Monday, July 18, 2011

Fateful year

With the federal debt approaching 70% of GDP, and federal spending at levels not seen since WWII; with existing entitlements programs splitting at the seams, and new ones of unknown but certainly enormous cost being added; with regulatory expenses skyrocketing and a foreign policy in complete disarray; with class-warfare rhetoric reaching fever pitch, and socialist ideology making a comeback like a vampire that won’t stay buried; above all, with a president whose monstrous ego has blinded him to the vastness of his own ignorance, while hardening the intensity of his contempt for compromise and fair play, and encouraging the complacency with which he views all opposition as the personification of wickedness – 2012 will obviously be a watershed year. More than a watershed, in fact; I’m convinced that we are rapidly closing in on the tipping point of America As We Know It.

And one very important test will be whether we reelect Barack Obama. There can be no excuses for harboring illusions concerning his temperament and ideology. He is the first punk ever elected to the presidency - a swaggering, arrogant, destructive ignoramus, a perpetual rebel against a society from which he has been alienated since his youth. And it is a mark of the decrepitude of our political system that the one organization around which Obama’s foes should be able to coalesce – the Republican Party – is hamstrung by dinosaurs of privilege whose opposition to the wilder excesses of the tax-and-spend mentality is now based more on inertia than on principle. It is a mark of the corruption of the fourth estate that even the relative handful of senior Republican congressmen and senators who are fighting the good fight can barely make themselves heard above the talking heads parroting the administration’s canned views. Finally, it is a mark of the cupidity and pusillanimity of Wall Street that its denizens continue to pay protection money in the form of campaign contributions to Obama and his party for the absurd distinction of being able to dine at the captain’s table aboard the Titanic.

It is no surprise that, against this backdrop of fiscal irresponsibility and an aggressive attempt at not-so-surreptitious revolution from above, the Tea Party has arisen. When political institutions fail, it is inevitable that a free people will find their own means for protecting their traditional rights, pushing nominal leaders aside and installing new ones not besotted with the smugness of a false and baseless elitism, nor sunk in the idle luxury of useless sinecures. We hear much about the dangers of populism, the risks associated with directionless and inchoate passion, the futility of trying to change policy without organization. We are told by fearful men to be cautious, by insiders that we don’t understand, by time-servers that patience is a virtue and that all will be well down the road – in short, we are told to keep our mouths shut and to swallow the fantasy that the rabbit hutch that is the establishment is going to magically transform itself into a pride of roaring lions (at some future date, to be determined).

Well, none of that will do in 2012. We The People are the surest guardians of our own liberty, and in this time of clear and present danger, the market for leaders who don’t lead has turned decidedly bearish.

14 comments:

Walla Walla Tea Party Patriots said...

Sir, you are hereby linked!

Paco said...

Thanks for the link!

rinardman said...

As I read this (excellent summary), I couldn't help but think this administration is nothing more than a real life The Emporer's New Clothes.

Obama is surrounded by underlings in too deep to accept that the Emperor has no clothes. And the MSM pretends he's wearing a fine suit, ignoring the calls from those who see, exclaiming his nakedness.

*

rinardman said...

Or, as some would say: The Emperor's New Clothes

Preview, dummy.

*

Paco said...

rinardman: Or, as I have put it before, the clothes have no emperor.

Minicapt said...

Tried that preview dummy once, didn't works at all. Might well have used French.

Cheers

RebeccaH said...

I'm currently reading Colleen McCullough's series of historical novels about the last days of the Roman Republic from Marius to Caesar, and while I've always resisted the notion that America's decline is like Rome's, I've been flabbergasted by the parallels of Roman politicians in those days with our own today.

As Reagan said: "It's been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first."

richard mcenroe said...

We have got to convince our doddering old GOP senators that they need to vote as if their lives, professionally speaking, depend on it. Yeah, I'm looking at you, McConnell...

Bob Belvedere said...

A hearty 'Huzzah!' for that eloquent call to arms, Paco.

Quoted from and Linked to at:
A Call To Arms: 2012 As 1453

Karen K said...

Hi Paco, foudn this via Bob Belvedere's blog. What an excellent analysis. !

Karen K said...

Oops, HTML goof in my first comment:

Linked!

Paco said...

Thanks for the links, Bob and Karen!

Col. Milquetoast said...

Cut back to the "austere" days of 2009 when the feds only spent $3.1 trillion (*choke*) and pols and the media act like it'd be impossible. Tiny cuts to pointless projects get gasps, pearl clutching and cries about how draconian and traumatic it'd be for an agency to have its budget increased but at a lower rate than requested.

Paco for President!

(The prevalence of this sort of attitude makes me afraid we might be doomed)

Always On Watch said...

He is the first punk ever elected to the presidency - a swaggering, arrogant, destructive ignoramus, a perpetual rebel against a society from which he has been alienated since his youth.

I think that more and more voters are realizing that BHO has to be removed from office.

But the GOP? Well, that's another matter, and I'm not very optimistic about the GOP's future as a political party.