The cracks in Obama’s armor are finally being recognized, even by many of the people who voted for him. Indeed, these are not so much modest cracks as San Andreas Fault lines. People who tried to warn the country back in 2008 are now enjoying a cautious sigh of relief, as Conservatives seem poised to regain the House and the Senate in November.
But before we relax too much, it is important as a nation to stop, take a deep breath, and do some troubleshooting. We must remember how well intentioned fellow citizens contributed to the first few scenes of this four-act tragedy. After all, a great deal of revelatory information came out about Obama prior to the election, from his friendship with a racist pastor, to his terrorist associations, to his Marxist influenced education, to his own unenthusiastic comments about our constitution.
Any one of these ghosts from the past would have ended the campaign for another candidate. Obama survived because a perfect storm was brewing in 2008. And that was only the beginning: For much of 2009 he remained unchallenged by the mainstream media and his Democratic congress while the perfect storm continued. Even as that storm subsides, we still need the analysis of a social meteorologist. After all, still waters can easily flare up again and the second time is often worse than the first.
Generally, when we think of a storm, we imagine some non-sentient entity that forms out at sea with certain kinds of currents and fatal forces of winds, or maybe an earthquake causing a tidal wave. But what happens when seemingly random elements of nature converge? Well, in that case, we might just witness a perfect storm.
Perfect does not always mean good. A perfect tidal wave may just be an unusually huge wave, perfect in the generic sense of the term. Unfortunately, that wave will also function as a perfect monster to coastal dwellers that would rather have lived a while longer than experienced a rare phenomenon of nature.
Can one situation be perfectly disastrous while another situation is perfectly benign? The answer is, yes. Nature, of course, is not a conscious entity, so we would not use terms like “evil” in describing a crippling storm. But then, the word, storm can also be used as a metaphor for the injuries perpetrated by human beings. And so, the fair question continues: Can one act be perfectly evil, just as another act is perfectly good?
For history to be made (bad history as well as good) we need the right person at the right time. The right person at the wrong time will have little effect. The wrong person at the right time will not accomplish much either. But the right person at the right time knows how to harness, package and sell the debris left over from a perfect storm. If he also has charisma, it helps a heck of a lot.
When Obama was running for president, multiple Freudian slips with Joe the Plummer and several unguarded interviews, revealed his passion for a mandatory redistribution of wealth. This is commonly called Socialism, but Obama is smart enough to know what a bad word Socialism can be, so he didn’t use the word. Socialist governments often go hand in hand with dictatorships, oligarchies or other paradigms that suppress freedom, stifle speech, and force the populace to be completely dependent upon Big Brother. This is another reason politicians avoid the word. Socialist is not a handy noun when one wants to come into power. Obama sounded embarrassed and caught off guard when his Socialist agenda reared its ugly head. Even though he has an extreme Leftist ideology, he was not so naive as to think that this belief system could be force fed down the throats of fellow Americans. The original plan was to boil the frog slowly.
That all changed when the perfect storm came our way. Now, mind you, Obama did not create the storm. But he sure knew how to use it. With various phases, the storm elements eventually overlapped. Obama figured out how to channel the intersection his direction.
Phase One: The Reputation of George Bush.
Bush gets a mixed review from me. He was a good president in some ways and a terrible president in other ways. But he is not responsible for every single problem befalling our nation. Honestly, if somebody accidentally dropped their hot dog and got mustard on their lap, they would find a way to blame George W. Bush.
How does Bush contribute toward Obama’s perfect storm? By giving Obama immunity to all criticism. Do you think Obama was running against John McCain in this last election? You are mistaken. Obama was running against Bush. He knew McCain was nothing like Bush. He knew the reason many Republicans deserted McCain was because he was not conservative enough. McCain was Bush’s thorn in the side the entire eight years of Bush’s presidency. None of this mattered. All Obama had to do was lie through his teeth and portray McCain as four more years of George Bush. That was enough to satisfy a significant majority.
Just watch: Four years from now, when Obama wants to get re-elected, he will run against Bush once again. I keep listening to hopeful Conservative talking heads. “Obama was on too high of a pedestal,” they say. “People expected him to walk on water and solve all of our problems. That’s a tough order. Nobody can live up to it. Obama is so obviously making our economy worse. What’s he going to say three years from now when our national debt is still in the trillions of dollars and even more people are unemployed?”
