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| The rose-colored glasses of Ezra Klein |
No doubt
we’ll all be filled with glee when we can finally stop talking about Barack
Obama, but unfortunately that time hasn’t quite come. In the waning days of the Obama presidency,
with his so-called signature “achievements” ostensibly slated to be undone to
the best ability of the next administration, those on the Left are busy
misremembering things as only liberals can do, as in this charming piece by
liberal columnist, Ezra Klein:
Obama's
"decency?" Isn't this the same
guy who wouldn't vote 'no' against partial birth abortion? “Decency,” it seems, is about to join the
ranks of so many other words redefined by the Left in their quest to shape
reality as they want it to be. The proof
of Obama’s decency, according to Klein, was:
“…[Obama’s]
scandal-free administration. The seriousness with which he approached his job.
The faith he had in the American political system, and in Americans.”
Scandals
aren’t limited to being caught with your pants down in the Oval Office, Mr.
Klein. Don’t forget about the “phony
scandals” (a lie which in and of itself was a scandal) which indisputably
occurred. The IRS DID target
conservative groups, the V.A. DID mistreat our veterans, the Obama
Administration DID lie about Benghazi, Obamacare WAS based upon falsehoods, and
that’s just off the top of my head.
As for “the
seriousness with which he approached his job,” is Mr. Klein unaware that the
number one job of a POTUS is to uphold and protect the Constitution? Based upon the record number of challenges
Obama lost with respect to the constitutionality of his actions, clearly he
didn’t take his job seriously at all.
And by all rights he should have lost on Obamacare as well. Nor did Obama take his job as
Commander-in-Chief very seriously, as he worried far more about the detainees
at Gitmo and the futures of our illegal immigrants than he did about winning
our military conflicts. Obama took
plenty of things seriously, but his job wasn’t one of them.
Mr. Klein
then said:
“Hope was
the basis of Obama’s politics. It’s the basis, in ways I did not truly
appreciate until the end of his presidency, of Obama’s personality. His
political career is built on a vision of who we could be, and the absence of
that vision will be felt as he is succeeded by a man whose politics are built
on a nostalgia for who we were.”
You know,
there are a lot of preachers in this world, some good, some bad. The way we distinguish who’s who is not by
the loftiness of their rhetoric, which any practiced salesman can manage, but
by whether or not their actions live up to their words. The reality of Obama’s actions as POTUS
routinely belied his soaring words. He
governed with duplicity against the American people and presided over the least transparent presidential administration in modern history. He dealt with genuine scandals where real
people were hurt by mocking his critics and dismissing them as “phony.” Instead of providing a forum for open,
serious debate on climate change – a cause which threatens to inspire sweeping
changes for all Americans -, Obama unilaterally announced “the debate is
over.” He proudly bypassed the will (and
therefore the democracy) of the American people with his pen and his phone.
But there’s
an even bigger point to be made here.
Klein waxes poetic about Obama’s unfulfilled vision of “who we could
be.” What gives Obama the right, within
the limits of his sworn duty to uphold and protect the Constitution – our
Constitution – to treat us as if we are all of one mind lining up behind him
like children behind the Pied Piper? We
are individuals living in autonomous states, and that’s what the Constitution
sought to preserve and protect. It was
never meant to be used to herd us around like sheep.
Klein
continues: “…Obama remained popular to
the end of his presidency.”
The Left are
really clinging to Obama’s personal popularity as if his ability to charm is
some grand achievement and validates their faith in him despite the message of
the massive political losses they’ve suffered since he took office. Obama’s popularity, which at times dipped
into the low 30’s, by the way, is a testament to how childlike Americans have
become in their ability to separate one’s rhetoric from one’s real
motives. Time to grow up.
Klein goes
on: “This is, and was, Obama’s theory of
campaigning. Politics often brings out the worst in us, but there’s no reason
it can’t bring out the best.”
Obama has a
gift, that’s for certain. The gift of
reflecting his own behavior onto others and then lecturing us about it as if he
himself was pure as the driven snow. But
the jokes, toothy smiles and friendly waves didn’t change the reality of the
incessant ridicule and the clever lies shrouded in strawman arguments (the last
refuge of intellectual cowards) that were his trademark on the stump. Politics brought out the worst in Barack
Obama.
Next:
“…[Obama]
managed to ask the right questions of the country. Did we want to feel less divided
by political party? Did we want to feel less divided by race? His candidacy
wasn’t just hopeful, it was aspirational — it was a statement, at least at the
beginning, more about the kind of country we wanted to be than the kind of
country we were.”
But Klein
concedes:
“He was the
most polarizing president on record, and on his watch the blue states became
bluer and the red states redder.”
Yep, in fact
I just saw polling which showed that just after Obama took office in 2009 60%+
of Americans thought race relations were getting better but now that number has
dropped to 30%+. Maybe you’d like to
explain that, Mr. Klein. If Obama was so
aspirational and so determined to do the right things, how did it all go so
wrong?
The truth is
that your wonderful president has done everything he could to sow the seeds of
hostility between blacks and whites in this country. He ignored the epidemic of black on black
violence at the same time that he brought national attention to a handful of
racially charged cases before the facts were in. He staked out his favorites, and his behavior
has inspired hate groups like BLM and brought on an unprecedented increase in
hostility towards our nation’s police.
His actions were with purpose and intent and proved his “aspirational”
candidacy to be a myth from the very beginning.
I wonder if
you really are so naïve as to believe that our country’s polarization under Obama
was an accident? Have you never heard of
Saul Alinsky or of Cloward and Piven?
It’s no unlucky coincidence that Barack Obama’s actions as president
have followed the advice given by these foes of American liberty practically
step by step.
“There is an
America that sees its growing diversity as a strength, that refuses to believe
in the limits set by its own past, that yearns to be less divided than it is.
It’s not the only America. But it’s a real America.”
What are
these boogeyman “limits” you speak of?
America, the nation where so much of the world longs to immigrate to,
puts no limits on what a person can do and be and achieve, the living proof of
which is Barack Obama himself. How’s
that for irony? The only caveat is that
you can’t infringe upon the rights of others to get there, so I can only
presume that these are the limits that offend you.
America was
a great country long before anyone knew the name, Barack Obama, and it will
persevere in spite of him because of the foundation for freedom and prosperity
laid by our Founders in the Constitution.
They were the great ones, not Barack Obama.
“I think
Obama will be missed by many Americans who didn’t agree with his policies but
agreed with his sense of hope about America, and his daily efforts to be worthy
of the country he saw before him.”
I think
Obama will be remembered by many Americans as a liar, a fraud and a divider
who, in his temporary role as father of the country, treated his child with
cruelty and disdain. We won’t miss him
but will celebrate the end of his presidency with a giant sigh of relief. If only he were going away for good.
~CW
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