It’s becoming increasingly clear to the American public that ‘hope and change’ is materializing into something they hadn’t really expected. Of course, the public could not have known what to expect with a complicit media hopelessly awestruck by Obama’s charm and rhetoric.
Victor D. Hanson has done an excellent job summarizing the various reasons for growing discontent with the Obama administration. In detailing the public’s awakening, he shows the justified anger over probably the most arrogant and radical administration in American history.
What has happened so far? (Source article can be found here):
First, voters had legitimate worries about healthcare, global warming, immigration, energy, and inefficient government. But it turns out that they are more anxious about the new radical remedies than the old nagging problems. They wanted federal support for wind and solar, but not at the expense of neglecting new sources of gas, oil, coal, and nuclear power. They were worried about high-cost healthcare, the uninsured, redundant procedures, and tort reform, but not ready for socialized medicine. They wanted better government, not bigger, DMV-style government. There is a growing realization that Obama enticed voters last summer with the flashy lure of discontent. But now that they are hooked, he is reeling them in to an entirely different - and, for many a frightening - agenda. Nothing is worse for a president than a growing belief among the public that it has been had.
Second, Americans were at first merely scared about the growing collective debt. But by June they became outraged that Obama has quadrupled the annual deficit in proposing all sorts of new federal programs at a time when most finally had acknowledged that the U.S. has lived beyond its means for years. They elected Obama, in part, out of anger at George W. Bush for multi-billion dollar shortfalls - and yet as a remedy for that red ink got Obama’s novel multi-trillion-dollar deficits.
Third, many voters really believed in the “no more red/blue state America” healing rhetoric. Instead, polls show they got the most polarizing president in recent history - both in his radical programs and in the manner in which he has demonized the opposition to ram them through without bipartisan support. “Punch back harder” has replaced “Yes, we can.”
Fourth, Americans wanted a new brand - youthful, postracial, mesmerizing abroad. At first they got that, too. But after eight months, their president has proven not so postracial, but instead hyper-racially conscious. Compare the Holder “cowards” outburst, the Sotomayor riff on innate racial and gender judicial superiority, and the president’s Cambridge police comments. All that sounds more like Jesse Jackson than Martin Luther King Jr. Demagogues, not healers, trash their predecessors at the beginning of every speech. When a once-eloquent president now goes off teleprompter, the question is not whether he will say something that is either untruthful or silly, but simply how many times he might do so at one outing. Some once worried that George W. Bush could not articulate our goals in Iraq; far more now sense that Obama is even less able to outline his own health-care reform.
Fifth, even skeptics are surprised at the partisan cynicism. A year ago, Democratic leaders such as Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama praised organizing, dissidents, and protest. Today they have become near-Nixonian in demonizing popular resistance to their collectivized health-care plans as mob-like, inauthentic, scripted, Nazi-like, and un-American. There are still ex-lobbyists in the government. High officials still cheat on their taxes. Hacks in the Congress still profit from their office. The public is sensing not only that Obama has failed to run the most ethically clean government, as promised, but indeed that he is not running as ethically clean a government as the predecessor who he so assiduously ridiculed.
Sixth, there is a growing fear that Obamism is becoming cult-like and Orwellian. Almost on script, Hollywood ceased all its Rendition/Redacted-style films. Iraq - once the new Vietnam - is out of the news. Afghanistan is “problematic,” not a “blunder.” Tribunals, renditions, the Patriot Act, and Predators are no longer proof of a Seven Days in May coup, but legitimate tools to keep us safe. Words change meanings as acts of terror become “man-caused disasters.” Hunting down jihadists is really an “overseas contingency operation.” Media sycophants do not merely parrot Obama, but now proclaim him a “god.” New York Times columnists who once assured us that Bush’s dastardly behavior was proof of American pathology now sound like Pravda apologists in explaining the “real” Obama is not what he is beginning to seem like.
