Saturday, July 04, 2009

"Storm Clouds on the Fourth of July"

From Roger Simon at PajamasMedia:
I don’t think I’ve ever seen my country so divided and depressed on the Fourth of July in my lifetime and - no matter what Bob Dylan dreamed up - I’m not young, forever or otherwise. That includes the Vietnam War period when both sides at least had some conviction and excitement for the future, even if wrong. Not so now. The current situation is grim.

Obama is already over. In six short months the now-spattered bumper stickers with “Hope and Change” seem like pathetic remnants from the days of “23 Skidoo,” the echoes of “Yes, we can” more nauseating than ever in their cliché-ridden evasiveness. Although they may pretend otherwise, even Obama’s choir in the mainstream media seems to know he’s finished, their defenses of his wildly over-priced medical and cap-and-trade schemes perfunctory at best. Everyone knows we can’t afford them. His stimulus plan - if you could call it his, maybe it’s Geithner’s, maybe it’s someone else’s, maybe it’s not a plan at all - has produced absolutely nothing. In fact, I have met not one person of any ideology who evinces genuine confidence in it.
Read the whole thing...I agree with him...

8 comments:

George said...

A word of caution:
Similar dismissals were written of Reagan in the early '80's and we know how that all turned out.

Most of the stimulus is set to begin in 2010. The effects of this spending will take a year or so to manifest itself- just in time for the election in 2012.

The one thing I have learned about the American people is they vote their pocketbook. If unemployment is down, gas prices low, and inflation in check, it is going to be very hard to beat this guy.

I'm not saying Obama is anything like the Gipper, I'm saying it is premature to write him off so easily.

MzVRWC said...

Thanks for the post and the link, Michael. Now I know that I'm not the only one feeling a bit melancholy this evening. Like the author, I think I'm feeling this way because of my love of country (which is a relatively new thing for me), which makes what is going on right now hurt that much more.

As much as part of me would love to be oblivious to the systematic destruction of America as we know it (like the commenter before me), I am immune to the kool-aid, and I can see that it's just not possible that the country can pull out of the hellhole that it will become if the current administration continues to be successful in it's quest to remove all of the things that make this country so great.

Ok, done with fatalistic rant. Time to take the author's advice - now where did I put my bell bottoms and platform shoes?

Anonymous said...

The pragmatists rejected all forms of absolutism and insisted that all principles be regarded as working hypotheses that must bear fruit in lived experience.--Roger Simon

You don't have to retreat to the 19th century to enjoy the alleged benefits of pragmatism.

Why not embrace 20th Century Nixonian Republicanism? Who but Tricky Dick could recite the "Checkers" speech with evident sincerity and yet readily swoon in the embrace of Red China?

I hope we can to better than this.

The reason our nation is being torn to pieces is because no one is upholding an immutable moral standard to which good men may rally.

When a society declines to the point that no one can any longer say with certainty *what* is right, a brutal contest ensues to determine *who* is right.

As the dreary march of history shows, might assumes the mantle of "right" and the army with the most guns imposes its will on the rest.

A society built on pragmatism declares ethics to be experimental--a formula for anarchy, ruin and despotism.

Away with the pragmatists.

MALTHUS

Rastus said...

George, you can never write a fascist machine off that's bent on domination.

The stimulus...not intened to help now..or later. It is both designed and intended to push us firmly into Socialism like the Europeans are "enjoying"...can you say France?

I also think that in voting their pocketbook the "new ignornace" of the American public may well rush headlong into a dark future.

There was a reason for holding the line, which the media so ridicules this day, calling forth the communists and the socialists on the carpet....we've no bold generation to do that now the inmates are running the asylum.

I would caution that everyone not portray the pocket of America they may still enjoy when they consider the state of the nation...things are grim indeed.

Remember the slogan: "Our strength is in our diversity." Now, with that knowledge do not accept what you have heard, do not believe the devil tongue...analyze what politicians do not say, see what their laws do not what they say they do or perish.

Lawrence said...

You all would be surprised how fast word has gotten around about the ATF Nazis banging on people's doors in Texas and how much people hate it.

I hate to say I told these people so, but I did.

Anonymous said...

As our president is in Russia collecting his Cases of 200$ a bottle vodka,his bonus for siding with the Castro brothers,Chavez and Ortega against the Honduras CONSTITUTIONAL action against Chavez,etal drug cartels puppet president Zelaya.
You use the term Socialism much to finally. It is NOT the final stage.
We are in the process of FULL conversion to Communism with ALL known Communist entities sitting at BHO's table consulting methodologies.
THE big question is do YOU explain your Extreme dislike of the Congress (WHICH WE PAY 175K$ plus expenses and lobby freebys to times 500++ persons)INACTION TO STOP THIS COMMUNIST endgame agenda NOW.
Or are you going to wait until we have NO choice but to get messy and deadly serious!!

Clark Kent said...

mnCheer up! This should bode well for the congressionals next year.

Anonymous said...

The stimulus package is a "make work" activity. It does not contribute to the GNP, as the money has already been earned and stolen out of the economy by taxation, or it is money that has been printed, but not earned. In either case, it cannot stimulate the economy. It may stimulate a few wallets at best. It will therefore never work, no mattter how long you wait for it to work! What is needed, is a "make jobs" program that allows new wealth to be earned and products produced. To do that, the job creators must be stimulated by such things as tax cuts and less government red-tape. Note that this does not mean less regulation in the form of laws, just less encumberance on business.
Now, b-HO will wait for the next campaign (I know, he's not finished with the last one yet!) to tell the gullible folks that they need to vote for him again, so that his plan can finally have a chance to work. Hopefully, most everyone will have been "smartened-up" by then.
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