Warner Todd Huston
Does Obama want to destroy America? Yes, but...
By Warner Todd Huston
Rush Limbaugh and a few other radio hosts have made it a center piece of the attack against President Obama, the Tea Partiers have often put such sentiment on their protest signs, and the conservative chattering classes have been abuzz with the question: does Barack Obama want to destroy the United States?
The only real answer is "yes, but..." Yes he does, but only if it's your ox being gored. Yes he does but there is more to it than that. And if it's someone else's veritable Oxen the answer might still be "yes, but..."
Conservative radio host Michael Medved, for one, emphatically denies that Obama wants to "destroy the country." Medved employs the conventional logic that a politician that wants to be re-elected would not want to destroy the very nation that he has been elected to lead. That would make sense if only Obama were a conventional politician and if only Obama himself hadn't told ABC News, "I'd rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president." That very sentence straight from this president's own mouth seems to shoot full of holes Medved's conventional logic.
Still, in a way, Medved has stumbled upon a certain amount of truth no matter how small. The problem is that what we really have here is a misunderstanding of concepts. The fact is, following his straight down the line, left-wing, anti-American, radical ideology, Obama does want to destroy the U.S.A. as it is now. But in his mind he is not trying to destroy America simply because he wants utter destruction and devastation to be the only outcome. You see, mere destruction isn't his end goal as those on the right fear. In his left-wing ideology, he thinks after America's fall he and his left-wing comrades will be building a new and better U.S.A. Where real Americans see destruction and the end of everything, the leftists see a re-birth to a better and, in their eyes, more moral America. He and his left-wing friends see the U.S. as a Phoenix rising from the ashes of the bad old days.
Herein lies the problem. Where conservatives see only the end, liberals see the end and then a brand new beginning. Certainly the liberals are completely wrong in their contention that what they are doing will bring a glorious re-birth, but the truth is that they certainly don't think that they are ending the U.S. on a permanent basis nor is it their intention. Liberals are not in the game to be "evil." They think they are doing what is right.
Liberals think that the U.S. is arrogant and needs to be taken down a notch or three. Liberals think that U.S. history is filled with nothing but evil and any attacks on the U.S. are richly deserved. Liberals think that the U.S. was founded by evil, selfish, hateful white men who were only interested in their own power and didn't want to empower others. So, liberals want the founder's memory eviscerated. Liberals think that our capitalist system needs to be eliminated. In short, liberals value nothing about the U.S. except its tradition of self-actuation, liberty, and its freedom to re-make itself and they want to use that capacity to erase everything that makes the U.S.A. the U.S.A. Once that is done they want to build a U.S. to their own liking using the very freedoms they used to lay her low.
This is the aim of groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, Moveon.org, the Center for American Progress, Media Matters and other such extremist left-wing organizations. Even CAIR attempts to use America's freedoms as a weapon against her.
But, again, these liberals think they are doing a good thing. The problem is that they are utterly wrong. If this country treads the left-wing path, the U.S. will not emerge a winner. It will be laid low just like the left wants, but it will not rise again. The left's prescriptions will lead to our becoming a third world nation. And yet there is no doubt they really imagine they are doing good.
Like Medved, New York Times columnist David Brooks cannot understand this whole political reality. Brooks thinks that Obama and Democrats only tried too many things at once and that is why so many Americans are rising up against them. Apparently it was just an accident of scope, nothing but an act of overreach that frightened the voters. Otherwise, he sees the Democrats and Obama as your average, everyday American pols. He doesn't see a radical, destroy-America agenda in their efforts. In fact, he ridiculously seems to think that it is the right that somehow wants to destroy the country with a "government war" agenda — a battle against all government. So, he sees both sides as in the wrong and his "centrist" position as the correct path.
What he simply can't understand is that conservatives are not wholly anti-government. They are all about the right amount of government, government when and where it is most needed and efficacious has always been the American right's goal.
In fact it is liberals that have used government to destroy America. Liberals have used the courts to destroy religion. Liberals have used the schools to preach against American history. Liberals have used government to weaken economies and create a culture of dependence. Conservatives have not used government to do anything of the kind. In fact, even in the bad old days it was Democrats that tried to use government as a weapon against those that it wanted to keep down.
This is the culture from which Obama and the largest number of his party come. They see government and our freedoms as the perfect weapon with which to destroy what once was in order to make America into what they want it to be and it's an America that is radically different form what is always has been, what it was meant to be.
Yes, ordinary politicians wouldn't want to destroy the country they were elected to lead and yes, ordinary pols would want to make sure they win the next election. But leftists like Obama think that they have this one small window to make the radical changes to this nation according to their ideological plan. Remember how they voted in Obamacare when the great majority disliked the policies? Remember how Democrats said we'd learn to like Obamacare anyway? This means that they don't care if they lose elections in the short term. It is the obliteration of the old to be replaced by their new "improved" U.S.A. that is their actual goal, not anything as mundane as winning elections. They have a grand plan here, not just an simple election.
So, in everything that really matters, Michael Medved is wrong. Obama does want to destroy the U.S.A. That Obama thinks his left-wing ideas will later bring a rebirth is meaningless when reviewing the consequences of his "cure" for what he thinks ails America, a cure that will surely kill the patient.
