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Who We Are... and Who Barack Obama Is Not
Illinois Review ^ | January 30, 2015 A.D. | John F. Di Leo

Posted on 01/30/2015 10:41:05 AM PST by jfd1776

The current Resident of the White House is fond of stating something of which he disapproves – say, interrogating terrorists or growing the economy – and closing the point with the words “But that’s not who we are.”

It is condescending, patronizing, smarmy… it is in fact the perfect example of what has always been wrong with the Obama persona – he talks down to his audience, sets up straw men to knock down, sets American against American, in not only class warfare but every other arena as well, all the while mischaracterizing the issue itself. Young against old, healthy against sick, poor against rich, atheist against religious, non-working against working.

Where prior presidents have generally sought to be inclusive, to broaden their political base and unify the nation toward a common goal, the Resident has intentionally driven the nation farther apart. While that has certainly been an unintended result of some past presidencies, only with this one has the White House actively, intentionally sought this result.

Political differences are understandable, and unavoidable, in a republic. The American people have certainly not agreed as a unit on every single point, over the 227 years since our Constitutional government began. But this situation is new – a head of state who tells us, again and again, what we are, and what we are not, and almost always getting it terribly wrong.

Who Are We?

Culture:

We are the culmination of Western Civilization, the New World that built itself on the progress started by the Old World. The civilization that began in Israel and Greece grew over the centuries, overcoming barbarism, developing through the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, reaching its fruition in this first nation on earth in which the individual is truly sovereign.

Barack Obama was raised to stand in opposition to Western Civilization. He doesn’t fit in this country, because Western Civilization is who we are.

Economics:

We are capitalists, proud participants in an economy guided not by a leviathan government but by the invisible hand of the free market. Our ancestors did not come to America to be tied to our duke’s land like serfs; they came to farm their own fields, to start their own blacksmiths and tailor shops and bakeries and printshops. Our ancestors came to America to work, and thus to prosper. We believe in the economics of Adam Smith and Bastiat, of Washington and Hamilton, the advocates of hard work and all the proper rewards that hard work brings.

But Barack Obama is not a capitalist; he was raised by generations of communists to fight against the free market as hard as he could. His heroes are Lenin, Mao, Che, Alinksy. He would sooner see all Americans equal on the bottom than see Americans enjoying the American Dream in different ways, at differing levels of expanding prosperity. Barack Obama loves the leviathan that true Americans oppose; he is constantly at odds with the American people because a free market nation is what we are.

Religion:

We are a Judeo-Christian nation, settled by men and women of faith who came to these shores seeking religious freedom. No, not the freedom from religion that the modern Left imagines to be the goal, but the freedom to choose the denomination that we believe is closest to the good Lord’s plan. Catholics fleeing mandatory Protestantism, Protestants fleeing mandatory Catholicism, our original colonies were havens in which people could settle and prosper in safety, be they Anglican or Calvinist or Lutheran or Catholic or Quaker.

The son of a Kenyan muslim and an American atheist, Barack Obama was raised to deride all those who would “cling” to God and Country; he was taught to oppose those of us who honor the faiths of our fathers, those of us who respect and appreciate the gifts that Divine Providence has showered upon this land. The Resident doesn’t understand us because a Judeo-Christian community is what we are.

Individuals:

We are freemen, choosing to live in cities, or suburbs, or the country, to whichever our moods and our personalities draw us. We may choose to peaceably assemble, or not to. We may choose to travel alone or with others, in car or bus or train. We are not a homogeneous nation in which an all-powerful government assigns us our schools and our jobs, as in Lenin’s Russia, or government mandates public transport, as in Ghent, Dubrovnik or Venice. We like our cars, because we like the freedom to go where we want to go, no matter whether enough others like the same route to merit a rail line or not.

But Barack Obama fights the automobile, because he believes the government should control the flow of people, from work to home, from home to work. He loves the rail line and the bus route; it’s so much easier to build successful government edifices when you can ensure that the people will travel through them. He doesn’t understand the American love of the freedom that the personal car provides; he will never appreciate the fiercely independent streak of the American heart.

Power:

We are producers of energy, in every worthwhile form we can find. We Americans are oil drillers and coal miners, we fell trees and build nuclear power plants. We know, instinctively, that for America to succeed as a manufacturing giant, we MUST have sufficient energy to power our factories, distribution centers, trucks and ships. We employ millions in the energy sector, from the plains of Texas and Oklahoma to the mountains of West Virginia and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

But Barack Obama was raised in the incubator of environmental alarmism. His heroes spent decades making outrageous and ridiculous predictions that only a liberal could believe, and he bought the fable, hook, line and sinker. He stands against productivity (productivity produces success, and wealth, and different levels of achievement for each person. How dare it?!). He stands against not only the energy, but the industry that depends upon that energy. A productive, vigorous nation is what we are; he will never understand or endorse our energetic support of the energy sector.

Foreign Policy:

We are a giant in the world economy, a dominant force for good, as a role model and trading partner. We are proud of this role as leader of the free world, and we are committed to supporting our allies and protecting our interests abroad. We honor our legitimate treaties, we obey the rules of war and of peace. We are proud of our many friends all over the world – Great Britain, Canada, Israel, Australia, so many friends – and we do our part to continue to deserve that friendship in the interests of peace, commerce, and freedom. A good and true friend on the world scene – that’s who we are.

