or ever?
Dr. Hanson, you do sense that this is close to reaching a boiling point. When the frog finally explodes, it will be Hell on wheels. And it’s not like we have an escape route to another place when it all goes in flames. Where do we go to start over? We can’t.
I never thought that I would live under a thug-ocracy. Ever. Where am I supposed to escape?
Utterly brilliant piece. Nailed the topic perfectly. Needn’t say more about Barry the Invention.
Best,
San Rafael Jack
120. Nostromo:
Now answer this directly: Why should we buy any of this health care plan when Congresspersons will not subject themselves and family members to it?
Congresspeople and their families will be as subject to it as everyone else is.
An accurate summary, I believe, of what is becoming the most divisive presidency of the past 100 years. The DNC politics has crossed the Rubicon in the demonization of its opponents. LUN.
I like to call Liberal elites “Let them eat cake Liberals”. Their mantra is “I have ____…too bad for you.” For instance:
I survived the womb. Too bad for you. (Abortion is fine for other fetuses)
I live in a free country. Too bad for you. (Iraq)
I have a private jet, but I demonize corporate execs who use them for business.
I have a massive carbon footprint, but you need to drive a little deathbox and turn down your thermostat.
I have terrific healthcare as a lawmaker, but you little people need a crappy government system.
My Momma tells me “Stupid is as stupid does.”
Kind of explains our President and his outraged supporters:-)
“Self-reliant America”. I like that.
But we’re a vanishing species. The top 1% of income earners now pay more taxes than the bottom 95%. Yet they case 1% of the vote, by definition.
The grasshoppers are going to eat the ants.
This isn’t going to be pretty.
VDH: Nice work.
“A well educated technocracy—we see such figures in the emblematic Timothy Geithner, Eric Holder, or Barack Obama himself —have most of their lives served in government, largely regulating, overseeing, organizing, auditing, and sermonizing far more productive and capable others. One of the worst flaws of this species of utopian technocrat is the notion that he wishes to curtail in others the very things he wishes to enjoy without constraint himself.”
A great many people saw this coming quite frankly and to any intellectually curious individual with a conscience it was as plain as the nose on your face.
It seems that “He who restraineth” has been taken out of the way. It used to be that 90% of us had a conscience with which we could be convinced to maybe look inward for the truth or maybe measure ourselves against a standard such as the words of Jesus Christ for instance. Taking the Bible out of schools and replacing it with an ideology of a particular focus has yielded the results accurately described in your article.
Get ready to see the real mean stuff coming out of the current thugocracy. They’ve only just begun to fight, they think they are prepared for this fight and they think they will win because they hold all of the strings. Of course they are deceived and they are guaranteeing their own destruction and at the same time forcing the separation of the sheep and the goats (There was a story in the news this morning about how goat meat was becoming popular in this country and it looks like we’ll have an abundant supply, figuratively speaking of course)
The fact that these ‘utopian technocratic’ individuals have no conscience or moral code means they cannot understand the full consequences of their actions. The technocrats look across the isle and see their opposition without any real understanding, thinking like a terrorist that they should use the kindness and willingness of the opposition against them. The technocrat does not understand that the truth will unveil him and justice will find him.
The utopian technocrats believe things such as truth and justice are abstract and subjective but history proves them wrong over and over again. God made man to be free and He also gave man the option of restraining himself and his lusts in order to avoid the wrath of judgment to come. The technocrats have been handicapped by their teachers having taught them a one sided view of their world but their teachers were not able to deliver them from the greedy and lustful nature so common to man and therefore have left them unable to defend themselves against their own destructive behaviors.
We should not all have to suffer under a failed ideology.
#99 – Good advice, with one exception: don’t skip Blarty.
Since we must have trolls, let’s at least appreciate the ones who are funny and not excessively verbose.
I appreciate your juxtaposition of the healthcare provider with the Department of Motor Vehicles. Curiously, I recently experienced both the GOOD aspect of our current healthcare system and the BAD aspect of the DMV within two weeks of each other – and posted the experience.
Good breakdown of the change in political tide. One wonders – now that all the feel-good Obama-supporters can say that they once elected a black president (though paying little attention to policy or experience), will they “check off” that experience as completed, and return to more rational vote-casting? We can only hope.
…the Obama swing voter thought he was getting a 21st-century version of pragmatic, triangulating Bill Clinton…
Well, shame on him. I thought it was pretty clear what he was getting. And may I say, thank you, swing voter; thanks a lot.
There are conservatives out there who believe that, while his policies are of course wrong, Obama himself is well-intentioned, desiring only to do what he feels is best for the country he loves. I am not one of them. I think Obama has a score to settle with America (and most of her citizens) and the best way to settle that score is to pull her down from the lofty perch she has occupied for lo these many years. Obama has a few chickens of his own he wants to bring home to roost.
Ken Besig -
I would say that one of the reasons wealth is being concentrated is too much regulation – small business owners can’t grow their business or often maintain it without encountering too much regulation, which they cannot comply with given their resources, whereas the large corporations have enough money to hire people to handle all of the regs. Small entrepeneurs are forced out, while the large corporations benefit. Also, the large corporations get access, hire lobbyists, who write provisions of bills and have it inserted verbatim. Lossen the regulatory burden, and small businesses will thrive. Don’t know how to get around the second issue of lobbyists writing regs and legislation.
It is very encouraging to see the trolls step up their posting frequency and their jeering.
We’re doing just fine, folks! If they were feeling so all-fired confident, they’d be doing something else with their time today.
For those of you new to PJM, you need to know that several of the trolls are new (or old trolls with new names…trying to keep it fresh) and their intensity has increased considerably in the last 10-14 days.
They still don’t understand that we still aren’t really riled up. There’s nothing that the screaming, hysterical left hates more than Democrat Americans, Independent Americans and Republican Conservatives standing up and saying, “Ok. That’s it. No more.”
We’re all fish now!
No Blarty, it is written into the bill that elected officials and federal workers are exempt. Just as most of the regulations that Congress hands down to the plebs does not apply to Congress.
Just as the amendment that forbids bureaucrats from making your medical decisions was dropped like a hot potato.
Do you really trust anyone in Washington blindly?
Dear Mr. Hanson,
In the current debate over taxes a lot of attention has been focused on marginal income tax rates. This, I think, is ignoring a large animal on the premises – taxes on low income people. I live in a semi-rural city in Florida. There are some very affluent areas because of its proximity to the space center but it is mostly lower income. In fact, I can hear the cock crow at dawn – people are raising chickens in their backyard.The people I see every day are very angry at the recent tax increases on tobacco. The price per pack has more than doubled over its already historically high price. They have already seen their tax burden rise significantly and they see it every time they go to the store. I suspect the pending sales tax increase in CA and other places will have a similar effect.
Contrary to the common misconception that they look to the government for more free goodies, I see very little evidence of that. It is a rabble rousing myth perpetuated by those who wish to cause class warfare.
The anger is spreading throughout the land across all cultural and income groups. E Plubibus Unum. More than just a slogan.
I don’t buy it.
Yes, as we can all see, O. is a vacuous bloviator, an economic ignoramus who is bored by foreign affairs, a race baiter, a shabby, corrupt Chicago operator. But all that was obvious before the election. The only surprise of the past few months was the revelation of just how poor his political skills are. I expected a Chicago machine politician to at least be slick, but as GatesGate demonstrated, he can bungle even a planted softball.
The point is that even though it was clear before the election just what kind of a President he’d be, he was elected anyway. In other words, enough voters simply don’t mind that he’s such a dire cross of incompetence and malevolence. They voted for him before, and I suspect that they would vote for him again.
The problem isn’t Obama, the problem is an electorate which thinks that such a frivolous and dangerous man is suited to the job of POTUS.
Very good article, Mr. Hanson, as usual.
A hundred years ago, or even 75 years ago in the midst of
a Great Depression, perhaps one could find something semi-plausible in socialist dogma. But after defeating first National Socialism in WWII and then Communism 45 years later, with socialism discredited on all continents it has been tried, and all the while growing the richest, freest land the world has ever known, what I find absolutely fantastic is now, just now, the American people decide to elect a dedicated socialist to the highest office in the land. This is a man who is assaulting both the Constitution and common sense daily with his pre-programmed formulaic nonsense, who together with the those running Congress are fanning the divisons between Americans, and seemingly hell bent to destroy as much as possible of America as quickly as they can.
Yes, people are angry, but my fellow citizens, we must remain calm. We the people can tame this beast as surely as we have unleashed it. It seems that too many of us had to see its face before we could understand the danger. We are either witnessing the beginning of the end of America or the beginning of the end of the left in America. My guess it is the latter. When this virulent disease is defeated, as I think it will be, let us work together again to elect representatives dedicated to individual freedom, personal responsibility, limited government and the US Constitution. Republican or Democrat, no exceptions.
Dr H,
Word!
that is all.
137. Michael:
No Blarty, it is written into the bill that elected officials and federal workers are exempt.
Where? And exempt from what?
Ditto and amen DJM!
Jeffery, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The lawlessness we’re seeing now is the tip of the iceberg. When the Restrainer is truly removed, these will be thought of as the good old days.
137. Michael:
No Blarty, it is written into the bill that elected officials and federal workers are exempt.
Browsing around the web, I see it seems the furor over this “exemption” is that federal employees will not be forced to choose the public option – just as nobody else will be. How is that an “exemption”?
38. Deep Brain Diarist:
“Why the sudden uproar?”
You mean, why so serious? Because people are starting to wake up and see the true face of this joker they elected to the White House. Because some “right-wing paranoid” worries seem to be coming true, and in retrospect seem to have been voiced by reasonable people, not fanatics as George Soros would have you believe.
