President Obama began his first term with an interesting act of symbolism. He snubbed the “Salute to Heroes Ball,” and is the first President to miss this event in its 56-year history. It’s a little thing, to be sure, but a sign of Obama’s values. He’d rather hang with the Hollywood elite than with Medal of Honor winners.
David Horowitz finds two of Obama’s first actions troubling:
The first of these is the first phone call he made as President which was to the corrupt terrorist leader of the PLO Mahmoud Abbas to whom he promised he would make a permanent settlement between Israelis and Palestinians a top priority of his administration. There is not going to be a permanent settlement between Israelis and Palestinians (and there cannot be one) until there is a Palestinian leader who repudiates the Islamic jihad against Jews, Christians and other infidels, and who recognizes the Jewish state. There was no indication that he told this to Abbas. You cannot make a settlement with people who want destroy your very existence and if Obama pursues a deal without insisting on this as a pre-condition it will blow up in his face.
The second of these is to close the “black sites” which the CIA uses as interrogation centers for terrorists. What’s really bad about this is that he has made the decision on day one, that is without conducting a serious review to see if these interrogation centers have saved lives. Caving in to the hysteria whipped up by the ACLU and other leftwing groups and jeopardizing the security of American citizens in the process is not an auspicious way to begin an administration.
The first phone call, like the choice of inauguration balls, is a little thing, but telling.
Obama signed three executive orders appeasing an enemy that wants to destroy America.
Barack Obama has signed an executive order to shut down the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay – the most potent symbol of excess in George Bush’s “war on terror”.
The new US president signed two other executive orders to review the use of military trials for terror suspects and ban the harshest interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding.
All of this stems from the general confusion of war and criminal justice. In World War II German officers caught out of uniform were summarily executed. Police do not deal with criminals in such a manner — and that is a good thing. (If the leftists in Congress get their way, Osama bin Laden will get fourth amendment rights.)
Obama signed an executive order making it easier to process FOIA requests. This will make it easier for citizens to search for evidence that Bush and Cheney committed war crimes.
I conclude from all this that President Obama is — surprise! — a leftist. This is what you get when you elect a leftist president.
The enemy is watching. Right now he’s thinking, “Osama was right. Just like in Vietnam and Somalia, America is a paper tiger. They just elected a man who is not at all serious about waging war. His talk about ‘we will defeat you’ is just for domestic consumption. His actions speak louder than his words. All we need do is survive and wait long enough, and we will win.”
I take heart that in both domestic and foreign affairs, we are now in a period of greater clarity. Bush muddied our understanding by talking about free markets and talking tough to the enemy, but pursuing big government at home and fighting half a battle abroad. Now with Obama we have none of the Republicans’ misleading rhetoric. Obama openly supports big government at home and American sacrifice abroad. His programs will fail in the coming years. Let us use his failures to enlighten America about government intervention in the economy and appeasement of an enemy at war with us, and about the morality of altruism that undergirds them both.
UPDATE: Slight revision.
If he keeps this up, Americans will die and soon. He may end up setting Leftism back a generation or so. That is if we survive him.
If he keeps this up, Americans will die and soon. He may end up setting Leftism back a generation or so.
In whose eyes?
The last time the Left got “set back” in this particular fashion, it only lasted 8 days (at least from my POV). Then they started putting up the initial test balloons (outrageous statements from their most whacked-out academics first, e.g. Ward Churchill); after a few weeks of that and getting only conservative responses, they knew they were safe.
There is no one to hold the Left accountable but us. If we could pull it off, then sure. But there is nobody else equipped to do it.
Addendum to the above: I do agree with Bill that if we *are* able to start opening people’s eyes to the nature of the Left, the increased clarity will certainly help.
argh! Myrhaf, not Bill 🙂
Bill is fine, since I have put my real name in the “about me” section on the old blog. My name is about as secret as Valerie Plame’s was before the left fomented all that nonsense about her in their quest to criminalize politics.
I think we have a huge opportunity in the next four years because when Obama talks about practicality and doing what works, people think he means the prosperity and economic growth we experienced in the ’80s and ’90s. There could be a big backlash when they discover that he means something else entirely.
