Listen to the broadcast of You Tell Me on KTBB AM 600, Friday, November 16, 2012.
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I have liberal friends. Good friends. We don’t agree on things political but we agree on much else. We like the same music. In the case of a couple of my liberal friends we see eye-to-eye on matters pertaining to the radio broadcasting industry. Many in my circle of liberal friends share with me a special affection for dogs.
We just don’t agree on politics.
Within that circle of friends I was quite outspoken in my belief that Mitt Romney was going to win the election. I went so far as to say that he would win by a larger margin than even his most optimistic supporters were predicting.
I thought that the election – staged against a backdrop of a persistently weak economy, a truly frightening national debt, the well-documented unpopularity of Obamacare and poll after poll showing that a large majority of Americans think the country is on the wrong track – was ripe for the picking by Mitt Romney. I thought his message of belief in the power of free people and free markets to lift us out of the doldrums – and the urgency of the need thereof – would trump the Obama campaign’s ceaseless focus on issues like free contraceptives, abortion, gay marriage and the silly accusations against Republicans for waging a ‘war on women.’
I was wrong.
To the credit of my lefty friends, they have been gracious. No one has rubbed my nose in it. No one has unleashed a mocking email or made me suffer a condescending smirk.
I had resolved to behave in exactly the same way had Romney won. But I know how I would have felt on the inside. I’m human. I would have taken the same inner delight in my victory, had it occurred, that my friends are surely taking in theirs.
To them I say, congratulations. You were right. I was wrong.
But be careful.
Beginning right now, you own President Obama and President Obama owns the economy and world events. Given the parlous state of both, prudence dictates that you keep your inward glee in check.
The apparition of George W. Bush, whose ghostly presence according to exit polls continued to provide the president with much-needed political cover, vanished into the mists on election night. George W. Bush has, at long last, well and truly left the building. From here on, it’s Obama’s show.
If unemployment remains stuck near eight percent, President Obama will wake up one morning to find that number tattooed on his forehead.
If trillion dollar plus deficits continue (trillion once being a value reserved exclusively for such things as measuring the distances between galaxies), it will be exclusively President Obama’s overdraft.
If economic growth remains stuck below two percent, that statistic will become an indelible part of the Obama presidential biography.
If the country hurtles headlong over the so-called “fiscal cliff” and a new recession breaks out on top of the one that never really ended, it will be this time President Obama’s recession alone.
If America’s credit rating is further downgraded, renewing the argument that the downgrade is the result of a bad inheritance from the Bush administration will fail the smell test.
And if Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Iran and Israel all erupt into one giant shrieking, whistling pyrotechnic display of collapsing regimes, civil wars, pre-emptive strikes and mass civilian murders, President Obama may start mumbling to himself about wishing he had taken a knee in the contest against Mitt Romney.
All of which is to say if you voted for President Obama, enjoy your victory with a dose of caution. In order for that warm, fuzzy self-satisfied feeling to last, your guy’s going to need an extraordinary run of good luck; good luck the need for which at this moment is particularly acute and good luck that is more often than not hard to come by in second-term administrations.
If the Obama Marxist goal is FUNDAMENTAL TRANSFORMATION of this country into a welfare dependent society that causes the majority of the population to look to Big Government for their “collective” salvation from economic ruin, then he will continue down the same path of the last four years. In other words, his purposeful and deliberate destruction of the free market and individual economic liberty over the last four years can continue unabated since he knows that his deceptive propaganda through the Socialist media cheering squad will always survive since they will never hold him or his policies accountable. They will circle the wagons around him at all costs just as they have done for the last four years.
It is just too easy to continue the Saul Alinsky method of demonization of his critics who bear messages of the truth. He will demonize the Rich, Right Wing Extremists, Republican Party, Corporations with too much profit, Talk Radio, Fox News, Coal Gas and Oil Industries, the Medical Profession, and Military hot-heads. I believe that Obama believes he must bring down our economy and Judeo-Christian traditions to its knees in order to rebuild it into a Marxist-Government controlled society where his version of Social Justice reigns supreme. Let the Constitution and individual Liberty be damned. With a majority of the Supreme Court, the population, and the Press in his pocket, he can change the law and run for a third (and more) terms to solidify our FUNDAMENTAL TRANSFORMATION.
Paul, the “normal standards” to measure a successful Presidency, simply doesn’t apply anymore. The last election proves this because logic, truth, and reason were defeated.
In a way I am glad O. was re-elected, that way O.can take the consequences of policies that he was warned about!!
Though never a romney fan to begin with, never in my wildest dreams did I figure on something such as this. Knowing that voter fraud and intimidation was going to be rampant, this has gone beyond anything even remotely understandable. What was witnessed was pure and unadulterated theft. Team obama didn’t even bother to try and hide the fact that our most valuable tool to right political wrongs was hijacked right before our eyes! What is more disgusting than that, is the gop has just rolled over and gone belly up, not even trying to defend our most precious tool in this Republic…our RIGHT to a FAIR and HONEST election. No, we have been reduced to elections on a scale to those mock elections given in third world countries by third world DICTATORS. I have NEVER been more ASHAMED of my Country than on the morning of November 7th when our Country COULD have been saved, but was allowed to DIE!
