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Friday, June 22, 2012
Arguments even Liberals might
understand...
Easy Money
Springsteen's
latest uninspired album is nevertheless aptly named.
What Obama has been and will be even in a second term. The truth.
TOLD
YOU SO. I'm thinking even the most secular among us can
appreciate that life offers lessons. Something about physics if not
justice. Despite all their flailing and excuse-making, the MSM has
an opportunity to learn an important lesson for their cause before
it destroys their hopes for an entire generation. All those
journalists who joined the profession to make the world a better
place never learned that the first responsibility of a profession is
not for its members to follow their hearts and aspirations but to do
their duty. Like attorneys who learn in law school that their duty
is not justice as they see it or wish it but providing the best
possible advocacy for their clients. All defendants deserve the best
possible legal representation, regardless of what defense attorneys
think about their guilt or innocence. Prosecutors have an additional
burden. Yes, they need to fight just as hard for
convictions, but they cannot misrepresent or conceal facts in such a
way that an innocent defendant is convicted of a crime he did not
commit. For the system to work, both sides must follow the facts and
trust the judge and jury to make the decisions. Journalists also have a duty to follow the facts. All of them.What Obama has been and will be even in a second term. The truth.
The simple truth of the matter is that in 2008 the MSM did not do their duty as journalists. They did not vet the candidate Obama. Regardless of their good intentions -- desire for a post-racial transformation of American life, a belief in idealistic rhetoric that appealed uniquely to professional connoisseurs of rhetoric -- their failure to do their duty had two effects, both calamitous.
First, the Obama we got was not the Obama promised by his campaign, a uniter, an honest visionary, a gifted leader, a post-partisan and transparent idealist, an empathetic citizen of the world. In most ways, what we got was the exact opposite of this. A divisive fomenter of lefty grievances against the right, an utterly uncompromising ideologue, a distant and inattentive narcissist, a bitterly partisan inciter of class/racial/ethnic/religious conflicts, an inveterate cynic about all things American, and a cold-blooded politician -- and dare I say it, a personally cold cold man -- who would stoop to any tactic to get his way.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, we got a president for whom it all came too easily. Easy money. And you know what happens to easy money. It goes away as quickly as it comes. Ask any gambler. You can't hold on to easy money. You didn't work hard enough to get it. Why Obama started his term with a commanding majority in the house and a filibuster-proof majority in the senate and pissed it all away without accomplishing anything that helped the economy, which was the number one issue facing him from the beginning. And I'll say what no one else will. From his inauguration on, he has acted more like Al Pacino's Scarface than a president of the United States. The man doesn't actually do any work. He doesn't meet with his cabinet, he doesn't meet with members of congress, even leaders of his own party, and there's no sign whatever that he ever dug into any details of the frightful stimulus legislation or even ObamaCare. Yeah, he jetted around making speeches about healthcare, but he's had more face time with union bosses and celebrities and sports stars than he's ever had with the people who are supposed to make things work in Washington. The only attention to detail I've ever seen from this president is the bracket analysis he provides each year before the March Madness of NCAA basketball playoffs.
The rest of the time he plays golf, works out, schmoozes with Hollywood multi-millionaires, accompanies his wife (or not -- another story) on lavishly expensive vacations to the world's most elite tourist venues, and steps to his relentlessly telepromptered microphone only to blast Republicans. He doesn't even want to have press conferences anymore, and when he does, so-called journalists aren't allowed to ask him tough questions. (He's the president, don't you know?) Bush used to get his daily presidential briefing every morning at 7:30 am. Obama gets his anymore somewhere between 10 am and 3 pm. Then it's off to golf or Beverly Hills.
Easy money. Everyone's afraid to tell the truth. He's a lazy, good-for-nothing president. Not because of any racial stereotype. But because the MSM made it all too easy for him. Most presidents spend their first two years learning how to be president. This one never bothered. Why should he? He's been taught by ridiculous adulation that it's his birthright and everyone should simply conform to his divine wishes.
But here's the rub.
A second Obama term will be a disaster for Democrats and an absolute cataclysm for black politicians. Reasons why even the MSM should start covering their collective ass and covering the president the way they would a Republican candidate:
1. No more Democrat presidents. Forget the first two years when most new presidents set about learning how to be president. Only the time since the 2010 elections is relevant. That's what the entire second Obama term would look like. He'll never again have the commanding majorities he had at first. Inconvenient, even impossible, for a latter day Napoleon. (Oops. Problem. Not nearly as smart as Napoleon. But even more intransigent.) Inevitable result? Total paralysis in congress. He will not compromise on anything EVER. He will not win back enough of the house or senate to get any legislation passed. He doesn't want to have anything to do with congress. He will rely increasingly on dictatorial end-runs around the congress and hence the Constitution. There is nothing whatever to suggest that he knows enough about representative government to make anything happen beyond stalemate. Result? More economic stagnation and a repudiation of the Democratic Party in 2016 that could finish the party in presidential politics for a generation.
2. No more black presidents. Eight years of grievances, policy folly, government stalemate, trumped up racial anger, and ostentatiously high living will be enough. Post-racial utopia will be toast.
3. Romney is the best bet to make compromises that will make Democrats relevant again. He'll at least talk to the opposition, negotiate with them, and foist some legislation on his own party that will make them as unhappy with the final result as you will be. And what's the real bet? Republicans may not at this point be able to fix the economy any faster than Obama did. The clock ticks, and there's at least a chance that a Democrat can run against Romney and Republicans the way Romney is running against Obama and the Democrats now. I don't think so, but if you're a Democrat, this is a bet you more or less have to take.
