Posted on 01/20/2013 9:28:48 AM PST by Steelfish
Obama Comes Out Swinging For Second Term Dropping talk of bipartisanship, the president seeks to fragment the Republican opposition as he presses his policies on gun control, spending and immigration.
By David Lauter January 19, 2013 WASHINGTON — In President Obama's first term, a promise of bipartisanship withered on stony ground; as his second begins, he has openly embraced confrontation.
On a parade of hot-button political issues, including the budget, gun control and immigration, Obama has begun to hammer on weak points in the Republican coalition.
He has made little effort to woo members of the opposition in Congress, whose positions he has characterized publicly as "intransigent," "extreme" and "absurd." Instead, he appears intent on dividing them.
That approach has unified Democrats, who remain staunchly supportive of the president, while exacerbating splits in Republican ranks, according to polls. While the strategy involves considerable risk, Obama and his aides seem convinced it offers their best hope of winning major legislative victories in an era of deep partisan divisions in Washington and in the wider electorate.
The administration wants to "stay away from inside-the-Beltway, elite negotiations and try to pursue an outside-in strategy, where the president seeks to mobilize public opinion and put pressure on a minority of Republicans," said William Galston of the Brookings Institution, a public policy think tank.
The idea, he said, is to find weak spots in the GOP coalition, then "stick a wedge into the crack and wiggle it back and forth until it breaks."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
A pathetic and hilarious visual. Obama “swinging” his arms! Hahahahahahaha! The old line, “couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper sack” comes to mind.
Alinsky Rule 1: “Power is not only what you have, but what an opponent thinks you have”.
Don’t buy the illusion.
Plenty of articles are out there about some Dems not going along on gun control, just for starters. More wishful thinking from the Slimes.
Great. Obama wants to turn us into a Soviet-bloc satellite with no freedom and a Socialist whirlwind of destruction.
I said it two years ago- if he is reelected you ARE goign to see the left unhinged, unimpeeded, and unleashed because htey will realize ity’s possibly hteir last chance to ram throguhtheir ideology- it IS goign to be hell in America for 4 more years (THanks Americans for votign htis tyrant back in- enjoy your loss of freedoms- you wanted it- now live with it)
the ONLY hope that America has is for the right GOP to find a backbone and bring impeachment proceedings against him- but since he’s a black liberal- there’s NO WAY the main stream media will allow him to be impeached-
The so-called "progressive" agenda has, for decades, sought to replace the founding concept of Creator-endowed individual rights, liberty and laws to protect them with their own false concept of imperfect persons in government assuming the role of the "Supreme Being."
The electorate must become educated to these competing ideas and rediscover America's Founding principles, which can enable them to recognize which are true ideas of liberty, and which are counterfeit ideas of tyranny. That is not easy.
In 2008, Michael Ledeen, on another subject altogether, wrote of the degree to which Americans have been "dumbed down" on some basic ideas underlying our freedom:
Ledeen said, "Our educational system has long since banished religion from its texts, and an amazing number of Americans are intellectually unprepared for a discussion in which religion is the central organizing principle."
In the Pope's speech in Germany a few years ago, he observed:
"A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures."
Ledeen put his finger on a problem that stifles meaningful dialogue and debate in America on a number of subjects--as is now exhibited in the discussion on the causes and solutions to acts of violence such as that in Newtown. Censors [disguised as "protectors" (the Radical Left's ACLU, NEA, education bureaucracies, etc., etc.)] have imposed their limited understanding of liberty upon generations of school children.
> From America's founding to the 1950's, ideas derived from religious literature were included in textbooks, through the poetry and prose used to teach children to read and to identify with their world and their country.
Suddenly, those ideas began to disappear from textbooks, until now, faceless, mindless copy editors sit in cubicles in the nation's textbook publishing companies, instructed by their supervisors to remove mere words that refer to family, to the Divine, and to any of the ancient ideas that have sustained intelligent discourse for centuries.
Now, it is the ACLU which accuses middle Americans of "censorship" if they object to books, films, etc., that offend their sensibilities and undermine the character training of their young. Sadly, many of those books and films are themselves products of the minds that have been robbed of exposure to wisdom literature in the nation's schools and universities.
