Posted on 08/15/2008 6:37:06 AM PDT by IrishMike
It’s almost ironic, really, that less than two weeks after he once again excoriated the United States — this time to a second-grader — Sen. Barack Hussein Obama suddenly finds himself having to respond in some way to reality — and, in the process, once again demonstrate just how utterly vacuous he, and the political party that is promoting him, really is.
A nasty little shooting war has broken out in the Republic of Georgia, a shooting war in which Russia is flexing its military muscle. In reaction to what has transpired, Obama immediately called for action on the part of the United Nations, unaware, perhaps, that since Russia is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, and therefore can exercise veto power, there is absolutely nothing the U.N. can do. In fact, there has never been anything that the U.N. could do, other than to give dictators and petty tyrants some sort of patina of respectability.
The real irony, however, was in what Obama said to that youngster when he was asked why he wanted to be president.“America,” Obama replied, “is no longer what it could be, what it once was. And I say to myself, I don’t want that future for my children.”
So what was America? Was he talking about the America of the late 1960, when the Great Society unveiled its welfare state, now credited with having done more to destroy the black family than the organization established by Southern Democrats following the Civil War, an organization called the Ku Klux Klan?
Certainly Obama must be familiar with the 1960s. True, he was still very young and spent a big part of that decade in Indonesia, but his close association with his friends William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn must have enabled him to familiarize himself with the wonderful world of domestic terrorism.
Perhaps Obama was thinking about the America of the 1970s. In the early part of the decade, a Congress controlled by the Democrat Party did more to undermine America’s standing in the world than just about anything that has happened since. That was the Congress that cut off aid to South Vietnam, an ally, allowing North Vietnam to overrun the country and establish another communist stronghold, leading, later to genocide in Cambodia.
It was during that Cambodian genocide that Democrat President Jimmy Carter would simply wring his hands in frustration. Despite his pronouncements about “human rights,” he never did a thing about Pol Pot, leaving that instead to the North Vietnamese. Carter further undermined American standing in the world by abandoning another ally, the Shah of Iran, thereby helping to create an Islamic dictatorship that now threatens the nuclear destruction of one of its neighbors, and allowing a group of American citizens to be held hostage for well over a year.
That same president continually backed down from a Soviet dictatorship — a dictatorship his successor wound up destroying — and reacted to a Soviet act of aggression — not entirely unlike what Russia is now doing in Georgia — in Afghanistan by boycotting the 1980 Olympic Games.
Interestingly, Obama seems to have hinted that he would follow the lead of Carter when he mentioned that Sochi, Russia, would be the host of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Are you threatening an American boycott if the Russians don’t leave Georgia?
Maybe Obama was talking about the 1990s, when, under the stewardship of President Bill Clinton, Islamic terrorists discovered they could attack American interests with impunity while a saber-rattling dictator could demand the return of a child who had escaped from the island prison, a return ultimately facilitated by a federal raid on a private dwelling in Miami.
What kind of future does Obama want for his children? Once an American named Harry Truman, a Democrat, drew a line in the sand in Korea, demonstrating to the world that the United States would not allow communism to roll unchecked through Southeast Asia. Once an American named Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican, declared that a group of young black students had every right to attend Little Rock High School and dispatched troops to uphold that order. Once an American named John Kennedy, a Democrat, stated that America would “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” Once an American named Ronald Reagan, a Republican, refused to compromise with the Soviet Union, putting into motion a series of events that would not only lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union but to underline the promise of John Kennedy. Once an American named George W. Bush, a Republican, reacted firmly and forcefully to an attack on the United States, and despite having to fight enemies both external and internal, has kept the U.S. safe from similar attacks.
Perhaps it is time Obama recognized that it is only the left, those who so embraced the Soviet Union and all it stood for, and who could never fully accept its demise, that really sees America in decline.
Had to laugh yesterday - some commentator on CNN was boasting how the conservative movement was now bankrupt - that being said on the very same day as the 75th birthday of Social Security.
Seems like Obama along with his wife are always criticizing our country.
Excellent post thanks Mike!
Maybe he means 1993, when a World Trade Center attack could be written off as a criminal act, the government could mow down people on a compound with tanks being used on US soil, and the economy was in recovery before the President had a chance to act. There was no widespread use of the internet, talk radio was considered on the ropes, the White House was poised to ram through socialized medicine, and gays could now serve in the military if they weren’t too open about it. A “piece dividend” meant that we could use the military budget for socialist spending and the size of our armed forces could be reduced.
Good article. The only disagreement is that Southern Democrat’s didn’t create the Klan. Democrat’s did. don’t think ANY Democrat’s had or have clean hands where that is concerned. The Klan remains as the Military arm of the Democratic party to this day.
Can you imagine a modern day RAT even thinking those words today little-lone actually saying them in public? How quickly we have fallen as a nation.
the America of the late 1960, when the Great Society unveiled its welfare state, now credited with having done more to destroy the black family...”
Hindsight is 20/20.
"Hingsight" is called history in some places. We're supposed to learn from it.
I realize that my opinion on this isnt popular with Cons, but it’s okay to have divergent opinions.
Black america should take responsibility for destroying themselves post-1960, instead on blaming it on “them”.
I don’t see how your views are so divergent from mainstream conservatism.
Actions by black Americans have led to their current situation, but it’s fair to say that government gave them enough incentives all along the way.
That same president continually backed down from a Soviet dictatorship — a dictatorship his successor wound up destroying — and reacted to a Soviet act of aggression — not entirely unlike what Russia is now doing in Georgia — in Afghanistan by boycotting the 1980 Olympic Games.
Interestingly, Obama seems to have hinted that he would follow the lead of Carter when he mentioned that Sochi, Russia, would be the host of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Are you threatening an American boycott if the Russians don’t leave Georgia?
It seems to me that the author meant to say Reagan in the second paragraph.
“I don’t see how your views are so divergent from mainstream conservatism.
Actions by black Americans have led to their current situation, but it’s fair to say that government gave them enough incentives all along the way.”
I suppose that my not being very critical of the Johnson admin for what it did: “Great Society and 1964 Voting Rights” sets me apart. Perhaps i was younger and more...ahem...liberal...back then, but it didnt seem to be the wrong thing to do at the time (the benefits- not the Votings Rights).
The Voting Rights Act - Yes. Needed. Although many of those provisions should be allowed to expire.
Great Society - Nope. Bad idea from the start.
Hindsight? There were plenty of folks at the time who knew that handouts were morally corrupting. And LBJ did it as much out of political impulse as charitable. He claimed it would keep the black population voting democratic for generations.
wait ...
i thought that was the cia, with aids and crack cocaine.
my preacher, the (not-so) reverend wrong, told me so...
btw, heard about his upcoming tell-all book?
didn’t think so
No, it was Carter who boycotted the Olympics. RR didn’t take office until January, 1981.
How do you considert this position divergent from a conservative viewpoint?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.