Peter Hitchens has a great piece from a Brit’s perspective on the Obama frenzy and the most likely outcome of the the upcoming “change”. Excerpts below:
Anyone would think we had just elected a hip, skinny and youthful replacement for God, with a plan to modernise Heaven and Hell – or that at the very least John Lennon had come back from the dead.
The swooning frenzy over the choice of Barack Obama as President of the United States must be one of the most absurd waves of self-deception and swirling fantasy ever to sweep through an advanced civilisation. At least Mandela-worship – its nearest equivalent – is focused on a man who actually did something.
I really don’t see how the Obama devotees can ever in future mock the Moonies, the Scientologists or people who claim to have been abducted in flying saucers. This is a cult like the one which grew up around Princess Diana, bereft of reason and hostile to facts…
With the election of Obama, I am a bit worried about the direction of Liberty in our country. However, make no mistake, Obama is our president. He won. Congratulations Barrack Obama. The first black man elected to the Presidency. That is amazing and historic. Although I strongly disagree with his policies, I certainly recognize his accomplishment.
The coming years are the time to make some noise for conservatism - to make cogent arguments that win over hearts and minds. These four years will give us ample opportunity. Please don’t fall into the left’s position of the previous four years (or eight). Yelling Commie! at every Obama supporter won’t do any good. As a real example, my own neighbor has begun to receive hate calls because someone found out she voted for Obama (and we live in Memphis). Rediculous.
But I have to be honest. I had a fear on Tuesday. My fear was that Obama would be elected and that the stock markets would rally on Wednesday. This would, no doubt, have been used as “proof of investors’ realization of all the wonderful things Obama was going to do for the economy” or some other drivel. And this would have grated on my very soul.
It turns out I was somewhat vindicated. The market had it’s largest ever post-election drop yesterday, and the markets are down today as well. Of course, it is bitter-sweet, as I’m not satisfied watching the markets drop; I’m just glad that I don’t have to hear about how investors are discounting a rapid recovery under an Obama administration.
It isn’t even noon yet, but I’ve already had my fill today of leftists preaching to me that Obama is our President-elect and I need to galvanize behind him instead of complaining. While I respect the idea of supporting our next President, I have to wonder where that attitude has been for the past eight years. The same liberals chastising me for expressing what I feel is justifiable discontent less than 12 hours after my candidate lost are the same ones who have spent the better part of the last decade blaming our current President for everything from the housing crisis to rain on a summer day. Now that their “Messiah” is set to assume the Oval Office, it is suddenly time for all Americans, regardless of political leanings, to coalesce behind their leader? I’m not buying into the hypocrisy.
The 2008 Presidential candidates (including McCain, but especially Obama) also owe Bush an apology. Far too much time was spent dragging the man’s name through the mud in an effort to appeal to the public’s disenchantment and garner votes. Bush has made plenty of mistakes as President, but he has also done a lot of good for which he has gone largely uncredited. He has kept us safe since 9/11 and rid the world of a lot of terrorist threats. While spending has often been reckless under his administration, we were actually headed the right direction with our budget deficit until Democrats took over Congress two years ago. I don’t agree with every decision Bush has made, but I certainly don’t agree with the idea of blaming him for every perceived injustice and imperfection in this country.
Unlike Obama, I’ve never heard Bush whine, complain, or try to silence anyone who has had something negative to say about him. Despite his flaws, he is a class guy who understands that fierce criticism comes with the job.
In the words of Oklahoma State head football coach Mike Gundy, “That’s all I’ve got to say; makes me wanna puke.”
I was asked the other day about the coming election and what I thought about it.I mentioned that foreign policy has become the main issue for me, and barely got the words out of my mouth before I was promptly interrupted.He could not believe that I wasn’t concerned about the economy.To which I replied, “Not really.”He was incredulous and wouldn’t listen to anything I had to say.So I decided to put to paper these issues and hopefully clarify.
First, I am concerned about the economy.Unemployment will rise, consumer confidence will fall, earnings will disappoint, the market will go down, and times will be hard.But, it’s not the end.We act as though we’ve never seen a down-turn in the markets before.Yes, trillions of dollars have vaporized, and portfolios have suffered, but these things happen.Indeed, if you are not prepared for something like to happen, and are not ready to accept the risk of it happening, then you should not put money into the stock market (or housing market for that matter).And guess what?The markets will come back up again, and then surprise! they’ll go back down again too.As much as they would like to you have you believe, Congress can not repeal the business cycle.
Barak Obama has REPEATEDLY stated that he will “not raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000″, but if you’re above that 250k “rich” line - watch out! Lets take a look at how this is a flat out LIE. Obama has repeatedly voted against extending/making permanent the Bush Tax Credits because they are “for the rich”. His current position is that he will let those credits that expire in 2009 & 2010 as they only benefit the rich. Let’s see how much more taxes you’ll pay without “raising taxes”. Because merely “letting tax credits expire” and reverting to “older” -cough- higher -cough- tax rates isn’t “raising taxes” - its different. Well its different verbage… too bad its effects are exactly the same.
1. The Child Tax Credit will return to $500 from the current $1000. Tax Increase: $500 per child.
2. The death tax after being slowly phased out to make the transition easier for the government it will jump back to 55%. While taxing inheritance seems like a good way to “get the rich”, it actually tends to hurt family businesses -like farmers- the most. The dastardly rich, you see, spend tens of thousands of dollars on estate planners (both lawyers and accountants) but shield their millions from most of this taxation through trusts, off shore investments, etc. Tax Increase: varies.
3. The Marriage Penalty will return for all income levels. This “penalty” is the fact that in dual income homes (most of America these days), couples end up paying a higher amount of taxes than they would if they were still single and paying their taxes individually. A “fair” tax system that cares about the “working man” (and working woman) would want to tax people the same if they are single or married. Tax Increase: varies but often several thousand dollars.
George Neumayr has an excellent piece at the The American Spectator. I interject here and there for added clarity.
Debates in D.C. seem to shift ever leftward, with last year’s liberal positions becoming this year’s unacceptably reactionary ones — a trend that is bound to accelerate under a Democratic monopoly of all three branches of government.
The extent to which the 1960s counter-culture has become the culture and 1960s anti-Americanism become the new patriotism is amazing. That’s why Obama could launch his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist and pay almost no price for it. As Chris Matthews lectured Pat Buchanan on Hardball last Friday night, Ayers was a terrorist with a worthy motivation: he bombed the Pentagon because he wanted America out of Vietnam, a blameless goal indeed. Under the Left’s tortured understanding of the new patriotism, even Jeremiah Wright is pro-American: his fulminations had the purpose of drawing America into the light.
Patriotism is now measured not by respect for the conservatism contained in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution but by the level of one’s enthusiasm for the America to come.
The US Communist Party is feeling rather smug in these days of capitalist turmoil.
At the party’s New York headquarters on 23rd Street in Manhattan, regional party chairman Libero Della Piana, 36, laid out why he thinks Marxist-Leninism’s time has finally come.
“We are very excited, we feel that we are at a turning point,” Della Piana, an imposing half-Italian, half-African American with a pony tail, told AFP. “We can afford to be less on the defensive for the first time since Ronald Reagan…”
There is no communist running for the White House and the Communist Party does not endorse Democrat Barack Obama.
Yet many staff here wore his picture on lapel buttons, while Republican John McCain was relegated to a box of tissues — the tissues being pulled through his mouth.
November 14th, 2008 