Rebutting myself

I recently made the statement “stop blaming Obama.” While it’s true that many continue the “Blame Bush” mentality, resorting to their tactics does little to fix the problem and is akin to a child hitting another kid because “he hit me first.”

I am not saying they are not at fault, and that they have not done many damaging and outright idiotic things. By no means am I claiming that Obama is the messiah with a small m, or that those who still support him are part of a steadily shrinking minority. I certainly am no fan of President Obama, and am more than happy to acknowledge that the actions he is taking are in direct opposition to my views and beliefs. But blaming him is not the answer. Not if blaming him is all we do.

When President Bush was in office, the left was engaged in a cacophonic display of Bush Blaming that set my blood boiling. I would be lying if I said I was in favor of everything that the former President did while in office, but the common response was idiotic and juvenile, and it served no purpose but to make noise. The truth was, as much as the left hated to admit it, they were responsible for the election of a President they hated. Sure, they might not have voted for him, but did they vote at all? And if so, did they push their party to provide a candidate who had a hope of winning the election? More than that, they allowed previous Democratic candidates on various levels to anger the American populace to the point that a Republican was able to take the White House two terms in a row. The problem was summed up many times as people were not voting “for Kerry,” but they were voting “against Bush.”

I think that is what happened in this past election. Instead of a candidate that was electable, the GOP pulled the same failed tactic that was used by the Democrats in the two elections prior. Many people were not voting for John McCain, they were voting against Obama. I was one of those people. We knew that Kerry could not win for that reason, but we fell victim to the same flawed approach.

Review of media coverage from the primaries leads me to believe that McCain was the Republican candidate the media- that is, the left- wanted. Some people have voiced that they were gladly believed he wouldn’t win the primary over his competitors, and were surprised that he did. McCain successfully rode the wave of media preference to the nomination, and let the media give Obama the win in the Presidential race.

The problem does not stop there, however. Americans are so content to rely on the TV news coverage to tell them how things are. There is a pandemic of political ignorance infecting our country that was brought on by laziness and dishonesty amongst the common voting public. People don’t want to follow politics because it’s uncomfortable, it’s dirty and ugly. It’s complicated, and who can really understand what’s going on anyway? That is the root of the problem.

It is easy for me to say that Republicans are at fault because they vote in RINOs and keep their candidates in office for too long, but that is a lazy approach and gives the left a pass. Responses to my previous discussion of this topic have shown me that it also puts me in an uncomfortable proximity to the left, which is precisely the reason I chose to return to this topic so quickly.

President Obama is the Commander in Chief. The buck stops there, so to speak. In the end, he is ultimately responsible for the actions of his cabinet and is the one who signs legislation or, if he sees fit, vetoes it. So when something is passed by Congress, we can easily attribute the fault to President Obama. I don’t think this is inappropriate. I think it is insufficient.

An excellent example is the “Health Care Reform Bill.” Congress and the President pushed ahead with it, riding the mandate of an underwhelming minority. Against the wishes of the American people, they passed the bill, despite having no idea what was in it. They are responsible for the travesty, but blaming them for it is insufficient. As November draws near, we need to do more than blame them, we need to work against them. All of them. It will take a voting majority to kick out the incumbents who are passing legislation that threatens our liberties and our well being. It will take an overwhelming majority to destroy what has been built. Casting blame is insufficient. We need to build a voting bloc that will remove the cancer from the body politic.

Talking to other conservatives about the problems with the Obama administration does about as much as the mental masturbation of the Democratic Underground website. Surrounding yourself with people who think like you and agree with you, then telling them that Obama is a threat to America solves nothing. Instead, those who want to destroy the liberal hold on government should be active in pursuing such ends. This means not limiting discussion to sites such as Free Republic or Evil Conservative Radio. Use your Facebook, your Twitter or whatever other social site you have to share relevant news articles or personal reflections. Rebuttal of fallacious claims by Obama supporters is also imperative. Every time you reach out to those who are on the fence, or enter dialogue with those who do not understand the problems we face currently, you take on the responsibility I am referring to. It goes beyond blame and becomes personal accountability.