Seventh, the Obama cabinet is sounding downright uncouth and boorish. The tax-challenged Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, unleashed a profanity-laced diatribe against bank regulators. Hillary Clinton’s recent outburst in the Congo, captured on YouTube, was something out of Days of Our Lives. Joe Biden cannot speak extemporaneously without causing an incident with the Russians or misleading the public about swine flu. Attorney General Holder sounds like a tired scold, only to be overshadowed by the president’s off-the-cuff cuts about the Special Olympics, Las Vegas, and the Cambridge police. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs makes Scott McClellan sound like a Cicero by comparison.
Eighth, we were all appalled by Wall Street greed and the notion that an individual could take $100 million rather than one or two million as a bonus. But the Obama remedy for that obscenity was to conflate Goldman Sachs or AIG with the family orthodontist or local asphalt contractor whose 80-hour weeks might result in an annual $250,000 income. Worse still, the public impression is that while small entrepreneurs may pay up to 65 percent of their income in new state and federal income taxes, payroll taxes, and surcharges, those on Wall Street have been bailed out and have cut various deals with upscale liberals in government.
Ninth, Democratic populism turned out to be largely aristocratic elitism. Obama spends more money on himself than did Bush. The liberal Congress has a strange fondness for pricy private jets. Those environmentalists and racialists who lecture us about our ecological and ethical shortcomings prefer Martha’s Vineyard and country estates to Dayton and Bakersfield. Offering left-wing populist sermonizing for others while enjoying the high life oneself is never a winning combination.
Tenth, Americans no longer believe this is our moment when the seas stop rising and the planet ceases warming. Instead, there is a growing hopelessness that despite all the new proposed income taxes, payroll taxes, and surtaxes, the deficit will skyrocket, not shrink. There is foreboding that while apologies abroad are nice in the short term, they will soon earn a reckoning. And while the productive classes pay more of their income, and while government grows and entitlement expands, there is a sense that what follows will not be thanks for either taxes paid or benefits received, but even more anger that neither is enough and that much more is owed.
Obama’s popularity might rebound with a natural upturn in the economy, continued low energy prices, and good will for our first multiracial president. But then again, it could get even worse if the recovery turns into stagflation, gas prices soar, and the identity-politics lectures amplify. The next six months should be interesting.
Very interesting indeed.
Powered by FireStats
[...] evident once he made himself comfortable on the couch by the window. “I’ve been told, Mr. What Obama’s ‘Hope and Change’ Means In Practice - thenationalscene.com 08/26/2009 It’s becoming increasingly clear to the American public that [...]
Copy below, sign, and send to your representatives…
Petition to Restore The Republic of the United States of America:
On July the 4th 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the United States Declaration of Independence of which this petition is modeled after. Since then, We The People, have risen up against insurmountable odds, time and time again, and have proven to the world what is possible, when We The People of the United States of America unite for a common cause. We today, are again at a crossroads and now face our greatest threat, greatest challenge, greatest responsibility, and our greatest duty. Many of the events which caused our great forefathers to take the drastic steps of writing and adopting the Declaration of Independence 232 years prior, are now being perpetrated on the American people once again, not by foreign armies, not by kings, but by the government of the United States which was created that day in 1776 by the people for the people. Our forefathers repeatedly warned of the consequences of inaction as is evident in the following. A direct quote from the Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to ALTER the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the alteration. It has become evident of the following reasons, why the People of the United States of America are demanding that our government alter it’s policies toward the people of this land to meet the obligations set fourth in our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Articles of Confederation. Such has been the patient sufferance of the People; and such is now, the necessity, which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
The history of the present governing body of the United States of America is a history of increasing injuries, usurpations, and total disregard for the voices, and well being of its people, for the benefit and gain of the wealthy, and of the powerful corporations of which control the policies implemented by government to the end that laws in favor of the people of this land are powerless. Industries are being deregulated at a record pace, thus allowing them to take everything from the people, completely unchallenged. The people of this land are no longer being represented by their elected officials, as they give way to the lobbyist and special interest groups who come to congress wielding cash, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute corpocracy over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. Be it known that We The People assert that both major political parties in the United States, Republicans and Democrats alike are equally responsible for this unacceptable mess We The People have inherited from our government.
