Apparently there are many Americans shocked and dismayed to “suddenly” realize that Barack Obama is actually a far left politician. This “secret” was well kept from them until last week’s inaugural speech. After some 700 teleprompter presidential speeches they were too busy to listen to, the January 21st leftist diatribe woke them up.
The question must be asked, where has everyone been the last four years? The only surprise is that Obama chose his second inaugural, generally an occasion for “malice toward none,” to unveil his uncompromising ultra-liberal manifesto.
Was anyone truly surprised by the content? He all but sent fireworks skyward four years ago when he addressed Congress (Feb. 24, 2009). In that speech he revealed his transformational agenda. He took that opportunity to unveil the boldest social democratic policies ever spoken by a U.S. president – including FDR.
It wasn’t just a dream or loose talk on his part. He backed it up with what is essentially nationalized health care, 18% of the U.S. economy. The 833 billion dollar stimulus package came before Obamacare with its unprecedented expansion of government spending. Washington is now spending an astonishing 24% of GDP, fully one-fifth higher than the postwar norm of 20%.
The 2010 midterm train wreck stalled his ambitions as the Republicans took the House. But now he’s back in the wild spending game again, the Tea Party has been neutered momentarily and the “revolution” is back, as he proudly proclaimed January 21st.
By the looks of the TV ratings during his address, there are a whole lot of Americans not at all wild about his future plans. In fact, this inauguration received roughly half the viewership as that of 2009. It can be interpreted as the electorate voting against Romney, not for Obama and his policies.
Are the majority of Americans really behind his open pledge to unyieldingly defend the 20th-century welfare state and expand it unrelentingly in the 21st?
It can be defined as zealously clinging to the increasingly obsolete structures of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Doesn’t the president realize Social Security was created when life expectancy was 62? That Medicare was created when modern medical technology was in its infancy?
Obama’s reactionary liberalism toward entitlements is nothing more than holding his base in place while ignoring the oncoming economic collapse of long-standing public safety nets.
The second part of the president’s grand plan is healing the planet.
Although his first term saw the abysmal failure of these policies (Solyndra for example), he still promises a state-created green energy sector, massively subsidized, even as the state’s regulatory apparatus systematically squeezes fossil fuels, killing coal today, shale gas tomorrow.
Let’s not forget his fantasy debt-reduction plan. The speech was incredibly devoid of any acknowledgment of the central threat to the postindustrial democracies. It appears the ongoing economic crisis in this country will become an increasingly insolvent entitlement state.
Obama’s vision is an ever-expanding state. Only government, not the myriad of voluntary associations including religious, cultural, charitable, artistic will be the mainstay of the American system.
For Obama, nothing lies between citizen and state. The speech is the perfect example of coddled Americans (and non-Americans) nurtured cradle to grave by the state. Aside from his brand of class warfare, no solid answers were provided as to how this will all be paid for with a mind boggling 16 trillion dollar debt to boot.
In Bill Clinton’s second-term inaugural speech he declared, “The era of big government is over.” Obama is no Clinton. He will not fix failing entitlements, he will preserve them to the bitter end.
His true mission is to resurrect the 50-year pre-Reagan liberal ascendancy. That goal makes his inaugural speech make sense for its content of ideologically, unapologetic and aggressive tone. He considers himself the Ronald Reagan of the far left.
If he succeeds with this social agenda in the next four years he will have earned the title. But first he’ll have to convince an outraged nation over Obamacare’s full enactment next January. The inevitability that millions of full time jobs will be reduced to part time work, smaller companies keeping their workforce under 50 employees avoiding the law and skyrocketing health insurance and medical costs.
The Democrats are celebrating their “mandate” for now, but a radical change in the congressional makeup can already be foreseen in November, 2014 when the electorate checks their wallets.
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