MeeMie
No Spam Here
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2005
- Posts
- 7,328
(well worth the long read)
The Danger of Obama Derangement Syndrome
Undoubtedly, it has happened to us all.
It has happened in the checkout line at the neighborhood supermarket, in a perfectly-manicured backyard eating burnt barbeque chicken at an obligatory summertime gathering of co-workers, or while trapped at a large round table adorned with an oversized centerpiece and half-full champagne glasses as inebriated groomsmen and bridesmaids take to the dance floor for the latest Euro-trash dance craze. Sometimes, it happens with complete strangers. Other times, it’s friends. At worst, it happens with family. Inevitably, talk turns from football or grandkids or the office to politics, and the end result is hardly ever pretty.
Ideally, a healthy debate over policy and ideology can be a learning experience. Different people bring different perspectives, different backgrounds lend to different worldviews. Ideally, we could all stand to learn a little from one another, no matter how far apart in beliefs, in values, in principles we may be. Over the past eight years, however, visceral emotion has trumped common sense, blind hatred has supplanted rational thought.
It hasn’t taken long to grow weary of how many of those on the left responded to cogent, empirical or fact-based arguments with raw emotion and brutal hatred. Any discussion of foreign policy was met with “BUSH LIED AND PEOPLE DIED” or "THIS IMMORAL WAR." Any attempt at weighing options in terms of energy policy was spurned by vile, hateful comments about Dick Cheney and Halliburton, or President George W. Bush as the puppet for the oil companies. There were "failed policies," failed "just because, well, they were." Bush was a liar, plain and simple. Cheney ate puppies. The Iraq war was immoral and illegal. Every time, every conversation was “God Bless America? No, no, no – God DAMN America,” only without the microphone and pulpit.
With the exception of a few of my many left-leaning friends and acquaintances, it progressed to the point where I could no longer stomach more than 30 seconds of political discussion with anyone who considered themselves to be a Democrat, liberal or progressive. Even the occasional worthy argument on their part was met with rolled eyes on mine.
It was tiresome, and it only cheapened any attempt by honest, hard-working and hard-thinking Democrats to argue the merits of their ideology. Had it not been for Barack Obama, perhaps the perfect political candidate for his time and place considering the state of the mainstream media and the American populace, I’m not so sure the Oval Office would have a Democrat in it this afternoon.
The raw emotion and response to rational arguments with hatred-fueled irrational thought could very well have led to the demise of the Democratic Party. If the keys to the White House had been turned over to whichever Republican would offer a perceived third term of George W. Bush instead of to Barack Obama, the ensuing wrath and fire and brimstone and venom and vitriol from the fringes of the left would have undoubtedly consumed whatever credibility the Democratic Party had in reserve. The inmates were truly on the verge of running the asylum. Those who honestly wanted to rationally argue the merits of nationalized health care and a laissez faire, détente-at-all-costs approach to foreign policy would be lumped into the same uppity, bitter crowd as those with the “1-20-09: The End of an Error” bumper stickers on the back of their diesel Volvos.
The rational left was nearly consumed by the radical left. Now, however, as we watch the crowd gather in Washington, D.C., I fear that those of us on the right are stepping right in where they left off. I worry about the consequences of Obama Derangement Syndrome.
Between ACORN and the accounts of rampant voter fraud in a dozen states, between the ongoing Internet-driven debate about his constitutional eligibility, a certain segment of the American political right believes wholeheartedly that Barack Hussein Obama has no place being sworn in today as the 44th president of the United States. I cannot say that I blame them – there is no question as to whether ACORN and others fraudulently obtained registrations and cast votes and, contrary to popular belief, the cases and lingering questions regarding Obama’s eligibility and Article II, Section 1 of the United States Constitution still have not been adjudicated on their merits.
The problem, however, is drawing the line. Where does it end? Is Berg v. Obama—or any of the others—destined to become the Bush v. Gore of the next four or eight years, fueling cries of “selected, not elected” from the very crowd who thumbed their nose and rolled their eyes at those who made the same such pleas years earlier? Are “Obama The Usurper” bumper stickers on pickup trucks and luxury sedans destined to replace the “Bush Lied” and "Endless War" bumper stickers seen on so many Subaru wagons and hybrid sedans? Will cries of "he's a socialist!" really have any effect if those screaming are too blinded by hatred to even know why?
What of the arguments that need to be made? How can we stand up when we need to if those we’re standing up against merely roll their eyes at us like we had at them? Just like the Democratic Party could have been doomed by those who stood outside of courthouses with “Bush is a War Criminal” signs, how is the Republican Party to make the necessary adjustments while weighed down with a segment of its base that cannot get past the very name on the door to the Oval Office?
We’re in for the fight of our lives, people. In case you haven’t noticed, our values and our principles and our sovereignty are being attacked from all sides and all angles. We need to stand firm, and it may be difficult to do so encumbered by people who just cannot see the forest for the trees.
When a wickedly liberal Congress prepares to place the Freedom of Choice Act on the Resolute desk for President Obama to sign, we need to call our senators and representatives and remind them of the brutality that is partial-birth abortion -- not simply sit back and mutter, under our breath, that Obama shouldn’t even be president in the first place because of voter fraud in Ohio, or because some faceless Internet guru said that Obama’s Certificate of Live Birth was a forgery.
When Obama’s own Global Poverty Act reaches his desk imposing an $845 billion global tax onto the United States on top of what America, already the most generous nation on the planet, does to fight poverty and respond to disaster across the globe, we must stand up against the forces of global socialism -- not just chant, over and over again, “Obama The Usurper! Obama The Usurper!” and hope that, finally, someone is going to listen.