But mostly because just the thought of the government becoming the healthcare hegemon is far more serious to Americans than TARP, Government Motors, etc. And their concerns are only magnified when they watch their president flash his Joker’s smile and blatantly lie to them about his plans. Or worse, lecture them about race when HEALTHCARE IS THE ISSUE BEING DISCUSSED.
Get the picture Brain Dead Democrat? Americans are pissed off. Seriously pissed off. And they’re gonna’ send this clown back to the Chicago Circus from whence he came. His healthcare proposals will be his undoing.
Recall, and start with the lowest hanging fruit,
and then move up to the top to expunge the rot.
Does anyone else have ideas which are distinct, but achieve the same goal? For enough is enough.
Go to http://reportcard.cnn.com/default_launch.aspx?deepQ=7
and vote your opinion on a short variety of subjects: Congress, healthcare reform, the president, etc. Let’s let CNN see how Americans view the issues!
Brilliant. Love the last sentence. It’s sort of a take on George Bernard Shaw: “Those that can do. “Those that can’t, teach.” Democrat Greed and Envy: Those that can do, those that can’t regulate.
Dr. Hanson, I believe this may be one of your best articles yet. Succinct, and yet enlightened just enough to perplex the muddled minds of the present trolls.
Thank you.
The real question, of course, is what if anything can actually be done to stop the liberal juggernaut that is currenly in motion before it does further irreparable damage. It’s not enough to have lots of ordinary citizens complaining, nor does the frantic din coming from conservative media seem to help. Those in power have the ability to wield it seemingly without regard to consequences – at least until the next elections. But how much serious harm can they bring to the economy, the courts, etc. before they can be voted out? They seem not only to be tone deaf when it comes to empirical evidence and public opinion, they seem to arrogantly presume to know better than their fellow citizens what’s best for us all. They simply do not care what others think. They have an agenda, and that’s all that matters.
135. Meryl:
“We’re doing just fine, folks! If they were feeling so all-fired confident, they’d be doing something else with their time today.”
And if you were so all-fired confident, you’d be doing something else today, too. But you’re not. You’re here.
Good one, Dr. Hanson. Keep ‘em coming. Always enjoy too the comments you attract –the serious & thoughtful and the numbskulls –pretty much showing in the writing who is capable of creating and who can only try to protect its coming-a-cropper parasitism.
obama is the biggest con job ever foisted on the U.S. A socialist through and through, whoops, lets make that a communist!!! The sooner he is no longer president the better; election, impeachment, whatever. He’s gotta GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wrong, Blartbreath. By a simple funnel effect, the public will be forced to take the “public option” over time by reason of the government’s ability to drive down costs far lower than insurance companies can bear due to the absence of the government’s profit motive and its mammoth purchasing power. Employers will drop private coverage in favor of inferior government care. The Act even prohibits the purchase of private supplemental coverage. What does that tell you?? It should tell you that Uncle will monopolize health care as it does for Indian reservations. Worst care in the world. As soon as a tribe can afford private coverage they get it. 2d worst care in the world is VA. With notable exceptions, the best doctors do not go with the VA at the salary scale of a first year lawyer. The last student in the graduating class in med school is called, “Doctor.”
A monopoly can tell you what medicines and services you can and cannot have. In the world of private insurance, the carrier can tell you that too, but competition keeps them honest, mostly, and if they ding you, you can get up and run away with your premiums. Uncle has you captive. Congresspersons refuse to answer the question I raised for a reason, and that is because they have exempted themselves from the Proles’ coverage under this nightmare legislation.
128. Blarty Blarckleblart:
Congresspeople and their families will be as subject to (govt healthcare) as everyone else is.
! You’re an ignorant shill, Blarty. The plain truth is that congresscritters WILL NOT be subject to the same govt healthcare program as will the rest of us – the bills universally exempt them.
——————————
People who were disenchanted with Bush’s “big government” Republican agenda thought Obama would be different, smarter, more focused, but no-o-o-o-o-o-o.
He’s a one trick pony. More. Bigger. More. Bigger. More. Bigger.
People who thought they were voting for less, plus those who never voted for him are incensed.
What is comes down to is these “revolutionaries” just can’t stand the idea of a black man in the White House.
Second, it’s obvious many of them are almost pathologically resistant to change. Their white bread America of white picket fences and segregation is a thing of the past. It’s kind of sad they don’t realize Americans only make up 5% of the world’s population. They are so provincially-minded it’s difficult for them to handle the idea of someone who doesn’t look the way they do, worship the way they do or make love the way they do.
“the world is changing”
“you’re standing still”
“I see you aging”
“You’re over the hill”
Sorry. #150 is mine and, yes, I did report myself to Linda Douglass today. BTW, that site must be illegal.
A good article generates good comments. I’m in agreement with many, and especially those who feel that elitism is not restricted to the Democrats in Congress. Most Republicans have the same problem. Term limits may be the only way to extirpate this attitudinal disease that afflicts our elected officials.
Otherwise, fire the lot of them in aught10. Go to your local pound and get the mangiest cur you can find. Housebreak’em and send him off to D.C. as your new Congresscritter. Maybe then the elitist Big Dogs in Washington will get the message. Maybe they’ll remember who puts the slop in their bowl every night, and who it is that holds their leash.
TLM
“you should note that troubling juxtaposition of righteous indignation and the language of lynching.”
That’s hilarious, considering you’re the one who juxtaposed the two. Just as people like you keep bringing up ‘birthers’ to mention how poisonous they are. One person here who doesn’t like Obama mentioned the birth certificate issue. One.
Lynching didn’t bother you when it was being done to Sarah Palin, of course. But you think it’s an effective tool to shut down disagreement – work that race card, it’s all you have left. But nobody is fooled. You and your kind are the ones using racial imagery. You and your kind are the ones making the ‘birther’ movement a prime-time issue, when just about every Republican and Conservative has dismissed it.
Nobody is fooled.
Couldn’t have said it better. Happy to be part part of the mob here in Connecticut.
Re #156 Now and Then: You’re right buddy, we’re here en masse LAUGHING AT LIBERALS LIKE YOU!
We laugh because for all of the liberal bravado of HopeNChange, you’ve been served up a big heaping load of BS and you’ve swallowed it blindly. Then you all randomly come here to regurgitate over and over again with the hope that some other schmoe will fall prey to it also.
Sorry Now and Then, we saw through the smoke and mirrors MONTHS ago.
Thanks for joining us here to read about Obama’s stumbles and missteps and how we can overcome his socialist agenda during the next election (which can’t come soon enough).
Joker Voice:
Why so Serious, America?
Its all part of…THE PLAN.
No one can ever bridge the Red/Blue divide. The only way we will be able to live together is by a return to Federalism so we can live under the laws we choose for ourselves in our own states. If the Left want to live in totalitarian welfare states, let them. Just stop trying to force the rest of us to do the same. Otherwise there will be blood because Conservatives will NOT go quietly into the good night.
25. Ken Besig: The only “robber barons” this most exceptional of nations has ever known are those who’ve ever been in power in Washington DC — and those of their basta*d offspring who reside there and rob us now.
The so-called “robber barons” of the likes of the “anti-trust” (read: envy-motivated, hatred-driven) “progressive” and (modified-Marxist) Fabian fascist, respectively, traitors, Roosevelt and their ilk, were the men who developed America and opened it up for the indolent, institutionalized-envy brokers, crypto-fascistic and fascistic who followed — and who have for the moment commandeered our feral gummint.
And are seeking, not least by the recent appointment of the dangerously deluded, likely deranged, definitely dimwitted and determinedly-destructive (of our beloved fraternal republic’s Law, of our Institutions and of our every Tradition) “latina” (whatever the Hell one of those turns out to be) to the (once, “supreme,” first-fiat court.
Brian Richard Allen
Lost Angels – Califobambicated 90028
And the far Abroad
Dr. Hansen,
Have read several of your books and as a retired USMC officer, I found them interesting and very thought provoking, particularly “Carnage and Culture”.
I majored in history at the University of Pennsylvania and wrote my thesis on the propaganda machine of Nazi Germany, a rather ambitious undertaking, considering it was written in 1958. Nonetheless, I have been fascinated all these years with how the Nazis were able to take control of one of the most sophisticated and educated peoples of all the countries of Europe.
Am now finishing Richards Evan’s (2nd Volume of his trilogy) “The Third Reich in Power” and I must say that the parallels of situations that existed in 1929-1932 Germany seem uncannily familiar.
Let me hasten to add, I am an amateur student of history, but serious and I find that the methods employed by the rabid Nazis in the early years ( before Hitler turned his wrath on the Jews, he had to gain control) are similar to the far left of today here in the US.
Also interestingly, as you well know, the Nazis were socialists(Nazi being an acronym for Nationalist Socialist German Workers Party) not conservatives. The only difference between the Nazis and the Communists (both socialists ) was the degree of government interference. The Nazis allowed private ownership of business,( as long as the companies did what the government dictated )and were only interested in their own brand of nationalist socialism, whereas the Communists were internationalists and were for total control. Dissent was not tolerated in either society. Also interestingly, the term “right wing” was coined by the Communists to describe the German “Socialists” ( read Nazis) to demean their version of socialism.
I’d be interested to hear your take on Evan’s books and if you think there is any case for similarity.
Respectfully
Semper Fi
If people are this upset now over socialized health care and everything else . . . after only eight months . . . what’s going to happen in another year?
Millions rioting in the streets?
Bet on it.
