With all the hubbub of his first 100 days, is Obama all what he is portended to be? Some hail the Chicago Magician as the best president we have ever had. Such talk ignores reality and more importantly the ability to judge history correctly. It is very difficult to judge history while in the midst of it. Lincoln is considered one of our best presidents, yet in his day, he was not as well liked as he is now. In fact, he may share more with W than some are willing to admit, but I am digressing here. What we are hearing now is pure spin from the magic show and the truth is, even though he has relatively high approval ratings, people don't believe what he is doing will work. The disconnect is caused by the honeymoon period that is being accorded to him.
This is nothing new, and under the right circumstances, it can be promulgated well into the future. Another political magician, FDR, was able to do that. By keeping a balance of despair and hope, he was able to manipulate the populace to keep him in power. Things were always bad enough that we had to keep him in the game, but he was always doing a good enough job that we had to reward him. The truth is, things really did not improve under FDR. In 1938, unemployment was still over 20% and the stock market was as low as ever. All his micromanagement did was create a larger more socialist government that restricted people's rights and created bureaucracies that will eventually bankrupt the country. All for the purpose of maintaining him in power.
Obama is no different, and in fact wants to take us one or two steps beyond anything FDR could imagine. In fact he says he wants to "remake america". The difference will be that this pied piper may be judged differently than his acolytes believe. The people of this country still favor a more libertarian approach, and any approbation he receives now may be short lived. The problem though is that when he is done "remaking america", it may be too much and/or too late to reverse. Look at social security and medicare. It just gets worse. Socialism coopts people by persuading them that they are getting something for free, but when in fact, the people are enlisting themselves willingly into indentured servitude. Like the frog in the warm bath, it will be too late at some point.
What can we do? Stay true to principles, vote, get active in politics and support candidates that espouse libertarian and classical liberal philosophies. Obama will undo himself with his crusader mentality in regards to his socialist agenda. He can't help himself. May be we can send this Magician back to Chicago in 3 and a half years.
Thank you for reading this blog.
6 comments:
A good post.
I still don't think this change he is selling will take. America has this tendency to upright itself after guys like this.
I do agree he will do some damage, though. But, every president leaves their mark on the country, except for carter. He was just a dunderhead.
I am counting on the people to see their mistake before it is too late, and get out of this euphoria created by obama and get their heads on straight. I think they will see that change hurts the average citizen more than the people he claims he is helping.
Look at the legacies of FDR, and LBJ. They fundamentally changed the expectations of the american people. In my grandparent's generation (all were born in the 19th century), people weren't looking for safety nets and handouts and they told me the shame associated with such. You went to family first, then a charity like the Church.
As far as Carter goes, he did leave his mark as well: HEW and the CRA which got us in our current mess.
Nah, I don't think he'll turn America towards socialism.
As I've told you before, in most of the world, Obama woud be considered as a center (or even center-right wing) politician. Americans do not know true socialism, so you all get scared when someone gets a little too keynesian.
Actually, Obama is a Progressive, which is a socialist with different methods. Hector, the rest of the world has a different political median. Objectively, he wants government involved in every aspect of people's lives. This cannot be good. The more control and order is put into a system, the less freedom there is. Clearly, Obama is not about freedom. Back to progressives. They believe that the reason people do not believe as they do is because they are not enlightened. It's an elitism. They will however use the government to attain their means against a person's will, albeit with a smile. Socialists don't care, they will just do it. Obama is an elitist that can't understand why people don't think like he does and surrounds himself with people that thinks as he does. He does not tolerate dissent and he will not face people that oppose him, but he will undermine them if possible.
You think?
But he has some mild-freemarketers in his cabinet...
Also, I don't think Progressivism is Socialism. He is rather Neo-Keynesian, but that is still far from Socialism...
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