4. The MSM might actually return to life -- if the lessons of Obama have been learned. Call it Return to Duty. In a Romney term, the MSM starts being objective. Reporting facts. Covering both sides. Earning back some trust from the voters. Not every economic report is spun exclusively in terms the Democrats approve of. Not everything the Republicans do is purely political and partisan. Not everything the Democrats do is a last ditch stand against the racist, sexist, soul-destroying fascists of the right. Then, when the 2016 campaign begins in earnest, the Great Unwashed might start paying attention again.
Sure, everything I've said is probably a waste of time. But maybe some of you have liberal friends who aren't complete moral and intellectual idiots. I keep hearing people say this is so. Give it a try.
I'm prepared to be pleasantly surprised. But I'm skeptical. Something about easy money. A lot easier to assume you're right about everything than think about anything.
ADDENDUM: I know nobody reads my introductory links. This time, I linked to what I said the week of Obama's election, when I said he wasn't my president. One of the comments on that post provides context for my thoughts about those of you who can't bear to offend your liberal friends:
Dave
2008-11-07
This blog post has converted me. Or perhaps more aptly put, it has AWAKENED me. It is almost as if you articulated the voice of my subconscious. I have not wanted to accept that Obama at core is who he certainly must be based on his well established history, associations, and chosen peer group. Instead I have wanted to believe that all that Obama was, must have been washed away by the trial of campaigning for and winning the Presidency. Indeed I wanted to believe that the awesome responsibilities of the office and the Constitution would convert him. I have not wanted to admit to myself that there is every reason to doubt that Obama has been or can be converted to a Constitution honoring American.
You are correct, it is he who has much to prove regarding love of America and its Constitutional foundation. And I believe it unlikely that he will make any such effort. Why should he? He won despite his open and unapologetic associations with the likes of Ayres and Acorn. America has unwittingly given its imprimatur to who Obama is. America told him, "You're fine just they way you are." Awash in Presidential power and democratic mandate, he will feel the need to prove nothing.
So while Obama is to be the President, I need not accept him as my President. I would not have accepted FDR either. (Just FDR's effort to pack the Supreme Court with jurists sympathetic to his governance was an explicit violation of his oath to uphold and protect the US Constitution and therefore worthy of impeachment.)
That said, most of my friends are liberal. They are overwhelmingly clueless as to the value of the Constitution. And they would not understand my reasoning for rejecting Obama as my President. True, they never accepted Bush (whom they considered a ‘retarded-criminal-lying-war mongering-fascist') as their President. But I simply value their friendship too much to take serious issue with their hypocrisies and delusions. And I want to keep them as friends too much as to futilely try and explain why Obama is the President but he is not my President. They already know that I am an unapologetic conservative who will never vote for a liberal. - And that is tough enough for them.
So I hope to (and believe that I can) simply avoid the denying versus affirming of my allegiance to President Obama.
All the same, I thank you Instapunk for getting me to consciously acknowledge and accept what I already knew deep down about our next President: that there is every reason to suspect that Obama will maintain a tacitly subversive disposition to the Constitution; and that therefore he is not a President that I can accept as mine.
This blog post has converted me. Or perhaps more aptly put, it has AWAKENED me. It is almost as if you articulated the voice of my subconscious. I have not wanted to accept that Obama at core is who he certainly must be based on his well established history, associations, and chosen peer group. Instead I have wanted to believe that all that Obama was, must have been washed away by the trial of campaigning for and winning the Presidency. Indeed I wanted to believe that the awesome responsibilities of the office and the Constitution would convert him. I have not wanted to admit to myself that there is every reason to doubt that Obama has been or can be converted to a Constitution honoring American.
You are correct, it is he who has much to prove regarding love of America and its Constitutional foundation. And I believe it unlikely that he will make any such effort. Why should he? He won despite his open and unapologetic associations with the likes of Ayres and Acorn. America has unwittingly given its imprimatur to who Obama is. America told him, "You're fine just they way you are." Awash in Presidential power and democratic mandate, he will feel the need to prove nothing.
So while Obama is to be the President, I need not accept him as my President. I would not have accepted FDR either. (Just FDR's effort to pack the Supreme Court with jurists sympathetic to his governance was an explicit violation of his oath to uphold and protect the US Constitution and therefore worthy of impeachment.)
That said, most of my friends are liberal. They are overwhelmingly clueless as to the value of the Constitution. And they would not understand my reasoning for rejecting Obama as my President. True, they never accepted Bush (whom they considered a ‘retarded-criminal-lying-war mongering-fascist') as their President. But I simply value their friendship too much to take serious issue with their hypocrisies and delusions. And I want to keep them as friends too much as to futilely try and explain why Obama is the President but he is not my President. They already know that I am an unapologetic conservative who will never vote for a liberal. - And that is tough enough for them.
So I hope to (and believe that I can) simply avoid the denying versus affirming of my allegiance to President Obama.
All the same, I thank you Instapunk for getting me to consciously acknowledge and accept what I already knew deep down about our next President: that there is every reason to suspect that Obama will maintain a tacitly subversive disposition to the Constitution; and that therefore he is not a President that I can accept as mine.
Some reality for all of you to remember. Despite all the hysteria and media adulation -- and the incredibly incompetent McCain campaign -- Obama won 53% to 47%. Romney needs 4% more of the total votes to win the presidency. This is, uh, not much. From messiah to failed president presiding over a rotten economy, multiple scandals, and both Europe and the middle east in collapse, can we not agree that retaking the White House is a doable thing? And that a few pungent words to your very dear liberal friends might be worth the speaking of?
