Obama: The Post-Racial President.

I thought the election of President Barack Obama was supposed to be the beginning of the post-racial era in America. However, since his election, we have heard an awful lot about the president’s race…and it’s all coming from the Left.

Professor Walter E. Williams, who is, as he says, “black by popular demand”, puts it very well in his latest column, “Obama's presidency is truly a remarkable commentary on the goodness of Americans and how far we've come in resolving matters of race. Obama convincingly won votes in states with insignificant black populations, such as the New England states, Iowa and Minnesota. For the nation as a whole, he managed 53 percent of the popular vote and 365 of the Electoral College votes when he only needed 270 to win.”

But the Left seems to know that while conservatives say they are against socialized medicine, what they really mean is that they hate blacks and are against anything proposed by a “black” president. Of course! That makes sense, because the conservatives also vehemently resisted “Hillary Care” when it was proposed in the Clinton administration…ah wait a minute, wasn’t Clinton a white guy? Well, any way, the left just knows what you are all thinking. You may say you’re against out of control government tax and spend policies. You may think that you just don’t want to see your tax dollars used to bail out private banks and the auto industry. You may argue that you don’t want to see the economy destroyed by an outlandish policy of taxing a totally harmless gas, one that plants use to live, carbon-dioxide. You may say those things, but the Left really knows that you are all really evil bigots who would go along with all of it if Obama were just…white.

The race card has been used as a tool by the left for far too long. Anytime someone is not going along with their twisted schemes, they pull it out if they can to beat the opposition into submission. Once it’s determined, by the Left of course, that you are a racist, the argument is over. This has led to a certain timidity among conservatives. Heaven forbid you be called a racist…even if it’s not true.

But the power of this tool, I think, is wearing thin. This president…this government has pushed too far, too quickly. People are beginning to realize that their freedom is more important than being called names. They are beginning to say to themselves, “I know I’m not a racist, and I will stand for my principles regardless of the names they hurl.”

The Left has had a vested interest in keeping racial tension alive and well in the America. They have played one group against the other to gain and maintain power for years. The overwhelming victory of the Obama campaign should show us all that race is no longer the issue it was in our past. Of course there are some bigots out there…of all races. Of course there’s room for improvement. But, President Obama’s race has nothing to do with the criticism from conservatives.

President Obama may very well be the first post-racial president. He was elected with the help of a large number of whites. And, he may be the catalyst that brings an end to race as a political tool. One can only hope.

Obama’s Priorities

Today the Associated Press reports that the President of the United States will travel to Copenhagen to make an appeal to bring the Summer Olympics to Chicago in 2016. Really? This is a job for the president himself? This can’t be handled by someone without so many pressing, critical national issues to handle?

The list of current issues that are vital to the national interest is fairly plain: The Iranians testing missiles and the news of secret nuclear facility in that country…The Afghan war at a slow boil…and the economy continues to falter and the unemployment rate continuing to rise. These are the issues I would expect to see the President of the United States busy at work on. I don’t think, if you polled the American people, you would see the 2016 Olympics very high on their list…just my opinion.

But, with all of this going on, President Obama finds time to go on a media blitz to push for a healthcare agenda that is increasingly unpopular with the citizenry and to fly off to Europe to try to bring home a big pay-off to his former state and city politician friends. All during a time when Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. Commander in Afghanistan, reports that he has only talked to the president once in 70 days.

Former Ambassador John Bolton told the Washington Times, "I think it’s very clear, and has been during last year’s campaign and in the eight months the president has been in office, that he just doesn’t regard foreign policy and national security as important as domestic issues, like reforming the health care system.” He continued, "If you think there are no threats, then it’s not illogical to pay no attention to the rest of the world. The problem is in his [Obama’s] basic reading of the international environment where we do continue to face massive threats for international terrorists and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, among others."

What are Mr. Obama’s priorities? He seems totally unable or unwilling to settle down to the real task of governing. He continues to seek out the spotlight and run in an extended campaign mode. So far, he looks to be in way over his head. This reminds me of the old story of Nero…fiddling while Rome burned.