VDH:
Moderate conservatives who voted for Obama also are aware of another important issue involving the economy that they thought would be or could be addressed by Obama. They are finding out that it is not being addressed as they expected. The issue is the vast difference between “executive” compensation and blue collar compensation. It has recently been brought to our attention again, when the large bonuses that were awarded to Goldman Sachs employees appear to be far beyond any tangible value that they as individuals could add to the economy.
There is a moral component to excessive compensation that might otherwise cause it to be self-policing. Individuals who accept unimaginable bonuses in the name of their shareholders could acknowledge their weak character if they were so inclined. However, history has shown that shame does not withold one from accepting a $200 million retirement package.
The existence of these individuals who arguably abuse the scale of our economy in somewhat insidious ways is not justification for an abusive tax policy. Progressive tax rates above 40-50% are harmful in many ways, because they fundamentally change an individual’s work ethic, and they support the idea that government is more important than individuals.
More rational compensation should not be incentivized or disincentived exclusively through tax legislation, but it could be motivated through intense and unyielding cultural awareness of the issue. Republicans could persistently deliver a message that they are aware of the problem, and that individuals who shamelessly choose greed are not welcome. There comes a time when even business is personal.
If conservatives would address the issue of excessive executive compensation, it might improve their fate at the polls and ballots. It would also show that they are far more pragmatic than Obama. Obama’s approach to this problem does not address it as much as it tries to compensate for it in an idealogical way. But his idealogy is incorrect, because he is blind to our founder’s vision of the path to liberty and justice. Winning this battle would be a moral victory as well as a political one, and Victor, maybe you will oblige me and find an opportunity to start the process.
Dr Hanson,
The shallowness of these people is most apparent in the style section of the newspapers. Michele in her 500 dollar sneakers at the soup kitchen, the date to New York, the 1300 dollar purses, the pimping of the kids in catalogue clothes. These are the actions of people who have little to stand on but the stuff they acquire. Cool is not enough to keep the people devoted to them.
Sadly, they are clueless that the gun and Bible clingers are light years above them as human beings.
The anger is palpable out in the hinterlands.
This administration is a train wreck.
#163 They are so provincially-minded it’s difficult for them to handle the idea of someone who doesn’t look the way they do, worship the way they do or make love the way they do. …and you don’t like these people, right? Because they are different, right? Because they don’t make love right, right? good lord. the simple, irony-free mind unintentionally lampooning itself.
Essential vdh?
PJM and your guidance and instructions. I am noticing that the “policing” of content seems to be a diease. It is characterized by people who talk about hate speech as if they know what it is and can recognize it when they see it.
Since we are heading into a revolution due to ignorance that is taking away our individual freedoms and responsibilities a “policing” post of “instructions” from a PJM or any other group of idiots like this is simply telling me to avoid it altogether. Just like I avoid listening to BHO because I already know how he will react.
Screw PJM and anyone who supports this kind of Policing BS. That may include vdh.
So Nawncy thinks these are “angry mobs”? She’s been in her ivory tower for too long. These are just skirmishers, going out front to scout the ground. The real “angry mobs” are forming up behind them, and when they show up, believe me, you WILL be able to tell the difference.
VDH is right, again. As I have said on my website repeatedly, Obama and crew screwed up in a number of areas. So much so, I am a little confused as to whether they are stupid or blindly arrogant.
But the icing on this cake may very well be healthcare. The majority of the people I see revolting are over fifty. Which makes sense when you have a President and democrats actually saying out loud that old people are too costly to keep around. What?? Is there a line someplace where liberals are waiting to shoot themselves in the foot? “Hey Fred, there it is, the hole in the foot line, hurry up before they run out of bullets!”
Jeez…
I go into greater detail here.
http://truthandcommonsense.com/2009/08/06/where-obama-went-wrong-on-healthcare-he-wanted-to-sacrifice-the-elderly/
I am not worthy to bask in your brilliance, O smart one! Umm…dude. You’re not gonna bogart that, are you?
163. Pat J:
“What is comes down to is these “revolutionaries” just can’t stand the idea of a black man in the White House.”
Actually, I prefer the term “devolutionaries”, meaning let some of what the federal government has aggrandized to itself devolve back to the people or the states they reside in. Start with about 10% of the GDP, but from there the list gets pretty long so I won’t bore you. I know this sounds “revolutionary”, but we accord that honorary title to the Founding Fathers who came up with these ideas.
“…it’s obvious many of them are almost pathologically resistant to change.”
You need to update your talking points. That “black man in the White House” trope is a bit dated, don’t you think. I know change is hard, but progress on this front will not be made until you progressives accept the new reality that the President is black, and no one cares.
“Their white bread America of white picket fences and segregation is a thing of the past…blah…blah…blah”
Yes it is and no one misses it. Well, almost no one. Some of you still perseverate on these anachronistic ideas. Again, the change thing is a challenge. Try to deal with it. And BTW, we’re discussing politics here not race.
If the White House wants to get info emailed to them, I think we should all do our patriotic duty and forward (via email) any and all articles we see re: National Health Care Plan to flag@whitehouse.gov. We all know how the media distorts the news, so how are we (simple humans) to know which information is incorrect? I think we should assume that it is all “fishy”, and forward whatever we read or find.
I think it is telling how George W. Bush put up with 8 years of the most vile, unpatriotic abuse while Obama & his lackeys call those that disagree with them ‘mobs’ or ‘astroturf.’ It shows what type of man he really is — petty & juvenile.
I just read that the Whitehouse said, ‘If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard.’ To let this out , the President act’s stupidly.
We’ve come a long way from Dr. Martin Luther King.
The protests have never been violent. No fights. Now the President invokes one. What he’s too stupid to realize is that if you punch back twice as hard the third guy will punch back twice as hard as the second guy and then there will be a full fledged fight.
Thanks to O’Moron.
Hate to say the obvious, but don’t count your chickens Victor.
The Venezuelan middle class lost faith in Chavez pretty quick, so did the Honduran center in Zelaya.
The media won’t turn on Obama. They can’t now, they sold their soul already.
What conservatives need to start doing RIGHT NOW is preparing for the inevitable. You think the show townhalls with reserved seating for the SEIU are an aberration? Just wait until election season.
Holder’s already put his cards on the table.
They are planning massive electoral fraud. Maybe even ballots printed in Venezuela (ok, that last parts a joke…I hope).
But seriously, any district or chain of custody that does not have a Republican observer on election night 2010 is going to go overwhelminly straight ticket democrat. You watch, or you’ll watch the glorious results on TV.
Dr. Hanson,
“Prairie-Fire Anger” displays analytical marksmanship of a very high order, and exactly that mastery of self-expression one would expect of so prolific a classicist. In having found your editorial through online reference, I count myself lucky – and especially so, in anticipating, as well, discovery of your colleagues at pajamasmedia.
It would be less than ingenuous did I not mention that, in Googling the Hanson vitae, and noting your heroes and views on war and world-politics, I was disturbed to find the two of us are completely polarized on these matters. This inconvenience I accommodate by remembering that,in my mind, virility is equated with blood-lust and all that is martial. On the other hand, it is also equated with strength and success. My being of a creative, more passive bent, I entertain sentiments which veer off into the reserved and subliminal. Creatures are as they are, and any particular manifestation of nature has been evolving for billions of years. So peace, brother. Peace.
You have received so many laudatory comments in this thread there is little point in my joining the choir. But on the subject of politics, government, the state of the union, there are considerations which have been very much on my mind of late – quite apart from POTUS. And to my knowledge no one is addressing them.
For that reason dialogue concerning one administration or another seems of only relative worth, as in my view, the real problems are far more deep-seated, hinging on the very foundations of our government, and the degree to which these have been violated and twisted out of shape by circumstances, veiled influences, deviate personalities, venality, etc. There is no way anything can be set right, until these basic defects are addressed and corrected.
In this regard I would begin with the irregularities unfolding as a result of Lincoln’s response to the secession of the Southern states. His issuance of the Emergency War Powers Act, with it’s attendant martial law, bankruptcy and re-organization, rendered the U.S. Constitution dead, allowing him to wage an undeclared, unconstitutional war purely on the strength of Executive Power, resulting in the loss of 500,000 American lives – and all this, shamelessly, within only eighty years of the founding of our country.
This precedent set a pattern for future presidents destined to repeat a pattern of grasping untoward privilege for licentious purposes. In each of these cases the Constitution was ruthlessly put to death, the corpse lying in state, as the American people functioned under the tyranny of a single man. The worst of these was Franklin Delanor Roosevelt, who deliberately arranged the bombing of Pearl Harbor as a pretext for entering WWII on behalf of Rockefeller’s oil holdings in China, which Japan had appropriated. Incredibly, his Emergency War Powers remained in effect until 1973, with citizens of this country unknowingly living under martial law the entire period. But worse, when Congress troubled to end ‘crisis conditions’ in 1973, all of Roosevelt’s emergency statutes were surreptitiously left on the books in violation of the Constitution, as these were temporary measures. Among others they included the FBI, CIA and IRS – this last of which is not even a department of the the U.S. Government, but an arm of The Federal Reserve.
It is in this lack of any legal basis for the IRS that a solution to your woes about the tax system will be found – as all income tax on the American people is technically unconstitutional. The federal government is only allowed to tax business interests in the District of Columbia. And if you will notice, your returned check for tax payment is made over to The Federal Reserve, which in turn, makes it over to the International Monetary Fund. And all of this revenue goes to pay down on the national debt – nothing more.