Article 4, section 4 of the Constitution of the United States:
“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.”
The government of the United States of America has repeatedly, against the overwhelming rejection of the people of the United States, and a few in Congress, enacted laws of which favor large corporations, and corporate profits over the well being of the people of this land. To name a few, NAFTA and CAFTA have sent many of our good paying jobs overseas as corporations seek cheap labor elsewhere, hording record profits among the elite. FTAA, MEFTA, TAFTA, and FTAAP will completely destroy the working class in this country. STOP IT NOW. We don’t want to call India for technical support for our products. Decent hard working Americans should hold these jobs. STOP sending money hand over fist to other countries, foreigners, and non- U.S. citizens while denying grants and help to citizens who have worked all their lives and are experiencing hard times. Take care of our own. Especially out Veterans.
$700,000,000,000 was given to the financial industry with absolutely no accountability, once again, overwhelmingly against the will of the people, at the expense of the people. While in the mean time, the financial industry has raised their fees on the poor, fabricated good numbers to dupe investors, and still refuses to rewrite home loans for struggling people. Government programs to help the people were implemented, such that, most people did not qualify. The government acted slowly in implementing the few programs that could make a difference while rushing billions to the financial industry with no accountability. The people were not represented in this matter; therefore, this amounts to taxation without representation one hundred fold larger than all of the taxation issues leading up to the Declaration of Independence. The government of the United States, which is constitutionally allowed to coin its own currency at 0% interest, has elected to contract with the Federal Reserve Corporation, with no transparency, to print its money while using our tax dollars to pay interest to the corporation, once again, at the expense of the people. During this time of crisis, food prices have soared, and fuel companies are allowed to charge ridiculous prices without regard to the damage being done to the middle and lower class of our country, which bear the brunt of this mess. Monopoly utility companies, insurance companies, and which ever companies want rate increases are getting them without challenge, as their lobbyists are dictating policy in Washington. Competition in our markets has been replaced by consortiums, which dictate pricing and who are gouging the people on the basic necessities of life, such as electricity, food and fuel, effectively executing the systemic and willful destruction of the middle and lower class in our society. Lies are being perpetrated against the American people right now as the government and FED chairman tell us the economy is rebounding. Falsely inflated balance sheets, and massive government injection into financial markets are only improving the economy for the big banks and big corporations as conditions continue to deteriorate for the rest of the country. Bernanke, Frank and Paulson should be tried and found guilty of treason. Goldman Sachs and AIG should be dismantled and sold to the direct benefit of the taxpayer. THE GREED MUST STOP NOW! Someone, pick up a $2.00 calculator, figure out what the average American family has to spend just to exist, then understand that we are not spending, simply because we don’t HAVE it to spend. Not because we are hording it like your prized financial institutions are, but because your prized institutions and corporations have been bleeding us dry all in the name of PROFITS. Your economists are incompetent. These afflictions are unconstitutional, and as some would say, treasonous against the very people of the United States of America.
Such a government no longer represents a republic, is no longer a government of the people for the people, but has become a corporatocracy, (We beg anyone to prove different) thus violating our constitutional guarantee of a republican form of government, of which, we the people demand is reinstated in these United States of America.
The government of the United States, against constitutional requirements, repeatedly refuses to protect our borders from intrusion after overwhelming requests from the public and from the governors of states directly affected.
The former president of our nation, George W. Bush deceived our nation with false intelligence, into an unjust war with another nation, to which our brave men and women faithfully executed their duties, some giving the ultimate sacrifice to their country under deception. All while his Vice President directly benefited from defense contracts received by Halliburton, a serious conflict of interest. Meanwhile, our current president refuses to produce a birth certificate proving his eligibility to serve the office he now holds.