But Barack Obama’s allies are not our allies; his enemies are not our enemies. He was raised to sympathize with Castro’s Cuba, Arafat’s PLO, Brezhnev’s Russia. He has chafed at the bit throughout his presidency, hating pretending to like our allies, hating pretending to dislike our enemies. He has worked to drive wedges through our friendships with Britain, Israel, Canada… and he has worked to weaken our opposition to islamofascist terror and our longtime global rivals. And he will to continue in these directions every day that he has the power to do so.

The Military

We are supporters of a volunteer military, proud servicemen and veterans, or proud neighbors and descendants of veterans. Our liberty was won by the Continental Army, and we re-formed our government – through the ratification of the Constitution in 1788 – largely for the purpose of enabling an honorable relationship with our honorable servicemen. Our nation’s history is therefore intertwined with our military’s in a way different from most countries’. We love and respect our servicemen, and desire to show that respect and gratitude with as generous a combination of compensation, benefits, and retirement that a struggling nation can afford. That’s who we are.

But Barack Obama was raised in opposition to the American military. His family, friends, and mentors were of the antiwar movement; his childhood was spent believing the concocted accusations that our honorable troops were the real villains in Vietnam. He has spent his adult life displaying a visceral hatred of our armed forces, and has spent his unfortunate duration in the White House undermining our troops at home and abroad, slashing their already meager pay, reducing their already flawed benefits, putting them at risk with outrageous rules of engagement abroad, even intentionally releasing known islamoterrorists back into the battlefield to endanger our soldiers again and again. That’s who he is.

The Rule of Law

The American people are supporters of a legal tradition that goes back to ancient Rome – from the Twelve Tables’ requirements that the law be clearly published, to the centuries of British development of Common Law, to the American federal, state, and local codes in effect today. We are proud of firm laws that enable great liberty while still forbidding violations of our neighbors’ rights, and we fiercely demand that these good laws be honored and enforced… protecting the rights of both American citizens and noncitizens who are legally here with our permission.

But Barack Obama does not respect the rule of law. He undermined the Constitution as an activist lawyer, taught college students that the Constitution is irrelevant at the University of Chicago, and violates his oath of office daily as he issues executive orders that trample on both the rights of Americans and the authority of the other branches. He behaves like a dictator, as much as he can, because that’s who he is.

In all these ways, and in infinitely more, the current Resident of the White House has proven that he simply has no right to say “That’s not who we are” when he issues his disrespectful, and increasingly outrageous, pronouncements on matters of ethics, economics, culture, and world affairs. He may speak for himself, and he may speak for his motley association of appointees, hangers-on and acolytes… but he does not speak for the American people.

Because we Americans know that, whatever Barack Obama and his acolytes may be, it’s not who we are.

Copyright 2015 John F. Di Leo

John F. Di Leo is a Chicago-based international trade compliance manager, actor, writer, and recovering politician. A former precinct committeeman and area chairman in the townships of Evanston, Maine, Ela and Palatine, he served as Milwaukee County Republican Chairman in the mid-1990s. His columns are regularly found in Illinois Review.

Permission is hereby granted to forward freely, provided it is uncut and the IR URL and byline are included. Follow John F. Di Leo in Facebook or LinkedIn, or on Twitter at @johnfdileo, or at his own blog at JohnFDiLeo.com.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Education; Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: barackobama; socialist; whitehouse

1 posted on 01/30/2015 10:41:05 AM PST by jfd1776
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To: jfd1776

Great essay!


2 posted on 01/30/2015 10:50:14 AM PST by Maceman
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To: jfd1776
Good article! Remember Who We Are!

Pray for America and Prepare.

3 posted on 01/30/2015 10:57:23 AM PST by Art in Idaho (Conservatism is the only Hope for Western Civilization.)
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To: jfd1776
Superb delineation of the vast differences between America and it's current president.

That Barack Hussein Obama is the current president will be a paradox historians will chew over for decades...if we survive him.

4 posted on 01/30/2015 11:01:13 AM PST by Jim Scott
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To: jfd1776

No points to quibble with. This nails it.

The libs would call us “racist” for “otherizing” Obama, but he

_IS_

“other”.

He’s not American. He’s not of our culture or value system.


5 posted on 01/30/2015 11:14:32 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: jfd1776

BTTT


6 posted on 01/30/2015 11:22:50 AM PST by hattend (Firearms and ammunition...the only growing industries under the Obama regime.)
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To: jfd1776

Bump for later.


7 posted on 01/30/2015 11:58:21 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set...)
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To: Jim Scott
That Barack Hussein Obama is the current president will be a paradox historians will chew over for decades...

Some will no doubt say our 2009 politicians missed the plain meaning of "natural born citizen" as that phrase was understood by the drafters and ratifiers of our constitution.

They will argue that once the constitution was ratified, any legislation regarding citizenship should have recognized and given effect to the underlying definition of our founders.

