Sunday, November 23, 2008

Liars and Promises

Liars and Promises

I spent some time with my eighty year old father yesterday. He is retired and spends much of his time watching the cable news channels. I never watch these channels or listen to the talking pinheads on them or conservative talk radio. He made me aware of their new chosen tactic of undermining Obama's presidency even before he takes the oath of office. They are doing this by posing the following question: What promises will Obama try to keep?

Some may think this is an appropriate thing to ask of any president elect. That thought should last for nanoseconds when one considers the source of this question and their agenda. This is the same group of lying jackals that declared Bill Clinton a failure before he was sworn in. They are masters of framing the arguments to suit their intended outcome without discussing anything approaching reality. Their unstated insidious assumption is that Obama will never keep all his promises because they have deemed it impossible or worse yet, they have decided or hope that Obama is just another lying politician. They are at the end of a twenty-eight year period where lying and/or stupidity or both have become the fashionable norm for our president.

The real answer to this question would astound these liars in its simplicity: All of them. Nearly 68 million voters cast their vote for Obama making this assumption, close to 9 million more than his opponent. To put this in historical context, no presidential candidate received 9 million votes in total until Woodrow Wilson was reelected in 1916. Many of those 68 million voters, I among them, felt the promises did not go far enough. We all voted for change including the assumption that the lying and the just plain criminality of the last eight years needed to end.

Our country is deeply divided. The last time we were this deeply divided was during the election cycle of 1860. That resulted in the Civil War, the single seminal event of our country's history. Before that war the United States was referred to with plural references such as "the United States are," since the references are in the singular such as "the United States is." Obama has so far done some astounding things but the one of the most astounding is the idea of appointing Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. I admit that initially I was against this action but after further thought, I have come to believe this is very Lincoln-like. When Lincoln took office, he formed a cabinet that included many political rivals. This type of action goes back to Obama's choice of Biden as running mate, a former opponent in the primaries.

Our country is in deep economic trouble. The last time we were this deeply in economic trouble was the election cycle of 1932. Many of the programs and regulations that helped dig us out of that crisis have been systematically dismantled over the last twenty-eight years. It is not mere coincidence that we are again on the brink of another Great Depression. My father remembers living through the Great Depression. To quote him, "The bastards have done it again."

Most are suffering because of this division and hardship. Very few are prospering as result of this suffering. Among those that prosper are the liars that are promoting the idea Obama can't possibly succeed. Their vested interested is in seeing Obama fail. They are not the loyal opposition, they are just the opposition. Their loyalties are to their bank accounts and those that fill them. They have convinced far too many to vote against their own best interests with their lies. It is past time to tell them if they can't be loyal to the country, to shut up and go away. The Big Lie has been "Government is the Problem." This must be vanquished to rhetoric Hell, for "a Government of the People, for the People, and by the People," is our singular hope.



Permanent Backlink to Post

No comments: