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Much Ado About Nothing
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When it was announced that Rio de Janeiro would host the 2016 Olympics, Republicans celebrated President Obama’s first decided failure. Though his poll numbers are down and support for his programs are too, there had not yet been a clear failure for the president, which had worried some Republicans. That some Republicans celebrated his failure in Copenhagen so enthusiastically suggests that they had secretly bought into the Obama hype: that he was the One and spelled the end of the GOP. When it became finally clear that he is not the One (to the genuine disappointment of dewy-eyed progressives) it also seemed to come as a surprise to some Republicans.
Any levelheaded Conservative, however, could have told you that Obama is not the One. Authentic Conservatives knew from the start that President Obama would fail because of his own agenda. Because failures were to be expected, they were not to be desired, and least of all celebrated.
The AM dial fulminators, ever misunderstanding what it means to be Conservative, expressed great surprise and happiness when the President suffered this first failure.
Glenn Beck said on his radio program, “I mean, please, please let me break this news to you. Oh, it's so sweet," in reference to what was to come after the commercial break: the announcement that Chicago would not host the 2016 Olympics.
Rush Limbaugh happily announced on air “For those of you on the other side of the aisle listening in who are upset that I sound gleeful -- I am. I don't deny it. I'm happy. Anything that gets in the way of Barack Obama accomplishing his domestic agenda is fine with me… So anything that weakens and helps people to see the real Obama is a step forward.”
Beck and Rush seem to have thought, like the disappointed progressives, that Obama may have been the One, otherwise there would be no cause for such happy surprise following Obama’s first failure. When Rush remarked before the President took office, “I hope he fails,” he was hoping for a possibility, as though he had some belief that such idealistic progressivism could succeed in America. A proper Conservative would have looked at the Obama agenda and said, “These are lovely proposals, but there’s no way they’ll work. He will certainly fail.” Beck and Rush, however, saw the possibility that Obama might succeed as a personal threat and locked into a zero-sum game with him. As soon as Obama had his first decided defeat, Beck and Rush celebrated it as a personal gain.
A proper Conservative would understand that our democratic republic, for all its shortcomings, is rather adept at weeding out failures, both legislative and executive. We may have our boondoggles, but each of them is instructive to avoid the next. President Obama is failing by his own devices, and suffers diminished political capital as a result. As Obama fails, there is no reason to celebrate it as a happy surprise, as though one were uncertain as to whether or not the jack would ultimately pop from the jack-in-the-box. It was clear to any proper Conservative from the outset that Obama would fail. In the end, it is actually cause for sadness over the fact that this nation could turn over such a powerful office to such a certain failure.