Back in 1876, a Black Minister and Ohio State Legislator, Rev. Benjamin W. Arnett, delivered the "Centennial Thanksgiving Sermon," celebrating the Declaration of Independence, at St. Paul A.M.E. Church in Urbana, Ohio. The Sermon can be read online at the American Memory Section of the LOC, in the African-American Collection. Below is a small excerpt from that Sermon's conclusion. In it Rev. Arnett warned about a movement among "liberals" to remove the ideas underlying America's founding documents. See if you don't recognize those ideas from what you have observed in recent years:
"The Danger to our Country."Now that our national glory and grandeur is principally derived from the position the fathers took on the great questions of right and wrong, and the career of this nation has been unparalleled in the history of the past, now there are those who are demanding the tearing down the strength of our national fabric. They may not intend to tear it down, but just as sure as they have their way, just that sure will they undermine our superstructure and cause the greatest calamity of the age. What are the demands of this party of men? Just look at it and examine it for yourselves, and see if you are willing that they shall have their way; or will you still assist in keeping the ship of state in the hands of the same crew and run her by the old gospel chart! But ye men who think there is no danger listen to the demands of the Liberals as they choose to call themselves:
"'Organize! Liberals of America! The hour for action has arrived. The cause of freedom calls upon us to combine our strength, our zeal, our efforts. These are The Demands of Liberalism:"'1. We demand that churches and other ecclesiastical property shall no longer be exempt from just taxation.
"'2. We demand that the employment of chaplains in Congress, in State Legislatures, in the navy and militia, and in prisons, asylums, and all other institutions supported by public money, shall be discontinued.
"'3. We demand that all public appropriations for sectarian educational and charitable institutions shall cease.
"'4. We demand that all religious services now sustained by the government shall be abolished; and especially that the use of the Bible in the public schools, whether ostensibly as a text-book or avowedly as a book of religious worship, shall be prohibited.
"'5. We demand that the appointment, by the President of the United States or by the Governors of the various States, of all religious festivals and fasts shall wholly cease.
"'6. We demand that the judicial oath in the courts and in all other departments of the government shall be abolished, and that simple affirmation under the pains and penalties of perjury shall be established in its stead.
"'7. We demand that all laws directly or indirectly enforcing the observance of Sunday as the Sabbath shall be repealed.
"'8. We demand that all laws looking to the enforcement of “Christian” morality shall be abrogated, and that all laws shall be conformed to the requirements of natural morality, equal rights, and impartial liberty.
"'9. We demand that not only in the Constitution of the United States and of the several States, but also in the practical administration of the same, no privilege or advantage shall be conceded to Christianity or any other special religion; that our entire political system shall be founded and administered on a purely secular basis; and that whatever changes shall prove necessary to this end shall be consistently, unflinchingly, and promptly made.'
"'Let us boldly and with high purpose meet the duty of the hour.'
"Now we must not think that we have nothing to do in this great work, for the men who are at the head of this movement are men of culture and intelligence, and many of them are men of influence. They are led by that thinker and scholar, F. E. Abbott, than whom I know but few men who has a smoother pen, or who is his equal on the battle-field of thought. He says in an address on the duty of his leagues:
"'My answer may be a negative one to all who see nothing positive in the idea of liberty. The conviction I refer to is this: that, regarded as a theological system, Christianity is Superstition, and, regarded as an organized institution, Christianity is Slavery. The purpose I refer to is this: that, whether regarded as theological system, Christianity shall wholly cease to exercise influence in political matters. Although the national Constitution is strictly secular and non-Christian, there are many things in the practical administration of the government which violate its spirit, and constitute a virtual recognition of Christianity as the national religion. These violations are very dangerous; they are on the increase; they more and more give Christianity a practical hold upon the government; they directly tend to strengthen the influence of Christianity over the people, and to fortify it both as a theology and a church; and they are therefore justly viewed with growing indignation by liberals. Not unreasonably are they looked upon as paving the way to a formidable effort to carry the Christian Amendment to the Constitution; and the liberals are beginning to see that they must extinguish the conflagration in its commencement. I believe all this myself, with more intense conviction every day; and therefore I appeal frankly to the people to begin now to lay the foundations of a great National Party of Freedom. It is not a moment too soon. If the liberals are wise, they will see the facts as they are, and act accordingly. Not with hostility, bitterness, defiance, or anger but rather with love to all men and high faith in the beneficence of consistently republican institutions, do I urge them most earnestly to begin the work at once.'
