The Democrats introduced Barack Obama to the nation and the world at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He gave a keynote address in which he said “we are more than a collection of red states and blue states — we are the United States of America.”
With this line, Barack Obama sold himself to the Democratic base who were in a sort of political wasteland after a hard-fought election in 2000. He seemed like a true uniter, someone who could win the hearts and minds of Democrats, independents, and moderate Republicans. Since coming into office, however, he has proven that this image of Barack Obama the uniter and the post-partisan was an abject fraud. Over the past few months, he has shown a propensity to antagonize those with the effrontery to oppose his policies. Obama’s hostility has reached a boiling point over the past few weeks and finally culminated in his comments on Friday where he essentially told those who oppose his radical takeover of health care to shut their mouths.
His intent is clear: the real Barack Obama isn’t interested in being president of the United States; he wants to be president of an exclusive group of Americans made up of sycophants who parrot the party line.
Americans who normally minded their own business, lived their lives, went to work, raised their kids, and planned for retirement are dismayed at the details that are coming out of the enormously complex health care bills that are working their way through Congress. They’re learning that HR 3200 stipulates that, after the first year that the new health care laws are enacted, their private health insurance companies won’t be allowed to enroll any new customers, yet they won’t be able to change any terms of its conditions for their current customers.
The obvious effect of such a law is that it would put insurance companies out of business very quickly. Also, people are learning that companies that offer health insurance will be required to ensure that their plans match the government’s plan within five years. They are learning that when they reach their sunset years they will be required to go their doctors for “end of life” counseling every five years. Having been made aware of some of these little-known details, the American people are doing what they ought to as responsible members of a representative republic. They are contacting their elected representatives and telling them to vote against the nationalization of health care.
However, some elected representatives have not just been unresponsive to the concerns of their constituents; they’ve been downright hostile to them. The American people who elected these men and women to represent their interests in Washington are becoming increasingly frustrated. They are expressing that frustration at various town hall meetings with their representatives, yet these oft-insulated politicians simply don’t know what to do in response to their constituents’ outrage.
Instead of engaging them and listening to their concerns, they have responded by hiding from them, holding town halls over the telephone, or limiting the public’s access to their public meetings. Leading the charge against the people is their own president, who seems to have decided he does not want to to be the leader of all Americans, only his idolaters. Yet he demands those same Americans who are unworthy of his attention to pay for his agenda. This goes beyond the typical arrogance we have come to expect from this administration; it is taking the form of blatant contempt for the American people.
President Obama has resorted to Chicago-style brass knuckle politics of intimidation by declaring war on those who refuse to assimilate. First, he publicly smeared and insulted them like he did Sergeant Crowley by calling them “angry mobs” and their protests “manufactured.” At a political rally in Virginia last Friday, he referred to those who opposed his plans as the “folks who created the mess” and said that they shouldn’t “do a lot of talking.”
Then, in an act of blatant hypocrisy, he ordered up his own organized army of union members and Democrats to combat those citizens who were doing nothing more than legally expressing their views about the health care bills. Obama gave his troops their marching orders: “punch back twice as hard” at their opponents. Presumably that language was meant to be metaphorical, but it is indicative of a hostility on the part of the White House toward fellow Americans that is wholly unacceptable and unbecoming in their chief executive.
It seems, though, that some of Obama’s supporters in Service Employees International Union (SEIU) took that order literally when they physically assaulted a peaceful protester in St. Louis and put him in the hospital. What is especially disturbing is that the day after the attack, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius held a conference call with members of SEIU. She called them her “brothers and sisters,” praised their actions, and told them to “keep doing what you’re doing.” But perhaps Obama’s greatest indignity is his insidious snitch program that encourages his supporters to report their neighbors, family members, and friends when they publicly, whether through blog posts, emails, or in casual conversation, dare to dissent from the Obama party line on health care.
The president’s antics are an affront to the office and reduce him to nothing more than a bellicose, sleazy union boss who works only to advance the interests of his select members. And, sadly, just as Democratic-backed unions bankrupted Chrysler and GM, Obama and his union minions will, with their health care plan, end up bankrupting the nation.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member