We The People respectfully demand that Congress, in its full authority, make right the wrongdoings against the People of the United States of America by enacting legislation to correct the following items, which you have thus far refused to do:
Remove corporatism, and restore republic. Do not allow socialism to replace corporatism, but restore to us our republic. Remove the use of Czars in government offices, or are you implying a dictatorship, which must ultimately be eliminated. Stop all efforts toward a “New World Order” and One World Government. We the People will NOT be held hostage to rules fabricated by people outside of our land without our consent. Eminent domain shall NEVER be granted to a corporation for its own profit. Instill term limits in Congress, and take the same healthcare and retirement you say is sufficient for us.
Institute a separation of industry and state, thereby, outlawing corporate lobbying and campaign contributions by businesses, or entities representing businesses. Monitor large corporations, and enact legislation to prevent corporations from becoming “Too big to fail”. Political advisors shall be of the majority, and not of the corporations, as ex CEOs do not advise presidents and congressmen to the good of the people, but to the good of the corporation at the expense of the people. Allow small business to be competitive against large business by shifting tax burden from small to large business. Corporate giants, at an alarming rate are gobbling small businesses up. Corporations shall not use credit reports of workers to deny them their right to work. International corporations shall have NO influence in our legislation.
Regulate critical infrastructure services such as utilities to force them to benefit the consumer over the shareholder. Their concern should be if everyone could afford their utility, not their profit margin, be it many of them are a monopoly at a local level. We demand less government intrusion into healthcare, and more regulations for insurance companies, and food manufacturers manipulating their labeling, if it says no trans fat then there shall be NO trans fat, not less than, simply NO trans fat.
Stop enacting and reverse trade agreements that take our jobs away from us, and allow large international corporations to destroy our nation with high unemployment, lower paying jobs, and higher profit margins, once again, on the backs of American workers and small businesses, all while providing inferior products of which they no longer stand behind.
Secure our borders, and repeal the Patriot Act. We deserve the protection of a secure nation without intrusion. Get our troops out of Iraq, and the 700 plus other bases around the world so they can protect our country without the need for the Patriot Act. Millions of illegal aliens crossing our borders at will constitutes an invasion of which the government is not holding up to its constitutional obligation to protect those states from such invasion; thereby, using these reasons to illegally spy on our own countrymen. Quit fabricating word definitions to circumvent the constitution. Remove the BAR since it represents, unconstitutionally, a title of nobility.
Quit enacting bills full of irrelevant subject matter (pork) that benefit a select few of the population at the expense of the People. When a four-page document can free a nation, it shall not take 1,200 pages to write an energy bill, this amounts to 1,150 pages of garbage, being shoved down the throat of the American people.
Audit the Federal Reserve System, and publicize the results of such audit. If deemed damaging to the people of the United States of America, by the people, Abolish the Federal Reserve Corporation, and demand restitution for the damage done to our country, seizing assets if necessary, and holding those usurpers responsible for treason. Overhaul the tax system to adhere to the Constitution of the United States.
A full inventory and full accountability of the gold reserves in the United States should be conducted and made public. This gold belongs to the people of the United States of America, and we reserve the right to know where our nations wealth is.
And of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780
“Article I. All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.” We The People reserve this right as the Constitution of the United States of America permits.
Let it be known that We The People of the United States of America are exercising our rights, our duty, to hereby petition the government of the United States of America to alter its policies of corporatism and restore to us the republic of which the flag of the United States of America stands for.
We The People cannot abide by the determinations of the United States in Congress assembled, on all questions, until the United States in Congress assembled restores to the people of the land in jurisdiction, the republic, of which, is guaranteed to us in the Constitution of the United States of America. Our brave men and women have fought and died for the freedom and liberty of people in many foreign lands, we shall not see our children live in tyranny and slavery tomorrow for the benefit of the elite today. We are uniting; you are either with us or against us. Don’t test the will of the American people. Many have done so before, and failed.
We Reserve Our Rights, We Can Perform Our Duty.
Signed on this 1st day of September 2009
Douglas J. Young of Volusia County in the Great State of Florida. The first signature of many.