It does sound like a lot of people actually want what socialism really provides, though.
I wonder what the ratio of those people is against the ones you speak of, who swallowed rather than tasted socialism.
“In whose eyes?
The last time the Left got “set back†in this particular fashion, it only lasted 8 days (at least from my POV).”
Yes, you make a good point. Nothing – repeat Nothing – will discredit Leftism in the eyes of Leftists. For a person to reject Leftism, he would have to reject altruism and egalitarianism. That would require the kind of mental rebuilding that so few people do.
But, the destruction that Obama is likely to cause might discredit much of the bulk of Leftism in the eyes of people of mixed premises; non-ideological people who might get a grasp of the fact that “spread the wealth” and appease our enemies doesn’t work. No they won’t understand it intellectually, but they might understand it in vague enough terms that the country might swing back to the right (in the good sense) as a result.
I’m trying to be positive. Trying…
BTW, here is a depressing account of the possible extent of the damage of an Obama Presidency and a Pelosi-led Congress:
http://alfin2100.blogspot.com/2009/01/red-alert-full-power-to-shields-scotty.html
“After Obama / Pelosi destroy the energy infrastructure of the US, and finish off the US economy, your choices will be reduced in number. After widespread bombings, radiation plumes, and a plague of engineered viruses and toxins, there may not be many people left to worry about these things anyway.”
Al Fin is full of shit. We haven’t been attacked in over seven years and he’s talking about underground shelters? No way we let it get that bad. Obama is a Peter Keating. If 80% of America, all but the far left and Justin Raimondo, demand massive retaliation to an attack, they will get it.
Yaron Brook said last year that Islam cannot defeat us. The disparity between the two combatants is too great. It can greatly demoralize us and create a crisis that would bring on unimaginable economic destruction, but only the US government can destroy America. Obama, McCain, Pelosi and Reid are a greater threat to our security than a bunch of Muslim freaks in a cave in Pakistan.
It is difficult to predict anything, particularly the future. However, any society that elects an Obama has already let things get that bad. The moral fibre of the US has turned to rot. Not just the democrats, but the republicans as well.
Myrhaf bravely declares: “no way we let it get that bad!” Too late, Myrhaf. BTW the bit about the underground shelter was a bit of playful hyperbole. But underground concrete houses are becoming quite utilitarian for people who want to minimise their utility bills. They can be as luxurious as you want them to be.
I agree with you, BTW, that the enemies of the US are beginning to look at the country as a paper tiger again. After Obama remakes the US military in his own image, they will be partially correct. If there is any real meat tiger left in the marrow of America outside of the government, it will have to start training for an emboldened enemy.
Okay, and I apologize for getting scatological on you.
“For a person to reject Leftism, he would have to reject altruism and egalitarianism. That would require the kind of mental rebuilding that so few people do.”
No kidding, madmax. On the capitalism forum, we had a 37-page argument with a self-professed Communist. He was young and had “ideas”, not some ingrained old Marxist stuck at a crummy job for 30 years. Of his kind visiting our forum, he was one of the most open minded.
After 37 pages, several less extensive threads and a good amount of thinking, he later became a classical liberal and on the verge of accepting Objectivism.
His was an exceedingly rare case amongst people who start out with similar attitudes.
That’s a laugh; I issued the correction because I’d confused you with Bill Brown. I wasn’t even thinking of your real name 🙂 Ah, the hazards of commenting on group blogs…
madmax: yes, that’s the ticket: nothing will discredit the Left in the eyes of Leftists. Unfortunately, Leftists still dominate academia, so there is still no intellectual force to hold them accountable.
The Left has been the dominant cultural force for destruction in the West for the last two centuries; its various ideologies were what made the twentieth century what it was: the century of mass murder. The religious conservatives are hoping that mankind tires of it all and sulks back into the darkness of primitive religious feudalism.
“…its various ideologies… ”
That’s a good way to put it; that the Left is comprised of various ideologies. I often try to pin down what exactly the Left is. I now think of it as a bundle of collectivist ideologies all built on a foundation of skepticism.