How long is it going to take for the Republican elite establishment to realize that their a timid, defensive fight for national elections is destined to fail when they refuse to take the aggressive approach of a jungle fighter that the Democrats always use as they claw their way to national victory? I am not suggesting that the Republicans spout every conceivable lie and distortion to mimic the Democrat’s despicable approach.
I am simply suggesting that the same fervor and outrage of the Democrats be used as the truth of Democrat rule and disastrous results be exposed and be shouted at every turn. There is so much filth, dirt, incompetence, illegal activity, and abuse of power that the Democrats in office are guilty of, that there is no shortage of subjects for the Republicans to use as ammunition. Yet, Republicans persist in being overwhelmed with Democrat lies and consequently fall into the delusion that nobody would ever believe them (the lies) because they are so outrageous
The Republicans should START campaigns with a list of facts to expose the Democrat performance and goals to destroy our free enterprise system in order to establish a perpetual Socialist Welfare State (under autocratic, unelected, bureaucratic control via federal and state agencies). Ronald Reagan was willing to do this. Actually, the Republicans should start the 2014 and 2016 campaigns, NOW, with unrelenting exposure of the debilitating effects of Democrat policies nationally and in local institutions (education, for example). Let the criticism from the lying Democrats and lapdog Press continue to be spewed forth.
The Conservative cause to save this country from unconstitutional nationalization of private industry and suppression of individual liberty is worth the Republicans fighting as if this was our last chance to keep freedom and prosperity alive. If we are defeated, so be it. There is nothing to be gained by a SLOW erosion of our liberties as the Republicans try to compromise (in order to escape vicious criticism) with forces determined to end America as we know it.
I just can’t believe that exposure of the evils of Democrat Socialism by constant education of the American people by articulate spokesman who don’t give an inch, and are willing to take the arrows, can’t succeed. It may be too late, but there is nothing to gain by waiting any longer for the Republicans and Conservatives to become jungle fighters.
At the risk of too much comment: One more thing.
It is time for the Republicans to declare that they are no longer willing to be “Democrat Lite” in their policies as they have done since Reagan. If the Republicans can’t admit their poor track record and poor promotion and defense of Constitutional principles (Bush racked up $4 trillion in additional debt with his reluctance to veto hardly anything), then it is time for the Conservatives and the TEA Party advocates to withdraw their support of the weak Republican Party that can’t seem win against the deplorable Obama record of the last 4 years — the worst President in two generations, maybe ever.
Did you know that the Republican House Speaker John Boehner (August 14, 2012) referred to the Conservative opposition of big government spending (such as TARP) as “knuckle-draggers”? The polite Moderate Republican leadership is clueless to the cultural, economic, and international disasters staring us in the face. It is time for a huge house cleaning (no pun intended) in the Republican Party.
You are assuming more than 50% of the voting public will blame Obama for any further downturn. I think you are overly optimistic in that belief. I think 2012 just confirmed that. I think it’s time to buy more gold.
Yes, Obama’s failure ranks right up there with some of the greatest presidential debacles of all time. There was James Garfield’s Credit Mobilier scandal, Herbert Hoover’s Teapot Dome affair, Richard Nixon’s Bay of Pigs invasion, and of course who could forget George W. Bush’s dalliances with Monica Lewinsky.
That’s basically what we’re doing here, right? Waiting a couple of terms and then blaming the subsequent administration for the failures of the previous one? It’s a tired old trick, and while it should never work, it often does. Sad really.
Bush will be off the hook for his dismal failures when the damage he has done to our nation is fully repaired. Obama has made great strides in this endeavor, strides you cannot allow yourself to recognize, but there is still a long way to go before a full recovery can be achieved.
The irony (more accurate words are available) is that someone affiliated with a political party claiming to cherish “personal responsibility” is at the vangaurd of those trying to shift the blame for their dismal failures.
Oh, and for the record, does the same principle apply to presidential successes? Does U.S. Grant get credit for freeing the slaves, James Madison for the Louisiana Purchase, or Ronald Reagan for the Camp David Accords? Seems only fair.
Paul,
I really wish you were right, but you are far too optimistic. REGARDLESS of any level of support or opposition of Republicans for Obama’s and the Democrat Party’s policies, the Democrats, the Legacy Media, the Academics, and the Entertainment industry will blame the Republican Party. After all, your experiment has already been done: California is falling apart, and yet the Democrats just expanded their huge majorities there. In the eyes of a Democrat, California is one of the best run states in the country!
For now, I deeply fear for America’s future, but I am grateful that, (at least for now) the libels, slanders, and scapegoating of our nation’s problems are being heaped upon large and rather well-armed groups (i.e., conservatives, Republicans, gun-owners, Christians, etc.)! If the Democrats ever decide to instead focus the blame on smaller groups (e.g., Jews, Mormons, Gypsies…) then life in America will become unspeakably terrifying indeed. I used to think Nazism could never happen here. Now, I honestly believe it could. It’s close cousin, Islamism, is rising in Europe and it grow stronger here wherever it sees opportunities. Western Civilization is in true peril. Paul, we need men of honor like you to never, never, never give up!
I thank the Lord for my situation: I have no children who will suffer the consequences of the ignorant who elected and reelected this horrible man into the Presidency, and I’m well into the final years of my life so I probably will not fully experience the complete downfall of this nation for the same reasons. I don’t think I want to see and experience the consequences of having Obama and his supporters completely destroy what so many millions of patriots have created from the birth of our country until January of 2009.