Michael Gaynor
President Obama pursues "fundamental transformation," not prosperity
By Michael Gaynor
Remaking America to put the Far Left in full control and keeping it there with a permanent electoral majority is what the man who was elevated from "the Senator from ACORN" to "the President from ACORN" is out to do.
Michael Barone, Senior Political Analyst for the Washington Examiner, co-author of The Almanac of American Politics and Fox News contributor, in "For Obama, Politics Always Trumps Governing" (www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/04/ for_obama_politics_always_trumps_governing_117248.html#ixzz2Maie4d00)asked, "Do we have a president or a perpetual candidate?" and then commented, "[i]t's not an entirely unfair question."
It's a fair question, but not the key question – what is President Obama seeking to do?
President Obama's goal is to "fundamentally transform" America and his actions should be viewed in that context.
Balancing the federal budget is not Obama's goal.
Remaking America to put the Far Left in full control and keeping it there with a permanent electoral majority is what the man who was elevated from "the Senator from ACORN" to "the President from ACORN" is out to do.
Barone:
"Demagoguery about preschool and corporate jets is not going to convince Republicans that Obama can be a reliable negotiating partner.
"Instead, it reinforces the evidence that he never will be. This is the president who, in his grand bargain negotiations with Speaker John Boehner, agreed on $800 billion in more revenue – and then, in a phone call, told Boehner he wanted $1.2 trillion, instead.
"And it's the president who first proposed the sequester, then promised it would never happen, and then denounced it when it seemed clear it would.
"We need serious changes in public policy, as Obama's Simpson-Bowles Commission recommended. But this president doesn't seem much interested in that kind of governing."
Of course!
Obama is demagogic, as Barone indicated, and he is interested in the kind of governing that would "fundamentally transform" America by creating a perpetual political majority dependent upon Big Government, based on income and wealth redistribution.
Obama recently has been pursuing that goal with what Barone called "the ready-for-teleprompter narrative that the Republicans want to cut aid to preschoolers in order to save tax breaks for corporate jets" and ignoring the exploding national debit and huge annual deficits during his presidency.
Recognizing the reality of a spending problem simply does not fit Obama's agenda, because remaking America the way he wants requires huge spending, high income taxes on a minority of voters, no income taxes on most voters and a significant majority of voters dependent upon government entitlement and wealth and income redistribution.
Barone wrote that Obama's behavior "suggests the president is not serious about public policy."
WRONG!
Obama is serious as a heart attack about setting "public policy."
HIS "public policy."
ACORN's stealth socialism.
Obama's Supreme Court nominations tell us the truth about his intentions.
Six-time Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas realized that he would never be elected and consoled himself with the thought that his ideas ultimately would prevail.
Thomas (1948): "The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."
Obama obviously appreciates the need to avoid the S word.
Fact: Obama's first Supreme Court nominee, now Justice Sonia Sotomayor, selected that Thomas quotation for inclusion in her Princeton College yearbook.
Fact: The subject of the Princeton College senior thesis of Obama's second Supreme Court nominee (and his Solicitor General), now Justice Elena Kagan, is socialism. That thesis, titled "To the Final Conflict: Socialism in New York City, 1900-1933," is available at http://judiciary.senate.gov/nominations/SupremeCourt/upload/ElenaKagan-PrincetonThesis.pdf. In it, Kagan lamented (p. 127): "In our own times, a coherent socialist movement is nowhere to be found in the United States. Americans are more likely to speak of a golden past than of a golden future, of capitalism's glories than of socialism's greatness." See "Elena Kagan's Senior Thesis and Socialism" (May 19, 2010) (www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=gaynorm&date=100519) and "Read Elena Kagan's Princeton Senior Thesis Yourself" (May 20, 2010) (www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=gaynorm&date=100520).
"[S]ocialism's greatness"?
Obama cheerleader Newsweek seemed to think so.
Emblazoned across the cover of the February 16, 2009 issue of Newsweek are the words "WE ARE ALL SOCIALISTS NOW: THE PERILS AND PROMISE OF THE NEW ERA OF BIG GOVERNMENT." Lest that not be enough, the index declared "Bring on the Era of Big Government." The theme of the cover story, by Jon Meacham and Evan Thomas, is that "[i]n many ways [America's] economy already resembles a European one and "[a]s boomers age and spending grows. we will become even more French." Meacham and Thomas warned: "If we fail to acknowledge the reality of the growing role of government in the economy, insisting instead on fighting 21st-century wars with 20th-century terms and tactics, then we are doomed to a fractitious and unedifying debate."
Defying reality to promote Obama seemed to be Newsweek's forte. The cover of Newsweek's April 19, 2010 issue celebrated an article by Daniel Gross with the proclamation "AMERICA'S BACK! THE REMARKABLE TALE OF OUR ECONOMIC TURNAROUND." The article, titled "The Comeback Country: HOW AMERICA PULLED ITSELF BACK FROM THE BRINK – AND WHY IT'S DESTINED TO STAY ON TOP," concluded: "The last two expansions have been 120 months and 92 months, respectively. If the U.S. continues to adapt as it has, and if it produces a few more game changers like Google and Apple, there's no reason that the expansion that started in July 2009, against all the odds and predictions, can't last just as long."
Newsweek thought socialism works.
As history has shown, it doesn't.
Newsweek's December 31, 2012 issue was its last issue, but it sure helped elect and reelect Obama before, fittingly, it was no longer a viable publication.
