Under the headline “President Obama Continues Hectic Victory Tour”, the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank reports that at a campaign stop in Washington yesterday, Barack Citizen of the World Obama said this
Inside, according to a witness, he told the House members, “This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for,” adding: “I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.”
Pompous turd. Since when has socialism and statism been America’s best tradition? Oh, right, FDR. Well then, when was being an arrogant BS’er part of America’s finest traditions? BJ Clinton? Oh yeah, right. What about clueless nanny state obstructionists? Pelosi and Reid… uh, ok. Maybe he’s got a point after all. He is a fine symbol.
But those aren’t America’s best traditions.
I see a couple of candidates who in other times wouldn’t have made it to Washington, much less to the podiums of their party’s conventions; one of those candidates has such a thin resume and so many dubious (at best) past connections he wouldn’t be eligible to run a small business, much less the greatest country on earth. I see politicians like Clinton, Pelosi, Reid, Craig, Jefferson, Stevens, and a host of others who are so ethically challenged, yet able to carry on in power with nary a blush, and the ones who complain about it are laughed at and out voted. I see a Congress so hellbent on bringing home not just a little bacon but the whole damn hogfarm, that it can no longer pass a clean bill that doesn’t threaten to bankrupt our future. I see politicians promising to expand government to the point of taking over energy, banking, healthcare, housing, transportation, and education. That’s frightening! I see a Supreme Court splitting 5-4 on issues that seem obvious to everyday English speaking people, making law and delivering opinions based on political ideology and the chess game that our legal system has become, rather than the clear meaning of words in the Constitution. I see a press no longer attempting to hide the thrill up their leg, or the personal agendas they promote. And I see an American electorate, half of which is so polarized they cannot even discuss issues with each other without anger and vitriol, and the other half so disenfranchised they don’t participate anymore. That’s sad.
You know, perhaps Barack Hussein Obama is right. He just might BE a symbol. Certainly he is an empty suit, and in my opinion a very dangerous person to trust with the power of the White House. But as a ’symbol of the possibility’ he is fitting, for the place that America is today. Maybe he really IS who we need to be President? In a “be careful what you wish for” kind of way.
One fine American tradition is the habit we as a people have of getting knocked down hard, shaking it off, then getting up and fighting back. An Obama presidency might be the catalyst for just such a moment in American history. Painful as they are to go through, terms such as Carter’s (and I suspect, Obama’s) eventually lead to stronger futures. America is not strengthened by higher taxes, increased government control, and wishy-washy Presidents with a program for everyone and everything. The American people are not made stronger by giving them everything they think they need, whether that be free jobs, free retirements, free healthcare, free mortgages, or free television converter boxes. There is no such thing as “free”. Which is why Barack Empty Hype Obama might be just the man to bring that lesson home to the American people.
The American people were never made stronger or better by government, or by programs, or by political parties or political promises. No, the American people are made stronger and more productive when government gets its hand out of the pockets of the citizens, gets out of the way, and lets we the people do it for themselves. That is one of those finest American traditions that goes all the way back to the Founding of the country.
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Simple, elegant. No free stuff. No phoney Robin Hood “tax the rich, give to the poor” government programs. And a conscious rememberance that we are going to be passing it along to those who come after us, our children. Not a massive debt and the biggest bureaucracy the world has ever seen. No silly promises of happily ever after courtesy of a gigantic government run by people who know it all and better. The Founders didn’t design a government to replace the King, nor to become as God. Simply a framework to “secure the blessings of liberty” for all, not just some.
Gratitude, not greed. Hard work, not laziness. Caring for others, not simply one’s self. Security and self-sufficiency, not fear and dependency. And trust in God as the basis for hope for the future, not in the government, or in human politicians.
THOSE are the finest of American traditions. Too bad the Obamamessiah doesn’t mean any of that.
Just wishin’ I could be out in the desert shooting, instead of working my tail off, and sneaking in here to apologize for the lack of posting. Like I said to SailorCurt in his comments the other day, do you remember that I Love Lucy episode with the pies and the conveyor belt? I know how that feels. But soon enough it will be fall and hunting season, and then winter, and I’ll have plenty more time to write. Right now, you just have to “make hay while the sun shines”. “Hay” today, shooting comes later. After all, we still have until September to shoot the blog rifle league match (said the man who couldn’t get to the range to do the last handgun ePostal). …sigh… 
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