"He acknowledges that this is a religious nation and wants all men to assist him in eliminating the grand old granite principles from the framework of our national union. Will you do it freeman; will we sell the temple reared at the cost of so much precious blood and treasure? These men would have us turn back the hands on the clock of our national progress, and stay the shadow on the dial plate of our christian civilization; they would have us call a retreat to the soldiers in the army of Christ; the banner of the cross they would have us haul down, and reverse the engines of war against sin and crime; the songs of Zion they would turn into discord, and for the harmony and the melody of the sons of God, they would give us general confusion; they would have us chain the forces of virtue and unloose the elements of vice; they would have the nation loose its moorings from the Lord of truth and experience and commit interest, morally, socially; religiously and politically to the unsafe and unreliable human reason; they would discharge God and his crew and run the ship of State by the light of reason, which has always been but a dim taper in the world, and all the foot-prints it has left are marked with the blood of men, women and children. No nation is safe when left alone with reason.
"But we have no notion of giving up the contest without a struggle or a battle. We are aware that there is a great commotion in the world of thought. Religion and science are at arms length contending with all their forces for the mastery. Faith and unbelief are fighting their old battles over again, everything that can be shaken is shaking. The foundations of belief are assaulted by the army of science and men are changing their opinions. New and starting theories are promulgated to the world; old truths are putting on new garbs. Error is dressing in the latest style, wrong is secured by the unholy alliances, changes in men and things, revolution in church and state, Empires are crumbling, Kingdoms tottering; everywhere the change is seen. In the social circle, in the school house, in the pulpit and in the pews. But amid all the changes are revolutions their are some things that are unchangeable, unmovable and enduring. The forces that underline the vital power of Christianity are the same yesterday, to-day, to-morrow and forever more. They are like their God, who is omnipotent, immovable and eternal, and everywhere truth has marched it has left its moccasin tracks."
So said Rev. Benjamin Arnett in 1876. Where is the leader who will declare these things today? His theme was "Righteousness Exalteth a Nation, but Sin is a Reproach to Any People." Might such outspoken thoughts not enlighten the minds of Americans today as they discuss the topic of this thread? To read the full text of Arnett's remarkable history of nations and of the American Republic and its founding ideas, visit here, search by author and title of "Centennial Thanksgiving Sermon."
Funny how the same press that sold Obama to the country as a hopey-changey uniter has done a heelspin and is now delighting in the prospect of Obama as hammer and tongs vanguisher of the opposition party.
I agree with you with the exception that it is their last chance. I believe the number of parasites and permanent brainwashed socialists have now surpassed the rest of us so they are in power to stay.
vanguisher = vanquisher
I still don’t quite fathom the idea of a liberal jew? Do they hate their own heritage of jews in Israel? Would they support the enemies of Israel over their own “brethren” being they are both jews? Not very logical but liberals never are.
Sounds like Barry is going all out for a fascist dictatorship. I wonder if the low information voters realize that they are turning America into the same kind of sewer they crawled out of when they came here. Do they even care?
The leftist media doesn't even have to receive marching instructions on what to write and print.....it knows what to do on its own initiative....and its instant reaction teams and its propaganda machines never stop churning.
It looks like our only hope is that Obama over-reaches...and I'm not too sure even that would work.
We keep waiting for that proverbial knight on a white horse to come riding in to save us, to lead us, to rally us, to inspire us.....but the fact is that it's going to be only US that can get our heads and brains together for effective action to save ourselves and our kids.
Leni
Obama only imagines he can rally public opinion to his side regarding small caliber rifles ~
The way to evaluate this is not to look at how many gun owners there are, but how many people have access to a firearm from some source.
There are 115 million households residing in 132 million housing units ~ (which ought to give you an idea of what's wrong with our housing industry eh, if nothing else).
Gallup's polls since the early 1950s have varied in the answer of how many households own a firearm ~ bottom end is 31% and top end is 51% for Gallup. The NRA claims that it's at least 50%.
Since Obama came to power the number has risen. However, none of that matters. If we have 57 million households with firearms, that gives us over 200 million private individuals with access to those firearms! BTW, you get to that number simply by stripping out the elderly women and 19 to 29 age group of single women residing alone ~ they are the least likely to have firearms, and the most likely to vote Democrat. That means all the chillun' and married women are in that 57 million household count.
At best Obama has no more than the traditional 31% mind numbed robot like knee jerk leftwingtard Democrat vote on his side on this issue. He can't win!
By definition, “low-information” voters are either clueless or brainwashed, and they are now part of the permanent “Santa Clause” majority voters, so they realize sweet nothing.
On the other hand we can easily visualize Hussein: “stick a wedge into the crack and wiggle it back and forth until it breaks.”
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