The Post-American Era

As if his domestic policies, with healthcare, cap and trade, and czar of the day, weren’t bad enough, President Obama seems determined to wreck our foreign policy too. Since the beginning of his term, he has gone around the world bowing and scraping to third-world despots and apologizing for America’s freedom, success and wealth.

Most recently, in phase 2 of his grand plan to remake America, President Obama has begun selling out our allies. After saying that he does not want to be seen as “meddling” in the internal affairs of Iran, he has been perfectly happy to pressure Israel to give up its security to make concessions to the illegitimate Palestinians. He has also seen fit to weigh in on the side of the ousted would-be dictator Manuel Zelaya of Honduras who attempted, against the laws of his country and the ruling of their supreme court, to remain in office for another term. When he was forcibly removed from office, Hillary Clinton declared that it was a military coup. Under U.S. law, we may offer no aid to any government whose leader was toppled in a coup.

Earlier this month, President Obama announced that he was going to cut back missile defense shield in Europe. This move sells out American allies Poland and the Czech Republic to the Russians who have made no secret of their desire to regain control of former east-bloc countries. This also leaves Europe vulnerable to potential threat from a soon to be nuclear power, Iran. Representative Buck McKeon, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee said, "I am concerned that the administration is heading down a path where it is willing to undercut our allies and cave to Russian demands on vital national security matters,"

President Obama then went to speak before the United Nations. In an interview with National Review Online, former U. S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton characterized the speech as “a post-American speech by our first post-American president. It was a speech high on the personality of Barack Obama and high on multilateralism, but very short in advocating American interests.” He also said, “Overall, it was so apologetic for the actions of prior administrations, in an effort to distance Obama from them, that it became yet another symbol of American weakness in the wake of the president’s decision to abandon missile sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, and his recent manifest hesitation over what to do in Afghanistan.”

What will come next…will Obama sell out Taiwan to communist China? Will he pull out U.S. support of South Korea? Will he provide aid to Chavez in Venezuela? As you watch all of this happening, just remember what then Presidential candidate Obama said just before the election, “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” Is this the change you voted for?  Is it the change you expected?  Are we really seeing the beginning of the Post-American era? The choice is ours. Will we allow this government and this president to bring about the end of America as we have known it?

If It Quacks Like a Duck, It Might Be a Camel

Sorry for the mixed metaphor, but let me explain. As I’ve been thinking about the actions of the Obama administration in the short time since January, I have been struck by the fact that so many people, even in the light of growing evidence, seem to really want to give Obama the benefit of the doubt. They listen to what he says…but totally ignore his actions, associations and past history. Additionally, they accuse anyone who raises objections to policy or actions by the administration of being racists or conspiracy nuts. I’m not talking about politicians or political operatives, but rank and file citizens who believe what they hear Obama saying in his on-going campaign appearances in the media.

President Obama continues to “quack” out great-sounding populist drivel for the consumption of the weak minded, but his rhetoric does not stand up against even the most basic scrutiny. The examples are too numerous to list in this format, but I will mention just a few for effect.

Obama quack: "I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits either now or in the future. Period."

Fact: According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) the House bill, which President Obama is endorsing, will raise the deficit by $220 Billion over the next 10 years.

Obama quack: "The reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally."

Fact: While the bill does not specifically spell out that illegal aliens are covered, there is no language to prohibit it, and any attempt to place such language into the bill has been soundly defeated by the President. And, to get past the issue all together, Obama wants to just go ahead and legalize the illegals, a plan that has been roundly rejected by a majority of Americans in the past.

Obama quack: "I pledge to you that under my plan, no one making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not income tax, not capital gains taxes, not any kind of tax,"

Fact: While President Obama’s policies will continue to raise the deficit to $9 trillion by 2019, he continues to say that taxes won’t be raised…how can that be? Well, as he did on CBS’s “Face the Nation” this past weekend, he simply chooses to call increases in revenue taken from the public and corporations by other names. Even former Clinton operative, George Stephanopoulos, insisted that what President Obama was raising taxes, regardless of what he calls it.

Obama quack: “My administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government.”

Fact: All the while appointing a whole group of un-confirmed czars and trying to push the health care bill through Congress before anyone had a chance to read it.