© Michael Gaynor
March 5, 2013
Remaking America to put the Far Left in full control and keeping it there with a permanent electoral majority is what the man who was elevated from "the Senator from ACORN" to "the President from ACORN" is out to do.
Michael Barone, Senior Political Analyst for the Washington Examiner, co-author of The Almanac of American Politics and Fox News contributor, in "For Obama, Politics Always Trumps Governing" (www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/04/ for_obama_politics_always_trumps_governing_117248.html#ixzz2Maie4d00)asked, "Do we have a president or a perpetual candidate?" and then commented, "[i]t's not an entirely unfair question."
It's a fair question, but not the key question – what is President Obama seeking to do?
President Obama's goal is to "fundamentally transform" America and his actions should be viewed in that context.
Balancing the federal budget is not Obama's goal.
Remaking America to put the Far Left in full control and keeping it there with a permanent electoral majority is what the man who was elevated from "the Senator from ACORN" to "the President from ACORN" is out to do.
Barone:
"Demagoguery about preschool and corporate jets is not going to convince Republicans that Obama can be a reliable negotiating partner.
"Instead, it reinforces the evidence that he never will be. This is the president who, in his grand bargain negotiations with Speaker John Boehner, agreed on $800 billion in more revenue – and then, in a phone call, told Boehner he wanted $1.2 trillion, instead.
"And it's the president who first proposed the sequester, then promised it would never happen, and then denounced it when it seemed clear it would.
"We need serious changes in public policy, as Obama's Simpson-Bowles Commission recommended. But this president doesn't seem much interested in that kind of governing."
Of course!
Obama is demagogic, as Barone indicated, and he is interested in the kind of governing that would "fundamentally transform" America by creating a perpetual political majority dependent upon Big Government, based on income and wealth redistribution.
Obama recently has been pursuing that goal with what Barone called "the ready-for-teleprompter narrative that the Republicans want to cut aid to preschoolers in order to save tax breaks for corporate jets" and ignoring the exploding national debit and huge annual deficits during his presidency.
Recognizing the reality of a spending problem simply does not fit Obama's agenda, because remaking America the way he wants requires huge spending, high income taxes on a minority of voters, no income taxes on most voters and a significant majority of voters dependent upon government entitlement and wealth and income redistribution.
Barone wrote that Obama's behavior "suggests the president is not serious about public policy."
WRONG!
Obama is serious as a heart attack about setting "public policy."
HIS "public policy."
ACORN's stealth socialism.
Obama's Supreme Court nominations tell us the truth about his intentions.
Six-time Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas realized that he would never be elected and consoled himself with the thought that his ideas ultimately would prevail.
Thomas (1948): "The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."
Obama obviously appreciates the need to avoid the S word.
Fact: Obama's first Supreme Court nominee, now Justice Sonia Sotomayor, selected that Thomas quotation for inclusion in her Princeton College yearbook.
Fact: The subject of the Princeton College senior thesis of Obama's second Supreme Court nominee (and his Solicitor General), now Justice Elena Kagan, is socialism. That thesis, titled "To the Final Conflict: Socialism in New York City, 1900-1933," is available at http://judiciary.senate.gov/nominations/SupremeCourt/upload/ElenaKagan-PrincetonThesis.pdf. In it, Kagan lamented (p. 127): "In our own times, a coherent socialist movement is nowhere to be found in the United States. Americans are more likely to speak of a golden past than of a golden future, of capitalism's glories than of socialism's greatness." See "Elena Kagan's Senior Thesis and Socialism" (May 19, 2010) (www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=gaynorm&date=100519) and "Read Elena Kagan's Princeton Senior Thesis Yourself" (May 20, 2010) (www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=gaynorm&date=100520).
"[S]ocialism's greatness"?
Obama cheerleader Newsweek seemed to think so.
Emblazoned across the cover of the February 16, 2009 issue of Newsweek are the words "WE ARE ALL SOCIALISTS NOW: THE PERILS AND PROMISE OF THE NEW ERA OF BIG GOVERNMENT." Lest that not be enough, the index declared "Bring on the Era of Big Government." The theme of the cover story, by Jon Meacham and Evan Thomas, is that "[i]n many ways [America's] economy already resembles a European one and "[a]s boomers age and spending grows. we will become even more French." Meacham and Thomas warned: "If we fail to acknowledge the reality of the growing role of government in the economy, insisting instead on fighting 21st-century wars with 20th-century terms and tactics, then we are doomed to a fractitious and unedifying debate."
Defying reality to promote Obama seemed to be Newsweek's forte. The cover of Newsweek's April 19, 2010 issue celebrated an article by Daniel Gross with the proclamation "AMERICA'S BACK! THE REMARKABLE TALE OF OUR ECONOMIC TURNAROUND." The article, titled "The Comeback Country: HOW AMERICA PULLED ITSELF BACK FROM THE BRINK – AND WHY IT'S DESTINED TO STAY ON TOP," concluded: "The last two expansions have been 120 months and 92 months, respectively. If the U.S. continues to adapt as it has, and if it produces a few more game changers like Google and Apple, there's no reason that the expansion that started in July 2009, against all the odds and predictions, can't last just as long."
Newsweek thought socialism works.
As history has shown, it doesn't.
Newsweek's December 31, 2012 issue was its last issue, but it sure helped elect and reelect Obama before, fittingly, it was no longer a viable publication.
© Michael Gaynor
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