This in turn introduces the confounding phenomenon of The Federal Reserve, which is an entirely private enterprise, not an entity of the U.S. Government. A quick check of history will confirm that this pernicious entity resulted from a plot between Wall Street bankers and Woodrow Wilson, and the bill was passed into law by trickery in 1913, two days before Christmas, when many senators and principal opponents of the legislation were out of Washington for the holiday.
The Federal Reserve should be abolished and replaced with a proper national bank, issuing our own currency in accordance with constitutional provision, and saving ourselves the stratospheric cost of interest.
Most of these things have occurred because of the way Lincoln re-instituted Congress after the Civil War. Here is a quote that might interest you: (http://www.barefootsworld.net/war_ep.html)
“The Southern states, by virtue of their secession from the Union, also ceased to exist sine die, and some state legislatures in the Northern bloc also adjourned sine die, and thus, all the states which were parties to creating the Constitution ceased to exist. President Lincoln executed the first executive order written by any President on April 15, 1861, Executive Order 1, and the nation has been ruled by the President under executive order ever since. When Congress eventually did reconvene, it was reconvened under the military authority of the Commander-in-Chief and not by Rules of Order for Parliamentary bodies or by Constitutional Law; placing the American people under martial rule ever since that national emergency declared by President Lincoln. The Constitution for the United States of America temporarily ceased to be the law of the land, and the President, Congress, and the Courts unlawfully presumed that they were free to remake the nation in their own image, whereas, lawfully, no constitutional provisions were in place which afforded power to any of the actions which were taken which presumed to place the nation under the new form of control.”
Another site which may interest you is a free online copy of “Final Warning” by David Rivera. For our purposes I recommend Part I. In the table of contents look for the chapter containing the section on The Federal Reserve,” then that containing details on World War II.
Dr. Hanson, a man of your stature and literary skills can take on these issues and see them resolved.
Drew (#58)wrote, “I intend to encourage everyone I know to keep voting out incumbents until all the filth in DC is washed away.” You’re on the right track, but much of the damae done in Soddom-on-the-Potomac is done by permanent staffers, lobbyists, and career bureaucrats. Congressmen come and go, bureaucrats and K-Streeters are forever, you know?
Mike (#174), “The issue is the vast difference between “executive” compensation and blue collar compensation…It has recently been brought to our attention again, when the large bonuses that were awarded to Goldman Sachs employees appear to be far beyond any tangible value that they as individuals could add to the economy…There is a moral component to excessive compensation…”
Mike, darn right there is a moral component to executive compensation – I fully agree – but there is another political one just as consequential for our nation, namely that immense wealth concentrated in few hands confers wildly disproportionate polical power to those that possess it, power not subject to the ballot box. I am convinced that the Founders would be very disturbed, indeed deeply troubled, by this state of affairs. I am a capitalist and believer in free markets and free men, but it cannot be healthy for so few to have Croeseus-like wealth while others struggle to survive, and are only one paycheck from disaster. That is a recipe for political and social dynamite if you ask me.
Dr. Hanson,
Well written missive, but also, I’m sorry to say, well off the mark.
Mark my words, you think you don’t like President Obama now, but wait a year or two and let’s see what you say when the cream of change rises to the top, lifting all Americans in the process, even those that would question the great one.
You see, I’ve seen the great one, President Obama, in person and one can sense a grand air of infallibility in everything he says, does and hopes for.
He is like a bright beacon of light to the downtrodden. Relief for the sick of body and of heart. He sees suffering and tries to heal it. Sees a hungry child and tries to feed it. Sees a war and tries to stop it.
My oh my, the great one has planted hope where before the ground lay fallow. 40 million uninsured people can look forward to the future without fear they or their children will take ill. No longer will they be ashamed to be in such a financial jam that they’re unable to pay medical bills.
Isn’t the President marvelous? And he deserves all the praise we can heap on his broad shoulders.
Just think of it, not just at home, but abroad the magic of Obama has touched the same ones that President Bush called our enemies.
It fairly takes my breath away to know that Obama is sewing seeds of trust in nation’s that are beginning to believe America will start to work for the global good, not a provincial self interest.
Amazing.
In eight short months, the man of miracles, President Barack Obama, has demonstrated that he possesses the qualities of leadership that heretofore have so sorely been lacking.
Who among you can feel anything but pride, for example, that the first Latina woman ever is joining the highest court in the land? Wise beyond her years, Sonia Sotomayor would never have been nominated by a white man. It took the wisest of all men, Barack Obama, to nominate her.
Also, a woman’s right to choose is now lockbox safe. Late term abortions will never be questioned again. Fear of a Roe v Wade overturnment is now out of the equation. All thanks to Barack Obama.
Furthermore, sweet Sonia has sworn that she’ll take the first steps to see to it that no child again is injured by a home kept weapon.
Ammunition (the subject of one of her published position papers) is to be rationed on a need to use basis. So in the near future, all privately owned guns and rifles will be unloaded because ammunition will be limited to people with hunting licenses. And their availability will be gradually reduced to a trickle.
Of course, Sonia Sotomayor isn’t the only brilliant social progressive that Obama has asked to join his team of clear thinkers and great accomplishments.
The long list of Barack’s dynamic, dramatic, courageous actions must include hiring attorney general, Eric Holder, whose steadfast belief in a racially truthful citizenry has caused many of the white christian and even Roman Catholic persuasion to rethink their outlooks on those not like the faces on America’s money.
A possible racial flashpoint could have started a fire of hate when conservative attorneys tried to prosecute two gentlemen at a polling place in Philadelphia wearing fatigues with one carrying a walking cane that, to the uninitiated, appeared to be a Billy Club. Surely, you’ve heard about the potential case of malicious prosecution I’m referring to.
The two African Americans were to be accused of voter intimidation until Eric and Barack stepped in to stop the insanity. And prevent the prosecution.
What’s more, just last week, President Obama helped a white officer of the law see the error in his ways when he arrested a black man in his own house. Incidentally, Sonia and Eric are studying the possibility of a British type of peace officer who like Andy Griffith of Mayberry who used his power of reason; who didn’t need to carry a firearm. Obama is hoping that life can imitate art.
Look, I know, the well intentioned Dr. Hanson will talk about the President’s belief that we can spend our way out of debt. But give Barack time and he’ll do just that.
Give Barack enough time and he’ll spread the wealth that should be owned by the state and not the individual. Times have changed. Obama won. He has the right to let everyone enjoy the fruits of living in America.
Who better than President Obama to control the mega corporation’s that buy influence for tax breaks and such.
Who better than Obama with his unmatched sense of fairness to judge how high taxes should be raised on the rich corporate moguls who retire with millions in bonus money on huge estates with servants who wait on them hand and foot? If the great middle class needs to pitch in with substantial tax increases, so be it. They find out what the President’s kind of patriotism is all about.
One more thought and I’ll be on my way. This constant bashing of Tim Geithner has got to stop. Who among you hasn’t taking tax deductions that crossed the line?
Tim is working day and night to lead us like Moses to the promised land of only frictional unemployment, low interest rates and only marginally high deficits. The scare tactic that Tim is bankrupting the country is just that. A scare tactic.
The use of fear.
Much like the people in town meetings who voice disagreements with Barack’s governmentallyy efficient healthcare program. And the overthrow of inefficient private insurance.
Freedom of speech doesn’t let you yell theatre in a crowded firehouse. Likewise, loud voiced trashing of President Obama’s health program cannot be tolerated.
Your rights end where they encroach on the President’s visionary plan to reconfigure America into his own vision and likeness.
Just a friendly piece of advice. If you’re at a town meeting where Democratic leaders come to explain the President’s ideas, if you don’t have something good to say, do what mothers say.
Say nothing at all. Trust in Obama to lead us out of the darkness into the light of a new day.
Be prepared for violence at one of these events, and for it to be spun against conservatives by the MSM. The left has no intention of letting popular opinion get in the way of enacting every damned bit of their socialist agenda. If it looks like there is going to be a serious grass-roots movement that will seriously impede it, they’ll use every dirty, underhanded trick in the book to undermine and discredit it. “Agents provocateurs” is one of the oldest tricks in the book and believe me, they know it and are already planning to use it.
If you question that, ask yourself who it was that was pushing forward the “Obama’s a drug-doin, pole-smokin’ nigga” meme that Larry Sinclair was trying to sell. THOSE WERE DEMOCRATS ATTACKING EACH OTHER. If their internecine warfare is that nasty and vicious, no conservative should ever think for one moment that the left would even hesitate to do anything they could to smear conservatives. Examples: look at the ways they’ve tried to destroy Sarah Palin and her family. Don’t forget “fake but accurate,” either. There is nothing too low for them to stoop to in their efforts to maintain power.
Bottom line: these people are truly evil, they play viciously dirty political hardball, and they play for keeps. Don’t let anything you hear about “right-wing violence” dissuade you from continuing your resistance to Obama. The future of your children and your country is at stake.
Wonderful, incisive piece. Let’s make sure 2010 is the start of our big Do Over.
Dr Hanson,
Thank you for your elegant summary of our current political state. I sense we are at a potential tipping point which could realign the body politic for a generation. However, are still lacking the organization needed to transfer the anger of the majority into concrete action. The development (or lack thereof) of some kind of structure to take advantage of the discontent will determine if this is truly a realignment, or simply an angry backlash which will settle into the dust by November 2010.
When people began condemning Bush and protesting appearances by him and his people, it was because it was noticed (way too belatedly in my opinion) that Bush and Company were really, really bad, corrupt, incompetent people doing bad, stupid and destructive things, especially regarding anything and everything involving Iraq. They and their Republican supporters also became well adept and systematic at press manipulation and wholesale smear tactics, especially leading up to the 2004 election, when at times all the conservative media, from the National Review to Fox to right wing & conservative blog sites would echo pretty much the exact same “talking points” put out by the RNC and the like.