I did nothing to support John McCain during the last Presidential Election. I couldn’t bring myself to do more than vote. But then, I did nothing to dissuade my peers from voting for Obama. I was content to believe it was their choice who they wanted to vote for. While the state I live in was only part of the equation, I still accept partial responsibility for Obama’s election because, like so many others, I stayed quiet and just let everyone do what they wanted. And then I blamed Obama when he started the nonsense we’re all frustrated with today.

But that is not enough, so I am trying to reach out to my fellow conservatives and encourage you all to stop blaming Obama and put more effort into defeating him and his cronies in the coming elections. Don’t let the administration get away with this idiotic and dangerous lawsuit against Arizona. Don’t content yourself with griping when he leads Congress to pass legislation that progressively introduces socialism into our economy and society. Educate your peers and face the opposition head on.

So while I say “stop blaming Obama,” I really mean “start opposing Obama.” He may be at fault for all the things we dislike about his administration, but it is not his fault he is in office. He only cast one vote. It was the rest of his supporters- a support base that is shrinking daily- that put him there. Now is when you have to bring these things to peoples’ attention, and if all we do is cast blame then we fortify them in their positions because liberals respond the same way conservatives do to that sort of thing. They block it out and ignore it. It is time to quit whining. It is time to quit bitching to our friends. If we really want to do something about it, we need to open doors and cross bridges we would normally avoid. Some of my best friends are liberal, and it drives me crazy. But I love them anyway, and while it is hard to address this kind of topic for fear of creating rifts, it’s my job to respond when something I disagree with is brought up. If I don’t, it is my fault that they continue to hold what I consider flawed beliefs. The same goes for every single person who is “blaming Obama.”

I came dangerously close to supporting Obama through my previous rant. What I said was taken as “it’s not his fault,” and a “he’s done nothing wrong” diatribe. I cannot abide that. I truly feel that we have brought this mess upon ourselves, but I erroneously focused my frustration on conservatives and Republicans, when it is really everyone in the country that I believe is responsible. I know conservatives don’t support the liberals who are damaging our stability and chipping away at our security and liberties. But I worry that we simply aren’t doing enough to challenge the status quo. In the end, I just don’t want us to become what we consider the left, a bunch of people who whine when things don’t go our way.

The same goes for liberals when they don’t like the people who hold office. Quit bitching and do something about it. But really, I don’t want you to be active. I just want you to quit bitching.

I feel the need to apologize for my poorly written and flawed previous address of this issue. I need to stop with the “Five Minute Rants” I love so much, and put more into bringing these things to light. I deserved every sling and arrow that came my way, and cannot disagree with any of the assessments my peers made of my initial argument. Special thanks goes to the no nonsense hard asses at Free Republic, because they did to me what I would have done to anyone else who posted the weakly constructed crap I foolishly offered up. I feel that my message was lost because I didn’t paint a fair and honest picture of the issue.

Because I'm a glutton for punishment.

No because you are clueless arrogant moron.

Instead of posting ignorant diatribes at everyone spend more time learning even the most basic facts about how your system of Government works.

The political ignorance you display here is about total.

You are utterly clueless how legislation is enacted and what role the current President has played in pushing for utterly disastrous policies like Obamacare, Stimulus, Tarp2 etc etc etc

I realize I’m asking for trouble pinging most of you with this, but your honest and harsh reproach of the garbage I posted yesterday led me to see the flaws in my presentation and I wanted to include you in the development of my train of thought.

I deserved every bit of animosity I deserved from my craptastic attempt to address this topic, and because I was distraught at the accurate assessment of my previous approach, I decided to try to clarify and repair the damage I had done.

“Don’t JUST blame Obama, defeat him.” Perhaps that statement alone is sufficient, but I’m long winded. As always, thanks for the brutal honesty.

>>Quit bitching and do something about it<<

A lesson in “doing something about it”: Sarah Palin has a LOT more political power than me. How much has she accomplished, really?

There were a couple of conservatives that ran and won seats in the house for the state of Washington. They had a lot more power than me. They rolled up their sleeves and did the “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” thing.

Both were out in two years.

It is why I started saying, in the mid-1990’s, that I felt like a Jew in early 1930’s Germany. They learned that the prudent one was not the one who fought the battle politically. The prudent ones bought tickets out of the country.

My countrymen are too influenced by the modern MSM. I really cannot fight that. At least, not legally.

So I got as far away as I could, in the spirit of my tag line.