I hate to shatter the hopes of my conservative peers, but I can tell you just exactly what Obama is going to say: “The disastrous policies of George W. Bush were so far reaching, so entrenching, and so massively tentacled, that it will take an additional four years to get ourselves out of this quagmire.”
Rest assured, if the economy is still bad, it will be Bush’s fault. And if a terrorist attack on the magnitude of 9/ll comes our way, it will also be Bush’s fault. The fact that Obama is kissing up to organizations such as Hamas and dictators like Ahamadinnejad, will have nothing to do with it. The fact that he tries enemy combatants in a civilian court will have nothing to do with it. Never mind that compromise emboldens terrorists. Never mind that they always strike again when they see a sign of weakness. When it happens, we will be told that if Bush had not gone into Iraq, none of this would have befallen us. Bush will receive no credit for having kept the country safe during the seven years following 9/ll. Instead, he will be blamed when Obama’s appeasement policies bring fanatical Islam crashing down upon us.
Catching on? Obama will run against George Bush for his second term, just as he ran against George Bush for his first term. Up to now, Bush has inoculated Obama from any kind of criticism or protest and the media has been on Obama’s side. True, it’s getting old, but Obama is likely to play that wild card just as often as he thinks it might still work. After all, Bush was the “illegitimate president,” the guy “selected, not elected.” Bush is the one everybody hates. Throughout 2009, the media would have looked like they were not doing their job if they didn’t go after some politician and Obama shared their Leftist ideology, so they couldn’t go after him. If the new kid on the block was forbidden territory, there was little else to do but hit the Bush default setting. The mainstream media served as Obama’s sidekick. Obama was Batman. George Bush was the Joker, and our media was Robin, the Boy Wonder.
But there was another reason the media would not dare to take on Obama. And that leads to the second phase of the perfect storm.
Phase Two: Our country has become shell shocked by the word “racist.”
In fact, we are not a racist country anymore. We haven’t been for a long time. Are there still individual racists in any country? Of course. But as a nation, this horrible trait was abandoned long before the election of our first African American president. There is no more slavery. Millions of Americans bled and died to end it. There are no more Jim Crow laws either, even though the Left talks as if there are. African-Americans are not only treated as equals, they have have obtained honorable titles such as Supreme Court Justice, Secretary of of State, and General. African-American celebrities frequently receive Academy Awards and other votes of encouragement from their Hollywood peers.
But it doesn’t matter. People have become as frightened of being labeled a racist, as previous generations feared the designation communist. Even though typical politicians would not have been able to sell a radical left agenda, Obama can. Why? Because anyone who opposes him is accused of objecting to the man’s skin color. It could not possibly be an objection to Socialism. It has to be color. Since we are not allowed to use Socialism as our concern, Socialism is free to prosper.
Phase Three: The Economy
Although Obama made a little headway early on by portraying McCain as Bush reincarnated, that strategy was starting to falter when confronted by the fresh, vibrant popularity of Sarah Palin. McCain and Palin actually began to lead by double digits in many polls. Then the housing crisis reached its peak, short-circuited Wall Street and the Democrats had a new disaster to blame on Bush which rivaled Hurricane Katrina. Never mind that Bush and McCain both tried to warn the Democrats to stop encouraging sub-prime loans. The race card trumped all warning. Organizations such as ACORN threatened banks with accusations of discrimination if mortgages were not handed out like lollipops to people who could not afford them. What a combination of ingredients! What a blend of potent flavors; bad mortgages mixed with the roar of race baiters! Stir carefully and let it simmer for a decade or two. Sprinkle in a pinch of Bush bashing and presto! The very culprits who ruined our economy are now poised as the doctors who will fix our economy. Honestly, the very idea of a Barney Frank or a Nancy Pelosi lecturing COs on how to run a company is laughable at the very least and horrific at the very most. Banks did not create this problem. They amplified the problem after an invasion by politicians and special interest groups. Sour banks took their toll on the housing industry. It then trickled down to small business owners who could not get a line of credit any more. With micro companies laying off workers, we found ourselves harboring a surplus of unemployed people and the unemployed cannot afford to buy cars. Neither can cars be built without that same credit stream which has dried up. This is why the auto industry had to beg Congress for a bail out. I hate the idea of politicians helping banks and businesses because the price for that help is control. Still, one can hardly blame those who look to Congress for assistance when Congress dug their bottomless pit in the first place. No, I don’t blame them at all, but oh what a sad sight to watch; Leftist demagogues, handing out sanctimonious lectures on how to foster a company. Have you stood in line at a post office lately? There’s your three dimensional snap shot of a well managed government business. And when the day comes that we no longer need a post office anymore due to E Mail, Fed Ex, fax machines, electronic greeting cards and finally, grandma herself sending off that Christmas fruitcake through UPS, the post office will still exist. It will always exist because government institutions never die. Barney Frank or Chris Dodd lecturing a CEOs is like Captain Hook trying to teach Peter Pan how to fly.