Now I imagine most of you, given the nature of this site, would probably strongly disagree with that assessment, but it is what it is. Republicans for the longest time have been much more coordinated in attacks on their opponents than Democrats and have tended to treat it all like military warfare — if you can get away with it, good. Bill Clinton and his people during his term established the “War Room” concept to fight this, and it proved to be quite successful: quickly and forcefully respond to any attacks, and when pushed, shove back. Kerry and his people did not implement this tactic nearly as well, resulting things like the malicious Swift Boat nonsense dogging him for much of 2004, effectively countering his vastly better military experience over Bush’s more than sketchy history with the Air National Guard (the CBS Killian stuff served only to distract away from much more substantial reporting and FOIA lawsuits digging into Bush’s service record by the AP and others.)
In regards to Obama, the main right wing/conservative smear tactics seem to involve labeling him as a socialist who will take away everyone’s rights and drive the country into the ground. This is all utter, paranoid nonsense, but if you repeat this enough, especially in the more disconnected sections of the country, you can get some pretty good “activism” going by the seriously confused. Obama and his people simply want to avoid being Kerry’d on the issues and are borrowing a page or two from Clinton’s playbook. That is just another it is what it is.
What, you guys thought you are being the good guys here? Ummm, no.
To the editor: I agree with Marcotte (#179).
The term “hate speech” is a particularly partison one, used by the Left to smear anyone to their right. It’s loaded with Nazi and KKK echos, though historically, modern media scripted hate-engendering speech is an invention of the Bolsheviks going back to the 1890s, and its home has stayed Left since.
Please change the term in your instructions to something more definitive.
190. Laurie Thompson:
nice satire …only I’m not sure it is satire. there are many trolls here who actually believe what you wrote.
…I recently saw a congressman gushing about a meeting with O-bum-a. it was like he saw GOD. or maybe the chicago crowd showed him a video of him doing things with farm animals.
like Dick M<orris said "he puts his pants on one leg at a time ..just like Hillary"
160. Nostromo:
Wrong, Blartbreath. By a simple funnel effect, the public will be forced to take the “public option” over time by reason of the government’s ability to drive down costs far lower than insurance companies can bear due to the absence of the government’s profit motive and its mammoth purchasing power.
The public will not be forced to do anything. You are free to keep whatever insurance you have now, or exercise the OPTION to use the federal insurance.
No one is being forced to do anything. Not you, not Congress, not your local Fish & Wildlife officer, nobody.
Laurie,
Are you for real? If not, then I have to give you credit for a nice bit of satire. If not, then that’s one hell of a piece for Jonestown.
I’ll give Obama a margin for error, but he’s not messianic.
188. Cody Saddler
“You have received so many laudatory comments in this thread there is little point in my joining the choir.”
Join the choir. This is the best blog.
190. Laurie
If he’s so ideal, how did he get to be this way considering his mentors? And why were 8 out of 10 decisions of Judge Sotomayer overturned by the Supreme Court?
How do you know him so well? Or is it just faith?
198. Blarty Blarckleblart:
160. Nostromo:
Wrong, Blartbreath. By a simple funnel effect, the public will be forced to take the “public option” over time by reason of the government’s ability to drive down costs far lower than insurance companies can bear due to the absence of the government’s profit motive and its mammoth purchasing power.
The public will not be forced to do anything. You are free to keep whatever insurance you have now, or exercise the OPTION to use the federal insurance.
No one is being forced to do anything. Not you, not Congress, not your local Fish & Wildlife officer, nobody.
EEHHH …wrong againt Blurty
read the bill …YOU WILL BE FORCED …unless you want to live under a tarp along the American river in Sacramento.
oh right right don’t read things …
The term “prairie fire” only begins describe the growing national mood. When the Pelosis and the Boxers in Congress describe the increasingly righteous indignation of everyday people as if it were nazi hooliganism on the part of well-dressed, swastika-waving shills, it betrays their belief that they somehow deserve to be in the ruling class, and that the rest of us deserve to shut up, sit down, and be obedient little bots. Furthermore, when these precious little princes and princesses in DC prove themselves to be psychologically unable to admit an honest misperception on their parts about the degree or legitimacy of public anger, they condemn us all to more of the same.
I have become a pessimist about the nation’s future. I think that the gulf that currently exists between the cesspool of the beltway and The People has grown almost too large to bridge. In his Gettysburg Address, Lincoln intoned that “that we here highly resolve that… …government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” We no longer have that ideal in Washington, DC. What we have is “government of the people, by the privileged, for ‘the greater good (as defined by the privileged).’” And, those privileged few who govern from the shelter of “inside the beltway” get to decide what the ‘greater good’ is to be, not only because they are plainly are not interested in whatever the voter thinks that greater good is, but also because they plainly don’t believe that The People are capable of understanding all of the complexities and nuances of government, and that we are therefore not qualified to have an opinion about its effect on our lives. They plainly believe that we cannot govern ourselves, and that we require their superior insight, wisdom, and vision – without which we will be adrift on a sea of chaos. They believe that they bring order to the universe, and that we cannot exist without them. Given how strongly they hold onto that egocentric view of their own importance, it is highly unlikely that they will ever come to understand their own existential insignificance.
In 1775, British government had the same relationship to the governed as we get to “enjoy” today with the current administration and Congress, and look what came out of it – a revolution. Thomas Jefferson famously said, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Is it even remotely possible that we are approaching that point? Personally, I don’t want to see the blood of patriots and tyrants alike running in the streets; but, I do fear that, unless the 2010 and 2012 elections drastically curtail what is currently going on, then we may not be that far from seeing it in our generation.
VDH:
My dear mother said it best. America finds a way to preserve herself.
FM
191. Laurie Thompson:
Good satire, and good practice for future political dissent. If the fascist Left does manage to suppress free speech, allegory and satire will regain their prior prominence as the voice of opposition.
Laurie Thompson @191.
My word, if this isn’t satire you are a living argument against universal suffrage.
Laurie–
I read it again. Has to be satire. Couldn’t be anything else. Well done. My apologies.
Democratic values are so against what mainstream USA believes and whenever one gets in office because indecisive people believe their empty promises, the country usually gets really upset and mid term elections 2 years later a statement can be made.
However, even if we repeat 1994 in 2010, unless the Republicans get find a candidate who isnt old or out of touch with mainstream conservative values, 2012 will result in Obamas reelection just like Clinton was reelected in 1996. That is why someone like Sara Palin is so feared by the left.
As much focus that is placed on what Obama is doing wrong needs to be placed on the promotion of viable conservative challengers.
Fascism is here
“Hours after Rush Limbaugh boosted the prominence of Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor’s health care town hall in Tampa, Florida, angry protesters drowned out discussion, their chants of “tyranny, tyranny” forcing Castor to cancel the meeting early, before having a chance to hear and address concerns from her constituents.”
http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=111086&catid=8
“In a stunning display of anger, Florida Republicans and fans of Fox editorialist Glenn Beck turned a Tampa healthcare forum into a “near riot,” one reporter said, as they attempted to enter the meeting hall and drown out a group of community organizers and a member of congress.
There were at least two reports of violence at the forum.
“Thursday’s forum/near riot was sponsored by state Rep. Betty Reed, D-Tampa, and the Service Employees International Union, who apparently had hoped to hold something of a pep rally for President Obama’s health care reform proposal,” noted St. Petersburg Times reporter Adam Smith.
He continued: “Instead, hundreds of vocal critics turned out, many of them saying they had been spurred on through the Tampa 912 activist group promoted by conservative radio and television personality Glenn Beck. Others had received e-mails from the Hillsborough Republican party that urged people to speak out against the plan and offered talking points to challenge supporters.”
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/article1025529.ece
This is how Fascism took root in Germany.
Wealthy corporate elites such as August Thyssen and Franz von Papen, terrified of a depression-fueled shakeup to the socio-economic order, and other industry giants such as Henry Ford, mesmerized by the prospect of a white Christian world without Jews and other undesirables, made an unholy alliance with the Nazi party, a political organization that aimed to restore a broken social order, always drawing on themes of unity, order, and purity. In Nazi ideology, reason is rejected in favor of passionate emotion. The way the organizing story is told varies from country to country; but it’s always rooted in the promise of restoring lost national pride by resurrecting the culture’s traditional myths and values, and purging society of the toxic liberal, foreign, minority influence of the outsiders and intellectuals who are blamed for their current misery.
In essence, the Nazi Party was the party of the furious, humiliated white German, just as the GOP today is the party of the furious, humiliated white American.
And just as the German industrialists of the Nazi era saw that populist white rage could be tapped to violently counter Left-wing politics in German society, so too do the Corporate Elites of America – the health insurance lobby, the arms manufacturers, the NRA, the energy lobby, and many other corporate interests – witness the white rage against a black president and see that there is plenty of energy among the fringe right-wing conservatives that can be exploited.
Though the Nazi Party and the German Corporate Elite had many political differences, they were able to form a working partnership over a shared hatred of the Left and liberal democracy. To the Industrial elites and the wealthy, the left wing represented more government regulation and taxation, which meant more scrutiny of their practices, less profit and therefore less power. To the Nazi Party, the left wing represented everything that the GOP hates today – a liberal social order, equality, civil rights, intellectualism, freedom and Democracy.
This is exactly what the GOP has become in this country – a political party that is blatantly racist, sexist, repressed, exclusionary, and permanently addicted to the politics of fear and rage. Worse: it doesn’t have a moment’s shame about any of it. No apologies, to anyone. These same narrative threads have woven their way through every fascist movement in history.
