So Obama vowed earlier this week to “fight” Republicans. Oh, you post-partisan uniter, you! Sigh. OK, there’s lots of this kind of rhetoric in politics, with military terminology so ingrained in the process that people now forget “campaign” used to bring soldiers instead of brochures to people’s minds.
But as I read the article and looked at our President’s actual words, I was pretty stunned. They reveal a great deal, and none of it is good.
First is his brazen dishonesty:
“When [The two-year extension of George W. Bush-era tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest Americans] expire in two years, I will fight to end them,” Obama said. “Just as I suspect the Republican Party may fight to end the middle-class tax cuts that I’ve championed and that they’ve opposed.”
Republicans have always supported middle class tax cuts. They supported them when George Bush implemented them, while liberal Democrats opposed them, insisting they were “only” for the rich back then. They support them now. Everyone knows this, and for the President of the United States to so ridiculously suggest otherwise badly undermines whatever credibility he may still possess.
The only place Republicans have ever insisted on raising taxes on the middle class while keeping them lower for wealthier Americans is in Liberal Fantasy Land. It’s unfortunate to see the Leader of the Free World living there, when we need him here in the real one, making sure it actually stays free.
Then there is his un-seriousness:
In deferring these kinds of battles until next year, Obama has said that without a deal the Bush tax cuts would expire and everyone would see their taxes rise, and “I want to make sure that the American people aren’t hurt because we’re having a political fight.”
That presumably comes next year.
“I’m looking forward to seeing them on the field of competition over the next two years,” Obama said.
“Field of competition”? This isn’t a basketball game. It’s not even just an election. It’s not a political argument in a bar or dorm room. It’s economic policies which will have massive impact on our liberty, our economy, and our nation’s long-term sustainability for decades. Get serious, Mr. President. Grow up.
And then there is the mere “political fight” he calls it, in which he says “we” (being the heads of the American Federal government) as something apart from “the American People.” Contrast that with Reagan’s thoughts on his time as California’s governor:
In those entire eight years, most of us never lost that feeling that we were there representing the people against what Cicero once called the “arrogance of officialdom.” We had a kind of watchword we used on each other. “When we begin thinking of government as we instead of they, we’ve been here too long.”
It certainly hasn’t taken Obama much time to have been there too long.
~~~
But to me, the very worst was this line:
“I will be happy to see the Republicans test whether or not I’m itching for a fight on a whole range of issues,” Obama said last week. “I suspect they will find I am. And I think the American people will be on my side on a whole bunch of these fights.” (Emphasis added)
A representative officeholder should be striving to be on the people’s side, not the other way around. Once again, we learn that it’s all about him. Me, me, me.
First of all, in case he didn’t notice, he’s been in a political fight for the last several years, and politically he hasn’t fared particularly well. Maybe the fact that he’s only been itching while everyone else has been fighting helps explain the results. No wonder the left is still so angry with him right now.
As the very least, he could use rhetoric half as strong in talking about our real enemies in Iran, North Korea, and elsewhere in the world.
I don’t know what’s worse – the empty, schoolyard bravado, or the repugnant and completely unconscious narcissism. Either way, it’s pathetic. And that makes me the angriest of all. As President, Obama represents me and my nation. He is her most potent symbol. And agree with his policies or not, I don’t care to have a pathetic president. In a dangerous world, this should terrify us all.
