The counter-revolution begins

By Cliff Kincaid

As 2013 comes to a close, two important developments have the potential to turn the tide against Obama's "fundamental transformation" of the United States.

First is the public rejection of the so-called "Affordable Care Act" due to its cancellation of health care plans for millions of Americans. Second is the public backlash against the suspension of a character in the "Duck Dynasty" television show, over his critical comments about gay rights.

These two seemingly unrelated developments were dramatic indications that the American people are beginning to understand that their country is being transformed in ways that run directly contrary to their best interests and values.

In the House, 39 Democrats voted for Republican Rep. Fred Upton's "Keep Your Health Plan Act." The measure would allow Americans to keep their current health-care plans, even if they don't meet the standards or requirements established by the so-called Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The uproar over the suspension of the "Duck Dynasty" star, Phil Robertson, was reminiscent of Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, when hundreds of thousands of people turned out to protest the homosexual rights movement's targeting of the chain. The company's president, Dan Cathy, had outraged the gay lobby by stating his support for traditional marriage.

It is clear that millions of Americans are looking for bold leadership to really "take their country back" from Obama and his "progressive" backers, who are pushing socialized medicine, homosexual rights, and other radical measures, such as amnesty for illegal aliens.

What is lacking at this point is an adequate public understanding of what the Obama administration is doing to the country in the area of foreign policy.

Consider what passes for an intellectual discussion on a recent edition of CNN's "Crossfire" show. Liberal columnist Ruth Marcus described as "brilliant" Obama's decision to send homosexual athletes to the Winter Olympics being held in Sochi, Russia in February, to protest anti-gay propaganda laws in Russia. Co-host S.E. Cupp agreed the decision was brilliant. "Me, too," she said. She also made it clear that "I support same-sex marriage. I'm a gay rights advocate from the right. And clearly the President is delivering a strong message to Russia in this."

The "liberal" co-host, Van Jones, said, "And I'm super excited about it as well, and I think it is interesting that you can now have a President of the United States slap down [Russian President Vladimir] Putin on the issue of gay rights. That wouldn't have been possible 10 years ago and now it is. It seems to me Republicans are nowhere to be seen on this fight."

Conservative commentator William Kristol was a guest on the show and countered, "...wow, that was really bold. He is really showing Putin who is boss. I'm sure Putin is sitting there thinking, boy, I've just been humiliated by the President. And he sends a couple of gay athletes over [to] the Olympics. That's going to cause me big problems. Meanwhile, we're capitulating to him on everything important." He added that Obama's "reset" with Russia "has been a total failure."

Unfortunately, time ran out before Kristol could explain how dramatically the reset has boomeranged.

We are seeing Obama's capitulation to the Russians unfold in the Ukraine, where the government, under pressure from Russia, has cut a deal with Putin involving natural gas purchases and financial credits. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy (CT), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on European Affairs, recently spoke to a crowd of hundreds of thousands of protesters in Kiev, some of whom had toppled a statue of Lenin in Bessarabska Square and used hammers to attack it.

Murphy said, "Ukrainians are protesting in the streets today because they know they're being sold out by their government for short-term monetary gain from Russia, and they rightly fear the long-term economic cost to Ukraine's economy."

The New York Post commented that "there are moments when the world needs to hear from the president of the United States. This is one of them. And what was his signal? As Ukrainian police cracked down [on protesters], Obama was shaking hands with Cuban President Raul Castro."

That handshake, of course, took place during the memorial service in honor of South Africa's Nelson Mandela, exposed after his death as a member of the central committee of the South African Communist Party.

Very few people, even on the right side of the political spectrum, wanted to hear the truth about Mandela's involvement in the international communist movement, or about the current South African government's strategic relationship with Russia, giving the Putin regime special access to strategic minerals.

Even Republican conservative Senator Ted Cruz (TX) praised Mandela after his death and attended his memorial service (although he says he walked out on Raul Castro's speech).

Interestingly, Cruz has said that his father, who came from Cuba and is now an outspoken anti-communist, was allied with Castro's forces who successfully overthrew the Cuban government because "they didn't know Castro was a Communist."

Cruz apparently didn't know or suspect Mandela was a communist (although the evidence existed even before his death). He should have had a long talk with his father before he made the trip to South Africa to honor Mandela. Hopefully, his father would have set him straight.

Only through a real understanding of communism, which President Ronald Reagan acquired through personal experience in Hollywood by fighting communist-dominated unions, can the Republicans truly understand and counteract the Obama phenomenon and his "fundamental transformation" of the nation that is now underway.

In the area of foreign policy, like the case of the ACA, it appears that even some Democrats are coming around. Whether this is because they are hearing from constituents, or recognizing a policy disaster in the making, is not important. What is critical is that top Democrats are abandoning their leader.

In fact, Democratic Senator Robert Menendez (NJ) just introduced the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act, in order to expand sanctions on Iran. The Washington Post noted that the bill "highlighted deep divisions among Senate Democrats on whether to heap new pressures on Tehran's government...." Menendez is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Both Democrats and Republicans are apprehensive about the prospect of seeing Obama join with Putin's Russia, the major international sponsor of the Iranian regime, and other nations, in making a deal with Iran to avoid further sanctions. Some may even be aware of the evidence that Iranian "Supreme Leader" Khamenei is a Russian agent trained by the KGB, whose ultimate goal is to get United Nations help in disarming Israel.

As AIM has reported, Obama accepted a form of disinformation – the claim that Khamenei had issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons – in order to lay the groundwork for this proposed deal with that regime. An examination of the facts showed that the alleged fatwa simply doesn't exist.

Former CIA officer Clare Lopez commented, "The Iranians have used classic clandestine tradecraft that their services learned directly from the KGB," and referred to Moscow's Patrice Lumumba University, attended by Khamenei, as "KGB Tech." She added, "Such tradecraft includes denial and deception to lead us all astray on their WMD programs."

This is why, as William Kristol suggests, Putin is probably snickering at the news that Obama has sent some gays to Moscow as a form of foreign policy protest. Laughter should quickly turn to sober reflection on the direction of U.S. foreign policy under Obama if our nation and our allies are going to survive. Let's hope that "Crossfire" and other media start to get serious about these issues before they lose even more of their audience by focusing on the trivial and the absurd.

© Cliff Kincaid