And it goes on and on …It’s not only what someone says, it’s more important what they do. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” So, while Mr. Obama wants us all to listen to his words, he wants us to ignore his actions, past and present. Mr. Obama has been committed through out his life to communist “reform.” He surrounded himself with other, like minded individuals who have preached the evils of America and its system of economy and government.

For anyone who has been paying attention to his past and present deeds, none of his actions since he took office have been surprising. You see, to be a duck, you not only have to quack, but also look and walk like a duck. Watch what he does…pay attention to what he has said in the past. To me, President Obama is the big communist camel who is forcing his nose under the tent.

It Can’t Happen Here…Can It?

While many Americans seem to be waking up to the threat of a centralized, statist government to our liberties, many, I fear, believe it could never happen here. They cannot conceive of a totalitarian take over of our country. How could it possibly happen here? I believe a better question is what makes us think it can’t happen here?

The United States of America at its founding, with its form of self-government and guaranteed personal rights, was something different than the world had ever seen. In many ways, it still remains unique amongst the democratically oriented countries of the world today. Only the Constitution and a national desire to uphold its conventions, has kept us all free to this point. However, this desire seems to have been replaced in the hearts of many by the desire for comfort and future assurances of comfort. For this they have been willing to incrementally give more and more of their lives over to the ministrations of the federal nanny state.

Those who don’t believe it can happen here view the actions of government from a belief that the motivations of our legislative representatives are pure and looking for our best interests. Because of this belief, they overlook things that would have set our founding fathers to the streets with pitch forks and torches. The founders believed that all power should be viewed with a suspicious eye because they knew that, as Lord Acton said, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Even legislators who start out with the most noble of intentions can be drawn to the seductive lure of power. They can also begin to see themselves not as servants, but as leaders. Many of these people are surrounded by sycophantic bureaucrats who constantly stroke their egos and tell them how great they are. They are also surrounded by people offering them money, power and position if they will just vote this way or play the game that way. They begin to believe that they know better than the voters what is “best for the country.” They begin to see our tax money as their money, to spend as they see fit…and these are the ones who start out with good intentions.

The founding fathers warned us over and over again of the dangers of consolidated power, as I covered in an earlier post, Balance of Power. And yet many seem content to sit idly by as more and more power is assumed by the government. As we have turned a blind eye to our representatives’ disdain of constitutional restraint of their power, they have become ever more emboldened to shed those “shackles” and ignore the rule of law to carry out their own agendas. The rate at which this usurpation of power is proceeding seems to be on an exponential curve. With the new administration and lopsided balance of power in Congress today, the trend seems to have shot straight upward.

It is not just the desire to control the health care industry (which comprises approximately 1/7th of the nations GDP), but also the banking industry, the auto industry, Cap and Trade and the “Stimulus Package.” It is these and bills in Congress that would give the President power to shut down the Internet in an “emergency,” and forcibly quarantine people in the threat of a pandemic (which they are already trying to make out of H1N1). It is the attempt to use the census to find out who has guns in their house and other information that is not proscribed by the Constitution. It is the fact that the White House is hiring a contractor to pull information from social networking sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, etc., to track those critical of their policies. Eventually, when you look at all of the attempts to change government’s role in our lives, even the least cynical souls among us has to begin to see a trend that is disturbing.

So, once again I ask, what makes us think it can’t happen here? Do we think that somehow, after thousands of years of history to the contrary, human nature has changed and no one wants to be a dictator anymore? Are we so arrogant to think that we are in some way so unique that no one could take over? Are we so naïve to think that government really just wants what is best for us?

Even if we may like the current President or Congress, even if we think they are noble and pure of heart, as we give more power to them, we cannot forget that they will not always be in power. Who comes next? What will their motivation be? How will they use the power we ceded to them?

It has happened many times before in countries like Russia, China, Korea, Viet Nam, Italy and Germany. It can happen here. It will happen here if we are willing to incrementally trade comfort for freedom. We must always be suspicious of government power. We must watch over it and insist that it acts according to the rule of law as based in the Constitution. We must not shrink from our duties as “The People” to vote for the best qualified and upright candidates, not simply listen to the propagandistic media. And, we must always remember…

“It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance.” - John Philpot Curran, 1790