8 posted on 01/30/2015 12:11:33 PM PST by frog in a pot (Will their Long March end with the ballot box or with the federal judiciary?)
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To: Jim Scott

OBAMA / CASTRO PACT ON HELL

IGNORING THE CRY FOR FREEDOM OF THE CUBAN PEOPLE, COMRADE OBAMA CAME TO THE RESCUE OF CASTRO’S STALINIST REGIME

”A fact revealing of the misery and desperation created by the Castro regime is Cuba's suicide rate, which reached 24 per thousand in 1986 -- making it double Latin America's average, making it triple Cuba's pre-Castro rate, making Cuban women the most suicidal in the world, and making death by suicide the primary cause of death for Cubans aged 15-48. At that point the Cuban government ceased publishing the statistics on the self-slaughter. The figures became state secrets. The implications seem to horrify even the government.” (Humberto Fontova)

“Barack Obama’s allies are not our allies; his enemies are not our enemies. He was raised to sympathize with Castro’s Cuba, Arafat’s PLO, Brezhnev’s Russia. He has chafed at the bit throughout his presidency, hating pretending to like our allies, hating pretending to dislike our enemies. He has worked to drive wedges through our friendships with Britain, Israel, Canada… and he has worked to weaken our opposition to islamofascist terror and our longtime global rivals. And he will to continue in these directions every day that he has the power to do so.” (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3252351/posts)

After 56 years, Cuba still remains a giant prison island under the boot of the Castro brothers.

The Chinese maintain an advanced electronic base in the center of the Havana province to intercept all electronic communications in U.S. and is equipped for eventual cyber attacks to U.S.

Putin is reopening the spy base in the outskirts of Havana that was closed after the dismembering of the Soviet Union.

Well before he came to power, Castro regarded the United States as an enemy. In a 1957 letter — displayed in Havana's Museo de la Revolucion, Fontova observes — the future ruler wrote to a friend: "War against the United States is my true destiny. When this war's over, I'll start that much bigger and wider war."

Six months before the 9/11 Islamic terrorist attack to New York and Washington, Fidel Castro, speaking at Tehran University in Iran on May 10, 2001, vowed that “the imperialist king will finally fall”, that their cooperation would put the U.S. down its knees. The hatred of the Castro brothers against U.S. has not mellowed after 56 years in power.

After Obama surrender to the communist regime the American base in Cuba, Castro might give the Guantanamo base to Iran to consolidate and strengthen the Cuban ties to the Islamic terrorist network, an alliance that started since the very beginning of taken power in Cuba the communist revolution.

9 posted on 01/30/2015 12:24:50 PM PST by Dqban22 (Hpo<p> http://i.imgur.com/26RbAPxjpg)
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To: jfd1776

Obama can be an AINO (American in name only). Great column. Says it all. Thanks for posting.


10 posted on 01/30/2015 12:33:44 PM PST by No One Special
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To: No One Special

We’ve had six years of this president and six years of columns describing him. By this point all anyone can do is restate the obvious.


11 posted on 01/30/2015 12:40:39 PM PST by Corey Ohlis (Visualize Swirled Peas)
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To: jfd1776

Very nice article. My two cents: The first time I heard him say “FOLKS”I knew he was a complete and total fraud.


12 posted on 01/30/2015 12:57:43 PM PST by DrDude (Does anyone have a set of balls anymore?)
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To: jfd1776

Just published an under 2 minute video here:
http://youtu.be/8Uey1TiB4XY
Better hurry. Due to the content, no telling how long it will remain up!


13 posted on 01/30/2015 1:07:56 PM PST by Dick Bachert (This entire "administration" has been a series of Reischstag Fires. We know how that turned out!)
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To: jfd1776
I'd say 0bama's release of 5 Yemeni terrorists from Guantanamo, ONE WEEK after Yemeni-trained terrorists attacked Paris was the icing on the cake. Let there be NO DOUBT whose side he's on; NONE whatsoever.
14 posted on 01/30/2015 2:25:45 PM PST by Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America
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To: Dick Bachert

I’m quite stunned Valerie Jarrett was omitted from that video. She is a KEY player in the undermining of America. The devil uses a lot of females to carry out his deeds because they are shielded from harsh criticism due to their gender. Loretta Lynch is a two-fer; black AND female. The devil is still at work.. Now if we can only AWAKEN THE FEMALE VOTER TO NOT FALL INTO THE SAME TRAP WITH HILLARY THAT THEY FELL FOR IN OBAMA and we will survive. Otherwise, it’s EIGHT MORE YEARS OF OBAMA.


15 posted on 01/30/2015 2:30:57 PM PST by Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America
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To: Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America

Duuuhhh! Mea culpa. I’m tempted to recut the thing based on your catch. Thanks!!


16 posted on 01/30/2015 3:42:50 PM PST by Dick Bachert (This entire "administration" has been a series of Reischstag Fires. We know how that turned out!)
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To: Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America

Hope this UNSTUNS you! :-)
http://youtu.be/rtdlrlbAm08


17 posted on 01/30/2015 4:28:39 PM PST by Dick Bachert (This entire "administration" has been a series of Reischstag Fires. We know how that turned out!)
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