“OK,” Congress says, “We’ll give you the money. But in return, we will tell you what kinds of salaries to give your people.”
Forgetting for a moment the nifty salary hike Congress votes itself each year, and forgetting how many of them live in mansions or fly around on private jets, let’s ask another bonehead question: On what competent authority does our government dictate the kinds of bonuses a company may offer its executives? Sometimes money can be an incentive to strive for excellence. But then, excellence in the private sector smacks head into the goal of Socialism.
“By the way,” Congress continues, “We will also tell you what kinds of cars to make and what levels of fuel emissions are allowed.”
They get away with this demand because they have all the money. Not that there’s enough gold in Fort Knox anymore. They are only printing money and that paper is about as real as a 500 bill from a Monopoly game. Still, our trustworthy federal heads appear to have the money, so they appear to have the power. If anyone dares to speak against their demands on the auto industry, they hear a handy dandy response from Walla Walla, Washington; “Environmental concerns.” And that leads to the next faze.
Phase Four: Global Warming
No, Al, the debate is not over. In fact, your argument is unraveling before everybody’s eyes. But many are in denial. The term Global Warming is as familiar to them as comfortable old leather, and up to now it’s been giving our government a green light to pass all kinds of rules and regulations, some of which have arrived, others of which still lie in the shadows crouching behind fun words like, “Cap and Trade.” Cars must be made smaller and cleaner. Even Christmas lights can be moderated, dovetailing into other Leftist ideologies. After all, religion can foster dissent. Oh, and we can’t drill for oil anymore, because that will harm Carrie the Caribou and Perry the Polar Bear. This will make the economy even worse. To fix the economy, Obama and his fellow Democrats will tax the “rich” even more. The rich, incidentally, are those individuals who work in the private sector, commonly known as the middle class. Soon there will be no more middle class. There will be wealthy politicians with Hollywood chums and a bankrupt population looking to the government as a Santa Claus to keep them out of poverty. Once you feed a cat, you never lose it, and once you give money to citizens who do not deserve such a prize, you have their loyalty. Frankly, even the innocent guy whose business goes belly up will be grateful for a handout if a handout is the only way he can provide for his family anymore. Don’t even think about who caused the recession. Just be grateful to the fellow who fixes it, even if both parties are one and the same.
OK. Let’s add this up. Our new President spent most of 2008 immune to criticism, partly because people won’t dare speak against a person of color and partly because Bush is a scapegoat for absolutely everything. Meanwhile, he “fixes the economy” by stealing from the entrepreneurs who once pumped blood into our Capitalist system. He bails out banks by taking over banks. Once the government owns the banks, they own everything. Reaching further into the private sector, they self-righteously defend themselves as the champions of Earth who must kill any business that contributes to a bad environment. With our private sector completely neutralized, we have no choice but to depend upon politicians for everything. We are tempted to welcome their “stimulus package” even when it includes money for ACORN and other groups that laid this smelly egg in the first place. While we may wonder how millions of dollars for condoms, cable TV converter boxes, climate change research, or National Endowment For the Arts, can jump-start our economy, we will no longer be in a position to say much about it. The Leftist agenda is upon us in one fast sweep. They were patient. They waited for years. They waited for the perfect storm.
Such was our picture of America in 2009. Yes, 2010 has brought more hope but the road to rescue is as uphill as the Highway 5 Grapevine. Before we prepare for a political battle ahead, those of us who did not vote for Obama need to hit the refresh button. We must remind Obama fans (former and present) just exactly what has happened to our country this past year. After helping them wise up to the lure and enticement of Sauron’s ring, then and only then can we send Sam and Frodo to Mt. Doom.
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