It’s déjà vu for me as I think back to the last two years of Jimmy Carter as his “progressive” program of “sacrifice” and his impotence in the face of the Iranian hostage taking of U.S. diplomats left him looking weak and overwhelmed by events.
George W. Bush did not appear to be anything more than a garden variety Republican President until September 11, 2001. It transformed his presidency from peace to war and Bush had the right instincts for war, but wars in the post-WWII era all seem to stall and stalemate.
No one was in much of a mood to listen to George W. in the final years of his second term. The voters served up a Democrat-controlled Congress in 2006. If this reminds you of the November 2010 elections that transferred power to the Republicans, you’re right
The leviathan of independent voters has moved restlessly back and forth between Democrats and Republicans looking for either party to address the nation’s problems.
While the House changed hands in 2010, the margin in the Senate fell sufficiently for the Republican Minority Leader to have some clout there. Harry Reid has begun to bend to the new reality.
Most effected, however, is President Obama. Politics, events in far-off places, and unpopular domestic decisions have gelled into a general public discontent.
Symbolically in recent weeks Robert Gibbs, his original press secretary, left and was replaced by Jay Carney. While Gibbs was facile, Carney is uncertain, hesitant, and weak at the podium. Then came news that the new social secretary at the White House was an openly gay man, a high profile job historically held by a woman. Two surprising and I predict bad choices.
People talk about turning points in history and I would suggest that, so far as the White House is concerned, those new faces will be regarded in retrospect as a turning point.
The timing was especially bad for the White House as the Democratic Party was once again revealed to be the hostage of the union movement and what people saw on their television screens was ugly and thuggish. Cowardly Democrat Wisconsin senators ran away.
In times when millions of Americans are out of work, union members left their jobs to descend on the state house in Madison, Wisconsin and to hold rallies in Trenton, New Jersey demanding they retain their privileged status. It looked bad. It smelt bad.
Beyond our shores events mercilessly erupted as nations in the Middle East and Africa were caught up in a contagion of anger against a rogue’s gallery of despots and monarchs. The White House issued statements that literally conflicted, one with the other, on a day to day basis. If there was a coherent foreign policy it was barely detectable.
Unprepared, incompetent, the façade surrounding the Obama presidency continued to crumble.
It is an implosion. It is the failure of “progressive” ideas that have not changed and have not worked for a century dating back to the days of Teddy Roosevelt.
It revealed the contempt this President and the Democrats have for the Constitution; ballooning the government with schemes like Obamacare to grow an already too large government larger and more intrusive.
Every new piece of legislation added more people to the government payrolls while ordinary Americans watched the cost of everything rise. So-called stimulus plans did little more than retain government workers or put a bandage on Medicaid behind the façade of short-term construction projects.
We are living in ugly times and Obama’s lies are falling on deaf ears.
The Democrats can no longer convince people that acres of wind farms or solar panels can even begin to provide the electricity the nation needs.
The Democrats cannot make a case for $40,000 electric cars when the nation’s entire transportation structure is based on gasoline and diesel.
The Democrats can no longer justify refusing to let American companies drill for American oil, particularly when it always cheaper than imported oil.
The Democrats forced legislation on voters who showed up, a million strong, in Washington to demonstrate their opposition.
The Democrats ran away from state legislatures rather than debate and vote.
The Democrats favor the unions over the vast majority of non-union workers.
The Democrats will not defend the sanctity of marriage or of life.
Throw the bums out.
© Alan Caruba, 2011
10 comments:
Well put. Hypocrites all. It's really strange when you consider the President himself stated "elections have consequences" The man is such a sad sack of a leader he can't even stand by his own words!
@Joetote: It's hard to remember your own words when you are lying all the time about everything.
I'm not sure the Dems are imploding. If you are paying attention to what is happening, it seems like the Dems are imploding but most Americans don't pay attention to politics because they are too busy with other stuff.
Obama's reelection will mostly be about the economy. If it is bad, he can be defeated by a decent opponent. If the economy recovers, he will be tough to beat.
Conservatives will know we are winning when the judiciary becomes much less activist, when the federal government becomes much smaller and less powerful, when the presidency is weakened significantly, when lefty institutions become much weaker, and when the percentage of hispanics who are conservative starts climbing sharply.
When gasoline and diesel prices rocket up enough, which is already beginning to happen, and these fuel prices rise above $10 a gallon, which will happen long before summer is over, all as a result of Obama's ridiculous energy policy, we shall see.
Steve, There will be no economic recovery with $5/gallon gas on the horizon, and there's no way we're drilling our way out of this in a year ... he's toast.
Alan,
You are correct. most people caught in the act forget the original lie they told to cover themselves. good point.
What I'm having trouble believing is that I get the same old response to any attempt to discuss what's going on in the country.
It's still, "But Bush…!"
Talk about brainwashed, close-minded and pitiable.
My friends are mostly retired teachers and administrators. Problem solved.
@Dave:
You should hang out with a higher class of individuals...like bikers and growers of marijuana.
You sure have got that one right, Alan. I have hob-nobed with the rich and famous, and much prefer the company of the common rural folk.
I was not to comment on this post ...
as my Daughter and my late Son-in-Law are/were Democrats....
yeah...I know...wonder myself where I went wrong!...
:)
but in any case...
last election my Daughter voted Republican....to my absolute shock!!!
and asked for a reason, she said:
I did not like Obama's background...
and his utopia for roping down the sun and the wind...
belongs in a 1001 story tail book...all he promises to do he needs damn good abra-cadabra Samantha spells from "Bewitched" show to implement...
actually Monday was her birthday and we were on Skype talking at length and she announced: for my birthday I gave myself a gift:
I re-registered myself as a Republican...
as much as I like the basic principles of Democratic ideals, observing their ways in the last 2 years I have decided not to be associated with criminals...
so, Mr Caruba, you might be right...how many of 'my daughter" kind is out there...
...that is not to say Repoblicans are all mighty in my books...
I am sick and tired of their spine-less, gut-less, pittyful ways of leading, but they are the best we have right now...well....almost...
:)
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