But are we really united? Are we not a seriously divided nation? Yes, we are divided in many ways, but I believe we may be more united than we think. In fact, I’ll bet you a gazillion dollars that regardless of your political views, for roughly half of the last 2 years, you had zero trust in the guy in the White House, thought he was lying through his teeth, thought he was doing unconstitutional things, and were sick of seeing him on your TV. Does that describe you? Are we not united here? The point is, no matter who we trust or don’t, or who we vote for, roughly half the time, the other guys are in charge! And it’s not like the ones we mistrust ever go away. There are still laws on the books from Washington (yeah, that loser.) Heck, we still have that useless Louisiana Purchase Jefferson stuck us with! You think, your cool guy is in, and the other jerk is out? Think again.
Our government is like a giant nightmare version of the Garden of Eden that has never been pruned. Sure, it started out simple and beautiful when all we had was our Constitution, but along the way we bit the apple, and now anything can be justified as Constitutional. The Garden is an overgrown mess. When the Constitution can be anything, it becomes nothing. It’s as if everything ever planted in our Garden of Eden, good or bad, constitutional or unconstitutional, by every administration, has just grown, and grown, and grown, unchecked. How many federal programs, agencies, taxes, or laws can you name that have ever been phased out? Not many, right? Do you really want all those weeds clogging up your once heavenly Garden? Wouldn’t it be great if we could agree to do some trimming and weeding and get back to that Promised Land of Constitutional Government? See, we really are united!
After the State of the Union Address, Peggy Noonan, who writes a weekly op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, pointed out that Obama’s message was essentially (and I’m paraphrasing) “Washington is hopelessly broken, but if you allow us to control your entire life, we’ll make sure all your healthcare, energy, climate, automotive, banking, defense, housing, food, drug, and employment needs are satisfied.” Yeah, right. It’s laughable on its face, especially when you realize that half the time, the people in charge of your entire life will be the untrustworthy, lying, stupid, jerks you voted against! And say what you will, none of that is in the Constitution.
Unwittingly, Barack Obama has become our savior. I’m not suggesting that he is doing anything right, in fact, by being so spectacularly wrong, he has become the Prophet his followers promised. Look around. Everywhere you turn the pendulum is swinging back and this swing is bigger and more profound than any in the past. Of course, the pendulum is always swinging. Remember how after Bill Clinton’s “character” issues, the pendulum swung to Bush 43 who ran on bringing dignity back to the oval office? And after Bush’s lack of brains and communication skills, the pendulum swung to a much smarter guy? Notwithstanding the fact that he thinks there are at least 57 states, can’t pronounce Corpsman, and needs a TelePrompTer to talk to school kids; he really does sound smart most of the time.
(Not to get sidetracked, but speaking of sounding smart, when Obama talks about economics or defense in particular, he reminds me of a character in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”. Remember Mike Damone, the sleazy cool kid who talks a slick game about the ladies, but eventually gets exposed as a complete novice and fraud? Here’s some dialog I clipped from IMDB:
- Mike Damone: I mean don't just walk in. You move across the room. And you don't talk to her. You use your face. You use your body. You use everything. That's what I do. I mean I just send out this vibe and I have personally found that women do respond. I mean, something happens.
- Mark Ratner: Well, naturally something happens. I mean, you put the vibe out to 30 million chicks, something is gonna happen.
- Mike Damone: That's the idea, Rat. That's the attitude.
- Mark Ratner: The attitude?
- Mike Damone: Yeah! The attitude dictates that you don't care whether she comes, stays, lays, or prays. I mean whatever happens, your toes are still tappin'. Now when you got that, then you have the attitude.
Getting back to the pendulum, this swing started long before Barack Obama became President. Don’t you remember feeling helpless as Bush was shepherding the tragic TARP bill through? You probably had the same feeling when congress unanimously passed the first stimulus bill and Obama was not President then either. Ditto when Bush expanded federal control over education and prescription drugs for Medicare. Yeah, this swing of the pendulum has been going for a hundred years and it’s about the Constitution and its demise as a check on federal power.
I realize this is a familiar charge. Whenever we don’t like what a politician does, we yell “Unconstitutional!” Remember the outcry over Bush’s warrantless wiretaps? It’s the oldest charge in the book, but can you ever remember it getting traction before? Why now? And why is Obama the Prophet if he didn’t even start the pendulum swinging?
Because Obama gave the pendulum such a huge push! Nobel Economist Milton Friedman used to refer to the “Frog-in-the-Pot” analogy when discussing the shredding of The Constitution. That’s the classic analogy about dropping a frog in a pot of boiling water only to see it jump right out. Put that same frog into a pot of cool water, slowly bring it to a boil, and you’ll soon have a happily poached frog. In this case, we are the frog, and the flame cooking us is being stoked by the bi-partisan enemies of The Constitution.
Obama has turned up the heat so much in such a short time, that the frogs are jumping in droves. Would there have been Tea Parties if McCain had won the election? I doubt it. John McCain would have been almost as much an enemy of the Constitution as Obama. He wanted many of the same things. Heck, Obama hasn’t been overturned by the Supreme Court as far as I know! That’s an honor few can share with John McCain. But still, I think we would have behaved quietly as we did under Bush. We would have just enjoyed the warm bath like the compliant frogs we are. But instead we see this today:
Photoshop Hat Tip: www.humblelibertarian.com via www.michellemalkin.com
So what changed with Obama?
- For one, we are supposed to be a nation of Laws not Men. Our Constitution is supposed to be our guiding light, not our leaders. Then along comes Obama with his Messianic shtick and personality cult and it just goes against the grain of who we are.
- Second, The Constitution allows for the government to collect taxes, and over the years, the government has devolved into a virtual redistribution machine. The constitution does not say that the government can directly redistribute wealth, and that’s been a line few politicians have crossed. Then Obama came along and woke us up.
- Third is his rhetorical assault on The Constitution itself. He has made no secret that he holds The Constitution in contempt and this is a bit too much for those of us who think it is the very thing that made this country what we are. (Not that any document is perfect. But we say, if you’ve got a problem with The Constitution, there’s an app for that; it’s called an amendment!)
- Fourth, is the sheer audacity of his redistributionist agenda and its unprecedented assault on future generations.
- And finally, there is the perception that he is not engaged as Commander in Chief; a job at the Constitutional core of our executive branch.
Thanks to the Obama awakening, concerned Americans are protesting in the street by the millions. Massachusetts, of all places, just ended a super-majority in The Senate. The Obama Administration is retreating on every single one of its agenda items. No incumbent from either party is a sure thing unless viewed as a strict Constitutionalist. John McCain is being challenged in his home state from within his party. Atlas Shrugged is a bestseller. People are once again reading the Constitution, The Declaration, The Federalist Papers, and reviewing American history. For Chris sakes, one of the highest rated cable news shows is a guy teaching American history at a blackboard at 5 O’clock!
These are nothing short of miracles. Barack Obama is indeed the Messiah.
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