“How much has she accomplished, really?”

With all due respect, if you don’t understand the political significance of someone as Conservative and liberal-social-culturally despised as Sarah fighting back and overcoming the assassination attempts on her personality to lead a new wave of Republican/Conservative political motion in this country you are, at best, not looking at politics as a whole and only focusing on the specific duties of an office holder.

Yours is not an informed viewpoint, my FRiend.

I think Johnnie might be missing a key factor here.

His intellectually stimulating response is exactly what I’m getting at, and the attempt at irony falls flat.

My entire point is that I’m tired of just bitching, and by calling other conservatives to be active, I am doing more than just whining that they aren’t.

Calling me a moron and saying I don’t understand how the system works is also an ineffective jibe. Given that this is a call for people to be politically active and an argument that we actually have to defeat the left in the coming elections, how is that a display of ignorance of the system? Are the ones I want out not the ones who pass the legislation? Who enact laws and spend us into oblivion?

I don’t think distancing ourselves is the answer, and I don’t think the defeat of other candidates is reason to stop trying. I think getting involved and enduring juvenile insults like the ones Johnnie and his counterparts on the left often sling is necessary to fixing the problem.

Failing that, we go the route many FReepers are rooting for: revolution.

I believe in the same things most people here do. I just don’t always know how to address those things. If I can’t accept the harsh reality of criticism from people I tend to agree with, folks I CHOSE to associate with by joining this site, how the hell can I hope to stand up to liberal corruption and destruction?

Most people on this site offer valid points and criticisms. Even if I have to endure the unwarranted snipes of people like Johnnie up there, it’s worth it for the improvements and insights that come from the criticisms of folks like yourself.

I don’t want to be the average American. I don’t want to be an inactive and lock-step conservative. I want to develop my thoughts and arguments to the point that they are efficiently and effectively portraying the meat of the matter, and the only way to do that is to endure the frustrating but honest scrutiny of my fellow FReepers.

In my opinion, the following quote from the last blog entry was where everything started to go south:

“My fellow Americans, I am blaming you. Everything we have today is your fault. It is my fault. It is our fault.”

Sorry, but that is where you lost me. I will take no blame for the election of Obama. None. I have done nothing by either an act of commission or omission that is responsible for bringing Obama upon us.

If your main point was truly: “Stop Blaming Obama,” then you would have done well by focusing on the machine that brought him to power and the ignorance of the populace.

However, your main point was that it’s our fault, and you were (and are) acting under the assumption that we’re not doing anything and that we have to start opposing Obama.

That doesn’t sit well with us, some of whom are literally sticking our necks out to inform a populace about the danger our Republic faces. It wasn’t enough for me to flame you, but it did make me angry.

Americans love a winner, and they eventually hate a whiner. The informed don’t like being lumped in with the uninformed. We also don’t like being complained to about our supposed complaining.

Inspiring leaders operate under the premise that “You’ve done well, now let’s do even better!” Identify the problem, and then identify the solution in a non-condescending way. You will do much better in the future.

I imagine my primary failing, then, is that I assume people who are not described in a criticism will not take offense. That is, those who are actually trying would be as pissed off at those who are bitching instead of helping that they would understand what I’m getting at.

How the heck do I voice that without being so simplistic as saying “if this doesn’t apply to you...” or “you know who you are?”

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was fine, once I understood what you were doing.

Have fun with the followups and thanks for bringing more joy to my life today.

LOLOLOLOLOLOL

Post On.

Thanks FRiend. I’m not about to stop posting just because some people get insulting.

But boy did my first post piss me off when I read it the next day. Even more so because everyone was RIGHT.

I’m not going to touch on this issue again. I think my point was clear in the second attempt, even if people dislike it. If some people ARE active in trying to fight Obama and the anti-American machine, they need to realize I’m not attacking them, rather I am attacking those who undermine such activists through inactivity and laziness.

Apparently I do better when I stick to mocking the left instead of trying to vent my frustrations about what got us into this mess. I may stick to that.

No, actually. I’m frakkin’ frustrated. I’m trying to make sense of this whole issue and am floundering.

The more I learn about what’s going on, the deeper I dig, the more angry I am. So I try to express this, but am failing to get the point out effectively. That pisses me off.

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