(Originally posted at BigGovernment.com)
© Warner Todd Huston
April 27, 2010
Rush Limbaugh and a few other radio hosts have made it a center piece of the attack against President Obama, the Tea Partiers have often put such sentiment on their protest signs, and the conservative chattering classes have been abuzz with the question: does Barack Obama want to destroy the United States?
The only real answer is "yes, but..." Yes he does, but only if it's your ox being gored. Yes he does but there is more to it than that. And if it's someone else's veritable Oxen the answer might still be "yes, but..."
Conservative radio host Michael Medved, for one, emphatically denies that Obama wants to "destroy the country." Medved employs the conventional logic that a politician that wants to be re-elected would not want to destroy the very nation that he has been elected to lead. That would make sense if only Obama were a conventional politician and if only Obama himself hadn't told ABC News, "I'd rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president." That very sentence straight from this president's own mouth seems to shoot full of holes Medved's conventional logic.
Still, in a way, Medved has stumbled upon a certain amount of truth no matter how small. The problem is that what we really have here is a misunderstanding of concepts. The fact is, following his straight down the line, left-wing, anti-American, radical ideology, Obama does want to destroy the U.S.A. as it is now. But in his mind he is not trying to destroy America simply because he wants utter destruction and devastation to be the only outcome. You see, mere destruction isn't his end goal as those on the right fear. In his left-wing ideology, he thinks after America's fall he and his left-wing comrades will be building a new and better U.S.A. Where real Americans see destruction and the end of everything, the leftists see a re-birth to a better and, in their eyes, more moral America. He and his left-wing friends see the U.S. as a Phoenix rising from the ashes of the bad old days.
Herein lies the problem. Where conservatives see only the end, liberals see the end and then a brand new beginning. Certainly the liberals are completely wrong in their contention that what they are doing will bring a glorious re-birth, but the truth is that they certainly don't think that they are ending the U.S. on a permanent basis nor is it their intention. Liberals are not in the game to be "evil." They think they are doing what is right.
Liberals think that the U.S. is arrogant and needs to be taken down a notch or three. Liberals think that U.S. history is filled with nothing but evil and any attacks on the U.S. are richly deserved. Liberals think that the U.S. was founded by evil, selfish, hateful white men who were only interested in their own power and didn't want to empower others. So, liberals want the founder's memory eviscerated. Liberals think that our capitalist system needs to be eliminated. In short, liberals value nothing about the U.S. except its tradition of self-actuation, liberty, and its freedom to re-make itself and they want to use that capacity to erase everything that makes the U.S.A. the U.S.A. Once that is done they want to build a U.S. to their own liking using the very freedoms they used to lay her low.
This is the aim of groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, Moveon.org, the Center for American Progress, Media Matters and other such extremist left-wing organizations. Even CAIR attempts to use America's freedoms as a weapon against her.
But, again, these liberals think they are doing a good thing. The problem is that they are utterly wrong. If this country treads the left-wing path, the U.S. will not emerge a winner. It will be laid low just like the left wants, but it will not rise again. The left's prescriptions will lead to our becoming a third world nation. And yet there is no doubt they really imagine they are doing good.
Like Medved, New York Times columnist David Brooks cannot understand this whole political reality. Brooks thinks that Obama and Democrats only tried too many things at once and that is why so many Americans are rising up against them. Apparently it was just an accident of scope, nothing but an act of overreach that frightened the voters. Otherwise, he sees the Democrats and Obama as your average, everyday American pols. He doesn't see a radical, destroy-America agenda in their efforts. In fact, he ridiculously seems to think that it is the right that somehow wants to destroy the country with a "government war" agenda — a battle against all government. So, he sees both sides as in the wrong and his "centrist" position as the correct path.
What he simply can't understand is that conservatives are not wholly anti-government. They are all about the right amount of government, government when and where it is most needed and efficacious has always been the American right's goal.
In fact it is liberals that have used government to destroy America. Liberals have used the courts to destroy religion. Liberals have used the schools to preach against American history. Liberals have used government to weaken economies and create a culture of dependence. Conservatives have not used government to do anything of the kind. In fact, even in the bad old days it was Democrats that tried to use government as a weapon against those that it wanted to keep down.
This is the culture from which Obama and the largest number of his party come. They see government and our freedoms as the perfect weapon with which to destroy what once was in order to make America into what they want it to be and it's an America that is radically different form what is always has been, what it was meant to be.
Yes, ordinary politicians wouldn't want to destroy the country they were elected to lead and yes, ordinary pols would want to make sure they win the next election. But leftists like Obama think that they have this one small window to make the radical changes to this nation according to their ideological plan. Remember how they voted in Obamacare when the great majority disliked the policies? Remember how Democrats said we'd learn to like Obamacare anyway? This means that they don't care if they lose elections in the short term. It is the obliteration of the old to be replaced by their new "improved" U.S.A. that is their actual goal, not anything as mundane as winning elections. They have a grand plan here, not just an simple election.
So, in everything that really matters, Michael Medved is wrong. Obama does want to destroy the U.S.A. That Obama thinks his left-wing ideas will later bring a rebirth is meaningless when reviewing the consequences of his "cure" for what he thinks ails America, a cure that will surely kill the patient.
(Originally posted at BigGovernment.com)
© Warner Todd Huston
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