I’ll be blunt, I believe that most of the hysteria surrounding Barack Obama is as deranged as the “BDS” that surrounded George W Bush.
After all, BOTH men are relatively attractive, very affable Keynesians, nothing more, or less.
In FACT, Barack Obama’s biggest sin and his greatest achievement (depending upon one’s vantage) is that he’s flawlessly delivered G W Bush’s third term....and, astoundingly enough, Liberals have loved him for it, as much as many Conservatives have reviled him for continuing most of the SAME policies G W Bush enacted.
After Obama’s first term, Rendition (sending prisoners to foreign portals for coerced interrogations) went up, drone attacks skyrocketed, the occupation of Iraq was continued, at least until that country’s government forced us out by refusing to indemnify our troops from criminal sanctions for responding to acts of war. Afghanistan has been ratcheted up and the fighting their amplified even AFTER OBL’s death! (AND Obama’s had liberals cheering that decision) He engaged the U.S. in a military operation against Libya without either Congressional or UN approval. Moreover, Gitmo’s still open, the Obama administration has fought for both the Patriot Act AND the NSA Surveillance Programs in open court AND he’s deported far more illegal immigrants than the Bush administration ever did!
You’d think liberals would be howling over all that, as they would have, had a Republican done it...but they’re not!
You’d think Conservatives would be cheering over all that...but they’re not!
On the economy, it’s been more of the same. More “non-stimulating stimulus programs,” more big bank and corporate bailouts and more spending, following the path that G W Bush began when he eagerly cooperated with and signed onto the Keynesian reversal engineered by the Pelosi-Reid Congress!
The Bush debt skyrocketed in his last two (Pelosi-Reid) years and Barack Obama’s merely continued along that same path by doubling down on Keynesianism to accelerate it up to hyper-Keynesianism.
Again, even here, liberals haven’t been happy, because they somehow expected “more,” while Conservatives, many of whom voiced no such outrage when the previous administration engaged on its stimulus and bailout binge, now act as though Obama’s hyper-Keynesianism is something altogether new, when it’s really just a doubling down on the economic policies of the previous administration!
Barack Obama is no more “the anti-Christ” than was G W Bush. BOTH have held largely to the Bush doctrine. The “War-on-Terror” is still going strong. The Patriot Act is still in place, so is that mammoth bureaucracy known as the Department of Homeland Security, so is the NSA’s Surveillance Program. In many ways and many regards those things have actually all been ratcheted up.
The economy is bad and has worsened in many ways, BUT just like the mortgage meltdown was a completely bi-partisan affair caused by government’s meddling in the mortgage markets via Jack Kemp’s “Ownership Society” embraced by most Rockefeller-wing Republicans and the Reno-Cisneros legal attacks on traditional lending criteria, coupled with Dodd-Frank’s pushing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to engage in ever more risky “creative financing,” so too has this worsening economy been a bi-partisan affair.
Liberals have almost always played mindless “team sports politics,” now many Conservatives are doing the same.
It’s just as foolish either way.
Moreover, social Conservatives have not comported themselves well this election cycle and they’ve done much to alienate Independents from the GOP. Rick Santorum stakes out the radical anti-contraception territory and LOSES most of the Catholic vote! It turns out that a whopping 67% of Catholic women (and the majority of Catholics overall) SUPPORT contraceptive services being available for women. Who knew?! But hardcore social Conservatives have been engaging in just that type of self immolation for years now. WHY?
Fact is, most Libertarians who’ve held much common ground with Conservatives do NOT much support those kinds of draconian social stances.
So, why bother? Why alienate the allies you so desperately NEED?
Why not stick to a script that, at least, CAN win? Why not at least TRY not to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?
The country’s ready for REAL change, but NOT an anti-Constitutional change, one that sees, in Santorum’s own words, “No distinction between religious life and political life.” Americans insist upon policies that are as fair and as welcoming to Hindus and Buddhists as they are to Christians and Jews. They want and support a strict separation between religion and the state. There just aren’t many Americans left who think of America as “a Christian nation.” But take heart, Thomas Jefferson himself never envisioned America as that, either!
A new economic agenda is the ONLY way to challenge the current administration. That’s why Mitt Romney is the best possible candidate for Conservatives at this time. He’s has great economic expertise and he’s completely non-threatening to both Independents and “Reagan Democrats.”
To challenge Obama on “values,” while supporting a ban on contraceptive services is a sure loser. Hell, if only 27% of Catholics support that anti-contraception position (as polled), then you can bet, that in a general election it’s doomed. A ham-handed “culture-war,” as well intentioned as it might be, is no way to sway the American people, as it opens its supporters up to the charge of “American Taliban.”
So, why go there?
Cultural changes occur glacially. There’s no way to rush them. Right now, social Conservatives are so far outside the levers of power that their only way to even get any closer is to sort of “sneak in the backdoor” via an economic, Centrist agenda designed to appeal to ALL.
So much time, energy and trust has already been wasted on inane campaigns like the “Birther Movement,” the “Obama is a Muslim” campaign and others that it’s distracted and detracted from the real, PRIMARY issue – moving the economy back to a more market-based and LESS political economy!
Sadly Newt Gingrich is far from the Gingrich of old, far less ideologically pure, far more mercantile and far less averse to government meddling.
Rick Santorum is simply unacceptable; He’s at best, a lovable loser, willing to go down in flames defending the most out-of-step ideals, like “religion having an integral place in politics.”
Ron Paul is so ideologically pure that he is also purely impractical.
That leaves only one choice, ironically enough, the one many social Conservatives seem unable to stomach.
IF social Conservatives rally ARE serious about changing course and ridding the country of Obama-Biden, then they’ll have to warm up to the one existing GOP candidate that CAN win, Mitt Romney.
And even there, it’s going to be a long, hard fight. Barack Obama is a masterful campaigner and a glib orator. The quicker ALL Conservative galvanize behind Romney the better the chances for a Conservative recovery.
2 comments:
jmk, i can't claim to be astute on macro- and micro- economics. and while there may be similarities with our country's ods and bds, i disagree with your suggestion that our country is operating under the same kind of deficit resulting from each president. and i DO think it's important to note obama's anti-American behavior, which has been shared by none of his predecessors. as for me, mitt romney will have my vote in november. but if it were santorum or newt on the ticket, any of them would also have my vote. if this is viewed further as ods, then so be it. obama has been hostile and divisive towards our country. my main priority as an American is to see him GONE. as usual, you've written another thought provoking post! :)
I agree that there are some very stark differences between Clinton, G W Bush & Obama, Maria...and yes, from a liberal/conservative perspective, Obama is the MOST liberal POTUS we've had since Jimmy Carter (he may, in fact, be more liberal than Carter). I'm just noting that there is so much ancillary fury over Obama (from the questions over his birthplace, to his illegal alien aunt, to detractors maligning his wife, who's sought largely to stay out of the fray) that some of it looks as over-the-top as the BDS we saw from the Left over virtually everything G W Bush did.
Primarily, I wish people would stick to criticizing specific policies and NOT his vacations, his wife's penchant for clothes, etc. - it seems petty and venal and doesn't make the opposition look as serious as they should be.
I think this will be a close election...no matter what and that those who want a more moderate POTUS must focus on substantive issues, and not superfluous personal attacks.
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