When Nancy Pelosi dusts off the Fairness Doctrine, or when Democrats in the Senate look to reinstate the “Assault Weapons” Ban, we absolutely must stand and fight for our rights under the First and Second Amendments of the Constitution -- not ignore the more pressing constitutional issues in favor of focusing on Article II, Section 1 and the "Natural Born" Citizen Clause.
When Barack Obama--inevitably with John McCain’s help--attempts to enact his cap-and-trade legislation and other energy policies which, just this week, Obama himself said would “cause energy prices to skyrocket,” we must be able to argue that enacting such policies would countermand his campaign promises and actually harm the middle class, we must be able to argue that increasing the regulatory burden on business and industry in the name of junk science and a thinly-veiled facade for global socialism would drive industry, and therefore jobs and tax revenue, out of and away from the United States in favor of a more friendly climate -- not merely chime in that all of Obama’s decisions will be rendered moot if he’s finally "exposed as a usurper."
Look at what is at stake. Look at how the Democrats, who have been planning their moves for the better part of fourteen years, are working tirelessly to not only capture but maintain power. Obama’s addition of more than 500,000 government jobs, undoubtedly with most in Maryland and northern Virginia, could forever tilt a voting base in hotly contested states; the Democrats’ permissive attitude toward illegal immigration could provide the left with more and more voters for years and years to come -- provided, of course, that the ballots are printed in Spanish.
And don’t forget the schools! Look at what is being taught in our schools! While watching the Philadelphia Eagles get ruined by the Arizona Cardinals this weekend, I was talking with my wife’s 15-year-old cousin and, inevitably, the topic of Barack Obama’s inauguration came up. "Oh, I wish I could go," she said, saying that her Social Studies teacher had told her class that "there’s a lot of hope for my generation,” and that “Barack Obama’s policies will surely get us out of this economy."
Oh really, how?
"Well, we spend the money, um, even though we’re in debt, and that will get us out of it!" she said in her adamant support of the president-elect, admitting after a few minutes that she couldn’t remember everything the teacher had told her.
Look at what we need to fight against. This new generation knows only the superficial traces of the ideas they’re being brainwashed with by the aging bespectacled hippies in their schools. My God, we’re going to "spend the money, um, even though we’re in debt?" Really? In cases such as these, we must be able to respond to these open minds by providing an informed, reasoned explanation of the merits of conservatism or the free market -- not with "he stole the election" or "it's ACORN's fault" or "he’s a usurper and an illegal alien and his father is Frank Marshall Davis and he shouldn’t be there in the first place."
Listen – I am no fan of Barack Hussein Obama. I see a charmer, a man who has laid down with pigs—Wright, Pfleger, Khalidi, Rezko, Ayers, and more—and somehow managed to conceal the mud from a loving media and hypnotized public. I see a globalist, a man who feels that America’s days as a global superpower should be numbered. I see a collectivist, a man who perpetuates the wrongheaded liberal attitude toward business, industry, success and capitalism. I see an idealist, a man who greatly underestimates the threats facing us from without and within.
Today, however, I see the 44th president of the United States of America, a man who will be forced because of extrinsic circumstances to curb his socialist and ultraliberal predilections in favor of polls and pragmatism. As a conservative, I am not nearly as intimidated by Barack Hussein Obama alone as I am of his inability to fight off Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and their progressive flunkies.
We are in the political and ideological fight of our lives. As the economy continues to slide and the government seeks more and more control, we must be able to stand firm and say "no more." As fundamentalist Islam creeps further and further into our daily lives through political correctness and a populace devoid of vigilance due to blind trust in government, we must make our voices heard with regard to confirmation of Obama's appointments to the bench, the final insulation between free America and Jihad From Within. As the new face of global socialism--the so-called green movement--permeates every aspect of America and demands changes which could cause more harm than good, we must be ready with arguments rooted in fact and science rather than steeped in blind hatred and raw emotion.
We cannot do any of this if we're the ones in the checkout line who, after hearing some ignorant tattooed pubescent pincushion say that we should increase taxes on the rich because it’s fair, are only able to respond with "HE STOLE THE ELECTION" or "HE’S A USURPER." Remember how ridiculous those liberals sounded, blinded by hatred of President Bush? We simply cannot allow ourselves to become those people, and I see it happening, right before my very eyes.
It’s time to grow up. It’s time to dry our eyes and get ready to fight. Mark my words -- Obama’s policies will fail. Like FDR added seven years to the Great Depression, Obama’s economy will get worse long before it gets better. Like what we see in Canada and the U.K., socialized health care will bring less quality, longer lines, and more complications. Furthermore, diametrically opposed to what we saw after Iran released hostages upon Ronald Reagan’s inauguration, those across the world who hate us and dream of our destruction will only become emboldened by Obama’s laissez-faire, tea party approach to foreign policy, and we will be hit again. Hard.
I hope I’m wrong. As an American who stands to benefit from a strong economy and successful approach to national security, I hope the new president succeeds. In the likely case that he does not, however, we all must be ready to state our case from a perspective completely unencumbered by emotion, completely unburdened by hatred, completely unrestrained by the trappings of Obama Derangement Syndrome.
election of 2000 and a close loss in 2004, that anticipates setback. Call it Battered Liberal Syndrome. This time, it’s not electoral defeat Democrats fear, but a devaluation of last November’s victory, a scenario in which progressive policy is undermined and Democratic dreams are once again deferred. 