And wealthy American elites have bankrolled the GOP, just as wealthy German elites bankrolled the Nazis, to be its personal hit squad against political opponents. In exchange for campaign contributions, unrivaled air time on Fox News and other perks, GOP leaders loan their base of screaming, fist-shaking rent-a-protestors to show up and scream “Socialism!!” anytime it looks as though taxes might be raised on the extremely wealthy, or when the government attempts to intervene to regulate corrupt private industries.
Witness FOX News and conservative commentators riling up mobs of (mostly white, mostly southern) angry people to attack liberal political events.
Witness the Teabag movement – created by astroturf groups like Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks and Tim Phillips’ Americans for Prosperity, with massive media help from FOX News.
Witness the Birther fracas — the kind of urban myth-making that should have never made it out of the pages of the National Enquirer — being openly ratified by Congressional Republicans.
Witness Dick Armey’s own professionally-produced field manual that carefully instructs conservative goon squads in the fine art of disrupting the democratic governing process.
And witness the film of public officials being terrorized and threatened to the point where some of them required armed escorts to leave the building.
And finally, witness Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner applauding and promoting a video of the disruptions and looking forward to “a long, hot August for Democrats in Congress.”
This is how Fascism is born – Right wing political organizations – bankrolled and legitimized by the elite classes – abandoning reason, abandoning discourse, abandoning decency, declaring all out war on the opposition, and actively encouraging it’s base to resort to violence and intimidation as a legitimate means of reclaiming power and influence.
‘Laurie Thompson’ sucked me in a couple times on some other threads. The scary part is that there probably are people who think just like that in our country. :lol:
I think I know who ‘she’ is now.
STINKER!
Middleman, Anon:
Like my Aunt Rose used to say, take comliments wherever you can get them.
Whether they’s genuine or disingenuine, they’re still compliments.
I do apologize, though, for using so many words describing such a,(muchly like a department store diamond), multi faceted man, our leado, Barack Obama.
Sometimes people forget that He doesn’t abide by unfettered thoughts from disagreeable people voicing their disinflavorments, especially in venues like Town Meetings.
When cutting Town Hall remarks get back to Obama, he sometimes starts questioning himself, which cuts into time better spent benefiting America.
Furthermore, with the lofty goals Barack sets like a beautiful Thanksgiving table, he just doesn’t have time for trivial opinion pursuits.
Inarticulate unwashed, Republicans’ need to immediately cease and desist from their unvarnished attempts to use Town Meetings as a venue for derailing Barack’s health care plan. Think of these meetings as teaching moments. Listen quietly and dollars to donuts you’ll begin to understand the genius of the great ones health care plan.
An efficiently run, government owned and operated health care system is within our reach. Let’s not blow it.
Plus, Hillary, America’s mother of health care, heartily approves of Obama’s plan. So that should be reassuring. Which is nice.
It is also my want to remind you that, to truly appreciate and understand President Barack, one must think of him as not just the President, but an all knowing father figure, one who is not to be questioned but, rather, to be followed word for word, all the way to the promised land.
President Obama deserves your undivided attention when he’s speaking, and your unwavering devotion when
he’s sitting in the oval office planning new ways to better your lot in life.
Like Jeremy Wright said when they were on better terms, Barack may not be perfect, but he’s the closest thing you’ll find on God’s green earth to perfection.
Because Obama is taking care of America, you can count on America to take care of you.
Mike D,
Thanks for giving my message of hope and change a second look. Which is precisely what I hope all Americans with do when it comes to Obama’s grand health care program. The more people find out about it, the more people wil see it for what it really is.
Also, isn’t it nice that we have a President who views us not as adversaries, but as his own little children that need direction and understanding.
Like my Uncle Albert once said, “helping hands across America” at which point he fell asleep. Even when Obama, sleeps, though, it’s with an open eye toward the future.
210. Graham L.:
Fascism is here
GRAHAM L. CRACKERS …now that you called all those who have a different opinion the that of your president. how do you describe yourself.
I consider you to be either a marxist or one of their “useful idiots” (not useful in the sense that you can fix yor car or such)
I think this is just the beginning. We ain’t seen anything yet. I am not surprised by this. The best way to know about Obama is to look at his past records as Illinois senator.
I think Americans are in for rude awakening.
Read about Obama top 5 lies at the link below.
http://www.wethepeoplenews.com/2009/08/06/forbescomobamas-top-five-health-care-lies/
Delia,
My fondest hope is that one day you, too, will hold up a picture of Barack Obama to bright light and see the great things he has in store for us.
Efficient, government run heathscare.
Outlawing pornography that dehumanizes women or makes the average woman feel uncomfortable.
Putting most major, forture 500 U.S. corporations under the thumb of Barack Obama, making them work for America; keeping them accountable to the masses.
Bringing change to all labor unions, putting minorities into union jobs that represent their portion of the population.
Instituting mandatory competency testing of teachers.
Trans-planting a model European society in America. With no war machine. Taxes that meet the needs of the many, not set up to benefit the few.
A country no longer involved in the space race, but instead fully absorbed in structural racial equality where minorities, as a makeup for past wrongs, are offered 4% mortages good on homes in neighborhoods judged to be over 90% white.
Obama says, “Only when we truly live side by side can we begin to work as a team.?
Workplace equality. Meaning, all work places employing more than fifty people must have a proportionate share of minorites reflecting the makeup of the country.
Sane and safe gun laws, permitting gun ownership by a trimmed down military, police and hunters with licenses which over the years will be made more and more difficult to obtain.
Sonia Sotomayor, in fact, wrote a position paper about hunting where she says in thirty years, private gun ownership will be virtually a thing of the past. “All we need is a court that understands its legislative function as well as its judicial role.”
Delia, now that doesn’t sound so bad. Does it. All Barack wants is sane, sensible and safe change in America. Who in their right mind would argue with that?
210. Grahm L.
Your reasoning is the exact opposite of reality. You must not be aware of the President’s mentoring and how he must have internalized it. The townhall meetings were only verbal up to the point when the President encouraged fist fighting. Now somebody’s in a hospital thanks to the President’s directive.
He wants you to snitch on those who disagree with him. He let Black Panthers off scott free after they intimidated people at a voting center-and were convicted. He seems to be giving a Metal of Freedom award to a woman who condoned Jew hating. He’s given billions to ACORN who is under indictment in 14 states for voter fraud.
And this is only lately. This country has granted millions of people freedom, from Lincoln’s time to George W. Bush. America has given food aid, medical aid, disaster aid and financial aid under both Democratic and Republican presidents. It’s not the Party. The current President is provoking racial (Crowley/Gates), economic (cap&trade/industry takeover/debt proliferation), and international (eastern Europe/democratic S. America/Democratic Israel) strife. It’s all him.
Graham,
A good post overall. Maybe going a little too overboard labelling the entire GOP, but still good overall.
Now prepare yourself for the assault claiming the Nazis were actually liberal lefties because they had the word Socialist in their name.
#191. Laurie are you really Michelle Obama writing under the name ‘Laurie’? It’s probably not true since I have read the horribly written Princton Sr. Thesis attributed to Ms. Obama. However, there have been a few years in which to aquire a ghost writer.
“one reporter said, as they attempted to enter the meeting hall and drown out a group of community organizers and a member of congress.”
Those “community organizzers” you mention are APORN and Service Employee’s Union Thugs. They were escorted into the meetings via the back door whereas constituents who actually live in the representatives district were shut out.
They carry printed reproductions of signs that say “Health Care Can’t Wait” and assault those constituents who actually live in the district of democrat rep Kathy Castor, or Russ Carnahan .
It is specious of you to claim that constituents showing up to “town hall”
beatingsmeetings only to be shut outside while ACORN and Service Emplyee’s International Union Thugs all wearing the same blue SEIU T-shirts with logos are the ones who are “organized” by radio talk show hosts,It is the hallmark of the sociopath to engage in what psychology calls projection and accuse those citizens who show up to town hall meetings in the district where they live as organised by some outside source.
But you don’t stop there, you label those who reject the congressional death care bill not only as fascists, but racists.
In the Canada Free Press, a href=”http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/13409″target=”new”>JB williams examines this tactic of fascists and racists slandering all others (expressing their dissent) as fascists and racists, based on the logical fallacy that if people like you make the specious allegation first, then it is we who should remain on the defensive to disprove your negative, baseless accusations, which are really amount to more of a bizarre, backhanded confession of your motives and tactics
I hope you can read and respond to JB Williams refutation of your argument and respond, but I suspect that you not only have an opinion, but an objective as well, and are working someone else’s agenda too. Please disclose who put you up to this, but its fairly well apparent that your meme follows through on the same talking points of the Boxer/Pelosi/0bmama <a href="http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/13409brigades.
The You Tube video of the Russ Carnahan/SEIU beating is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTXBOgPCh9w
graham l.”the GOP today is the party of the furious, humiliated white American.”
and:
“This is exactly what the GOP has become in this country – a political party that is blatantly racist, sexist, repressed, exclusionary, and permanently addicted to the politics of fear and rage. Worse: it doesn’t have a moment’s shame about any of it. No apologies, to anyone. These same narrative threads have woven their way through every fascist movement in history”
ah,and this one:
“fist-shaking rent-a-protestors to show up and scream “Socialism!!” anytime it looks as though taxes might be raised on the extremely wealthy, or when the government attempts to intervene to regulate corrupt private industries”
-do you actualy know(friends with) any REAL Conservatives?
-do you have any original thoughts in your head,in regards to political philosophy?
Laurie? You’re not related to Iowahawk, are you?
Reply to Graham L (#210)
That’s quite a laundry list of accusations. The problem is that you have constructed a complete inversion of reality. So according to you it’s the “wealthy elites” and huge and sinister corporate interests that are using the GOP to subvert democracy and destroy all that’s good and decent, is it?
Somebody apparently forgot to get the word out to all the proto-fascist industrialists and faceless, evil white profiteers before the last election because dang it, they spent the majority of their money getting Barack Obama into the oval office. You couldn’t be bothered enough to go to a site like opensecret.org to get a full accounting of where “corporate America” funneled the bulk of its campaign donations, could you? Poor liberal, protector-of-the little guy and candidate Obama only got more than twice the amount of money that McCain received. And lo and behold- these corporatists and plutocrats that you believe are part of the grand conspiracy to create the Fourth Reich all laid the bulk of their donations at Obama’s feet. Dang- even those reviled Wall St. kings and usurpers Goldman Sachs donated four times as much money to Obama than McCain. In fact, the entire Securities and Investments sector donations ran 57/43% in favor of Obama over McCain.
So much for your “theory” of wealthy elites funding rightwing fascism. But I’m sure they’ll get plenty of that now that they’ve put their money on Obama.
The stupid “racist, sexist, exclusionary” jibes are also a complete inversion. President Bush had a much more racially and gender diverse executive staff than Obama and his political appointees covered a much broader spectrum of people of different nationalities. But of course, since they’re Republicans I suppose they don’t count. But of course Obama has quite a wonderfully diverse crew as his inner circle doesn’t he? I bet you’re just all swollen with pride at the sight of his sterling collection of lifetime Wall St./ D.C. insiders and professional lobbyists. Why it’s a veritable ‘Rainbow Coalition” of Hope and Change!
210. Graham L.:
You present a curiously inconsistent syllogism:
You first adopt the language that describes the sources of inspiration of American heroism, the prevailing principles of our traditions, and the causes of the preeminence of our great nation, “liberal social order, equality, civil rights, intellectualism, freedom and Democracy” and then equivocate serially GOP party affiliation with conservative values, to finally criticize conservatives for our all-out war on the government’s take-over of our lives?
When did entrepreneurs become bad and paper pushers good?
Was it so long ago that the role of public servants was to serve the public?
Doesn’t it make sense that small government is the conservative goal, not making the state the master of the individual?
Isn’t it an American tradition that the Bill of Rights avail citizens of this country the restraint of government coercion against the individual?
220
I thought you guys were tough? Not so much, huh?
216. Laurie Thompson
Our President said to ‘get in their faces’ . You’re doing a great job.
1. “Efficient, government run heathscare. “…good chance that’s an oxymoron
2. “Outlawing pornography” nice thought. Prostitution and Pot are illegal already…good luck. Prohibition inspired the gangster culture in the 30′s.
3. ” corporations under the thumb of Barack Obama” He’s never run a business in his life…have you?
4. “mandatory competency testing of teachers” …do teachers know about this? Remember? Testing the firefighters? Sotomayer? Yikes!
5. “no war machine”…don’t tell our enemies about that. Maybe you think that they think the same about the President as you do.
6. “makeup for past wrongs”…people who didn’t wrong anybody shouldn’t be punished for those dead and gone.
7. “Sane and safe gun laws” …Tell that to the gangs…crooks…the bad guys…besides if you owned a gun and had learned the rules, you’d learn the sane and safe guidelines already in place.
8. “Who in their right mind” …perhaps you think that you know what a ‘right mind’ is… more than the rest of us here. You sound sweet. I wonder about your life experience.
#218 Middleman….I have read your post, and there is nothing middle of the road about you. You are as far-left as they come.
Laurie-I live in the land of fruits and nuts, boy would they welcome you with open arms. Either San Fran. or Hollywood, both of those places have your kind of people with impaired logical brain functions. Now those were not nice words to say about someone I do not know, but get some facts, study the information before blindly following unwise people.
219. Paul -Indiana
“there have been a few years in which to aquire a ghost writer.”
I’m sure Bill Ayers is still available. But I don’t think Laurie is being serious. No one who can type is this delusional.
Graham L.:
“This is how Fascism is born”
I retract my previous statement (see above). Fascism is born when people don’t have — or give up — the right to make their own decisions in life. The government, in concert with other leaders in society, will then make all the decisions for you. Since the core tenets of conservatism are antithetical to this arrangement they are not prone to fascism. For Left-wing statists, on the other hand, adopting “fascist” tactics to some degree is a natural progression. Not for nothing were the NAZIs known as the National Socialist German Workers Party. That name doesn’t have a natural Right-wing ring to it, now does it? You’re a bit lite on your medication BTW.
The Bohemian Cult Triangle of Hollywood, academia, and the entrenched media have been working over 50 years to obtain ultimate power in Washington, and it is all falling apart in less than a year.
The end of cultural marxism should be our ultimate goal.
President Obama tried to portray himself as an urban, hipper version of Jimmy Carter: a peace-loving individual who would try to bring healing to our nation. His actions, however, are purely Dick Nixon–tin soldiers and all.
Graham has the skinny on how it all works, but he’s just got hisself transposed somehow. Must be a public servant or something.
# 191 Laurie:
Oh my, you are superb! You belong in the Senate. They wouldn’t know what hit ‘em.
Thank you, thank you!
216. Laurie Thompson,
Your efforts to turn people off to Barack and Liberals is GENIUS! Keep the laughs comin’!
He-he-he-he! ROTFL!
210. Graham L. “I have learned a great deal from Marxism, as I do not hesitate to admit. The difference between them and myself is that I have really put into practice what these peddlers and pen pushers have timidly begun”. – Adolf Hitler
Quite a conservative, I would say.
Ron and Brian,
I know you two boys are well intentioned,
but I think the always stunningly beautiful Delia needs to fill in a blank
for you. ______
FOR
DUMMIES
Hugs,
Laurie
I just wish we’d all quit bickering and just submit to our *new* gay and lesbian overlords
Essential vdh
“Whoever might perfume a scorpion
Will not thereby escape its sting”
-Hadrat Bahaudin Naqshband, The Shah.
BHO should remember the above quote and understand it if he learns anything from the coming disaster.
BHO is not immune from the consequences that will fall on a dumbed down America due to his conditioned actions and the processes that it will set in motion.
America is now being led with a ring in the nose by lies and a Judas goat of communist subversion veiled in Utopian language.
Look at what Laurie Thompson wrote in this blog. Use it to inoculate yourself. Thompson’s comments are a reproduction of the spirit and impact of the indoctrination and hypnosis that occurs in humans by effectively using words that work by virtually blocking entire populations from common sense and individual responsibility.
Laurie’s words are the current manifestation of the Utopian language of communists and dictators throughout history. The human daydreams of Utopia have been present day one. A sirens song drawing ships to the rocks.
Once control is established the Utopian ideals never materialize because they are but daydreams cleverly used by those seeking control.
BHO is the high water mark in the Use of the Utopian subversion in America’s political process because he is regurgitating the same Utopian language that was used to indoctrinate him. Starting with his communist mother. His father was a non entity in his life. Nothing new here.
BHO thoughts are the vacuous thoughts needed for justifying affirmative action and political correctness that seeped like slime from the elite universities seeking recognition for their sensitivity, brilliance and government handouts. Being called by the Kremlin “Useful Idiots”. Not able to recognize their “brilliance” was thinking and ideas that worked only in their own Utopian minds, a result of the fossilized Academic system in America and cobweb filled minds.
These words of BHO and his cronies are the language of revolution and like a drug implant visions of Utopia in followers. It happens only to humans. Just reading them puts one to questioning what is wrong with this? It is so “peaceful” and “benevolent”.
It is like a drug induced haze but it is not drug induced it is triggered by the need for humans to seek security and the ability of humans to accept and rationalize lies that lift from them the need to be responsible for themselves and their families.
This type of subversion has been and is used to justify almost any action including killing millions of people. The means is justified when Utopia is at stake.
What are a few thugs at a town hall meeting. America–you better wake up! BHO is taking over your well being and taking control of health care and what else. Deciding if your own assets (now nothing but a resource for government taxing) should be used to keep you alive.
BHO rants are being used to separate your thinking from the real world. You become psychotic by definition. It provides an alternative reality. It is the snake in the garden of Eden talking to Eve. It has been around that long. It is a self destruct mechanism for humans.
Our lack of awareness of this nightmare of Utopian dreams stems from the loss of a real education of factual history in public schools and the directly subversive eduction in University level “studies.” It also of course is the language of Affirmative Action and Political Correctness.
This subversive Utopian language is the fundamental basis of the criminal extortion that is gaming the system by criminals like Al Sharpton, Bill Ayers and those of his like. It is the language used to pump up Acorn by a community organizer like BHO. It justifies the stealing of elections and fraud. It is the BS taught at Harvard, Especially as taught by such as Gates. It is the only thinking that a Barney Franks can do. His gay lover ran the business in the basement.
This indoctrination process lifts a burden that requires humans to be strong and accept life’s hardships as their responsibility to deal with. It purports to isolate humans from “failure”.
It is rationalized as being quickly achievable and thus it excites the mind to be in a hurry because it is just around the corner.
The emotional pitch is high because it seems to be just a matter of months before it’s effect will be seen and then life will be “perfect”.
BHO words and siren’s song depend on every human weakness that western culture had to overcome to become the high water mark for human progress in history. What was just said? Look again. Why do we like vdh, he reminds us this is so. Thomas Sowell reminds us, Walter Williams reminds us.
We have dumbed down the American population so it does not recognize the poison that it is drinking to self destruct.
America is now on a path that will be the equivalent of dropping into a well that when we hit the bottom will put America where humans started over 2000 years ago.–psychologically.
It will take a few more years to cannibalize the assets of America needed to feed a dependent population who will quickly come out of their Utopian dream.
It took over 100 years for the USSR to destroy Russia. Millions were killed in the process. China is only pulling itself out of the communist hole in so far as it is implementing limited democratic capitalist enclaves within China.
Even China got tired of the Revolutions within Revolutions to maintain Communisms grip on people that were starving to death.
The kernel of free wheeling democracy and capitalism acquired by China in Hong Kong is literally pulling China up by the boot straps.
History tells us Utopian thinking and human weakness and fear was essentially countered and answered by the concept of one “God” and the individuals responsibility for his own sins. Sloth, Greed and whatever else stopped human progress was identified as individual sins and individuals were asked to seek God’s forgiveness so they could press on in a state of “grace”. This freed individual humans from the fears that limited them and gave them a shot of courage and possibilities and created the explosive growth and advancement of what is now called Western Culture.
God was on their side! Not a piss-ant dictator, king or state. They could overcome anything and they did armed with these beliefs.
For the first time in human history no matter how hard life got “God” was there for the individual and so the wagon trains moved west in the face of an unknown and dangerous future. In God we Trust was their daily prayer. Remember.
BHO wants to replace all of this including God with the state. Nothing new here. He will now take care of you and address your fears. Sit back and relax BHO the “magic negro” as he was called by “real African Americans” whose relatives 5 or 6 generations back were “real slaves” is now in charge. Believe it or not.
This whole situation is breathtaking on a number of fronts.
Breathtaking that the American public would so blithely disregard Obama’s chosen radical associations; breathtaking that Obama would so revile a nation that enfranchised his personal development after parental abandonment and death; breathtaking that a man with zero executive experience could possibly become elected to the highest executive office in the land; breathtaking that he and his advisors would so quickly and foolishly squander the best and probably only opportunity for closet socialists to gain a permanent foothold in American government; breathtaking that the president would so willfully demonstrate disloyalty to his own maternal family that raised him in order to achieve 97% support from his chosen demography; breathtaking that he .
Here are just a few points we should all remember and take solace in. Barack Obama is not as smart as he believes himself to be, and among smart folks, is not particularly smart at all. Barack Obama will soon alienate his own party with the political consequences of his cavalier and reckless initiatives. Barack Obama most certainly does not love this country, else he would treat his office with more respect than to continue a political campaign after the election is over. Barack Obama was decidedly uncivil to his immediate predecessor, which subtly but most certainly reveals weakness of character to the masses, albeit at a very subliminal level. Barack Obama has roused the ire of just about every sector with deep pockets. Barack Obama has authorized tactics that repulse the majority of American voters. Barack Obama’s election win was not thanks to 97% of blacks who voted for him; rather, it was thanks to a legion of independents that momentarily bought into the charisma and novelty of a black president not named George W. Bush, and who will be doing so no longer since they believe their hard-earned health benefits are worth retaining.
The democrats have become a parody of themselves. This is their once-in-75-year opportunity to remind Americans how f#%@d-up socialism truly is. And when faced with a multitude of independents who have battened down their financial hatches for two years and chocked every cent they could into savings for fear of job loss, a multitude who has weaned themselves off credit cards and who on a visceral level fully and completely understand how hard their money is earned, Obama and the present democratic Congress simply cannot survive. They will swiftly be relegated to the dustbin of history. Count on it.
Essential vdh
Laurie Thompson: I have an unmarried son who is also my business partner.
He needs his freedom taken away. He needs a wife with your sense of possibilities.
Since he doesn’t read this Blog he won’t know that he is being offered up. Kind of.
Since you are not really identified and could be married, old and ugly but with a quirky mind we will leave my comments as they stand. They represent my state of mind and not my intent for action on this matter.
I enjoyed reading your missives. I enjoyed the comments in response to your subversion.
Laurie writes like Jonathan Swift–c’mon don’t you get it?
Remember people if our Ballot box dose not work, well the bullet box will!
I have this prediction-Such as Obama did with Rush Limbaugh, Obama will lash out violently against his crtics and against the ordinary americans . Like all communists,Obama will react like the Red Chinese did in Tiannemen Square in 1989, just as his minions the union thugs and the black panthers are doing now. Only Obama will find out the american military dislikes him, even more so than the general population. Remeber those in our military-your oath you swore was to the constitution of the USA, not to the politicians.
210. Graham L.:
===============
Nailed it. What’s more frightening is a lot of these teabaggers, birthers and town hall protesters don’t have a clue as to how they are being manipulated.
Fox News, Dick Armey, FreedomWorks and others are playing toward a lot of people’s fears. Ask yourself. Do you want to be used? If you really believe in our high sounding ideals why allow yourself to be manipulated by powerful people who have their own warped sense of what America should be instead of what America is really about.
Well the real voices will be heard in 2010 and that is what I am counting on, and in the meantime there will be more outrage and more tea parties and this is showing that Obama is not a uniting the country like he campaigned on but is dividing the country and a liar too.
With a new congress minus many democrats then we can reverse the course and start impeachment proceedings. Just remember that only 53% of the registered voters voted and of that even given 54% margin that only 28% of the registered voter put the current batch in office. Another large percentage that did not vote will not repeat the same in the upcoming mid terms in 2010.
This experiment in Black Racist Marxism is fast becoming known for being one of the most corrupt Administrations in our history. I think it will be the demise of the Democrat Party.
Instead of the Conservatives starting a new party because of a lack of leadership and initiative at the helm of the GOP, which is a real problem that needs to be addressed, Democrats will find that the name Democrat will be repugnant and people will be reluctant to ever admit having been associated with the party, in a similar situation to the way National Socialists after World war II.
241. Laurie Thompson
Calling people names only reflects poorly on the one calling the names.
When people express ideas but don’t convince, many times they strike with names and insults. Know what I mean?
Your comments otherwise remind me of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’. We all go through that stage.
Pat J
“how they are being manipulated”
That’s a conspiracy theory.
I must interject a note of bipartisan comity here. Barack Obama actually does have executive experience. For about a year, he was the executive in charge of handing out tens of millions of dollars–if memory serves regarding the amount–under the auspices of the Annenberg Foundation. As I recall it was called something to the effect of the Chicago Annenberg challenge. In this endeavor, Obama, ably assisted by Bill Ayers, yes, he of terrorist, murderous marxist fame, the man who stomps on the flag for a magazine cover and said that his only regret from his active days as a terrorist murderer is that he didn’t do enough(!?), doled out millions and millions for dubious, leftist, feel good “education” programs for purportedly poor and “underserved” children, many of which programs turned out to fall under the nebulous title of “community organizing activities.”
After Obama and Ayers (you remember him, the guy who just happened to live in Obama’s neighborhood, the man Obama probably wouldn’t recognize on sight, despite having worked intimately with him for years and despite having his political coming out party in Ayers’ home) essentially used bales of money as toilet tissue, the Annenberg foundation investigated and discovered that all of that money, all of those programs, accomplished–wait for it–nothing at all!
I’m not surprised that most people don’t know about this. Obama and the media went to great lengths to cover up his single, very expensive, abortive foray into management. But just so you know, it’s not fair to say Obama has no executive experience. It is fair to say that his sole executive experience was an unbelievably costly con and disaster.
Hey! Isn’t that what’s he’s doing now?
“Laurie Thompson” makes the most sense of all these commenters. LOL! More, Laura. More.
Experiment in Black Racist Marxism? Sounds like someone has some serious underlying fears. Might want to get your head checked.
there are three kinds of people those who talk about ideas those that talk about things and those who talk about other people look at http://www.youtube.com/user/savingtherepublic its funny and to he point
I am reminded of what Admiral Yamamoto is credited with saying, after being told that Japan’s formal declaration of War was delivered to the United States after the Japanese began the attack on Pearl Harbor:
“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
P.S. For those who don’t know, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was the Commander in Chief of the Japanese Imperial Navy on December 7, 1941 and the architect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
I think this is the beginning of a Marxist revolution in America. He is being sold to the younger people as a savior, a cool leader…
Any disagreement is a conspiracy theory. Any disagreement is not even being listened to by this government. Their ears are filled up with money.
This is America,not a servile nation inhabited by decadent eurowinnies who long-ago sold out their freedom for a rancid mess of government welfare.Suddenly,America has a marxoid thug for a president,and suddenly,there’s a revolt. What did the Libtards expect?
#210GRAHAM L. 250 PAT J: You libtard pomposities condescendingly libel popular protest as manipulated by evil interest groups.Meanwhile you let yourselves be manipulated by a marxoid thug sock puppet, run by left wing plutocrats.Ultimately both of you are manipulated by tertiary syphilis,which is clearly seized your brains.BTW Graham your history lessons and ludicrous comparisons are incredibly funny,you clearly are the victim of a governmennt school. Get used to it: Obama,his policies and their supporters are becoming figures of hate,and what is worse ridicule:all the condescension in the world won’t change that.
#43 HARP :Get a tune up and get your facts straight:A majority of Americans oppose Obamas health”care” bill.
#227NOW&Then(his brain spasms)Try to intimidate us from voting in the next elections ,thug, and you’ll find how tough we can get.
Great article. Their attempts to discredit Americans who are speaking out are failing. ACORN is being bussed to sites and displaying a lot of boldness.
Anything with “community organizer” or “community activist” sounds pretty Marxist to me.
Next election, vote for all of the independents (but not socialist or marxists.)
Interesting perspective on anger.
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