Rise of the American Novice

These are frustrating days for those plagued with common sense.

Perhaps tea party gatherings are one part protest, another part about being a support group for those who have been listening, paying attention to the “experts”, the politicians, and NOT surprised when these others seem to be nothing but. All these “unexpected” results, from dramatic increases in the number of jobless Americans to the further eroding of housing prices to plummeting confidence in the direction of the country, these results are not unexpected to those who exist in the real world and look at decisions being made through the very non rose-colored glasses of common sense. However common it may have once been, it is now less so in our nation’s capitol, on news shows, in so much financial commentary, on Wall Street. More common sense would lead to fewer unexpected results.

Common sense proponents know we now have a President who is at best a disastrous fool, at worst a deceptive liar intent on destruction of the American economy. (He doesn’t like this country, admit it.) Job growth, opportunity, a vibrant private sector, a bright national future, those apparently do not qualify for his definition of “fair”, a favorite Obama word, however warped his personal definition may be. You simply do not propose, do not support all that he has and expect anything but disaster. It’s been clear since his early days in office, if not even before his election. When he made his comment to Joe the Plumber about spreading wealth around, Joe heard his comments through the filter of common sense, knew that was bad for him and anyone else who would create American jobs by simply pursuing his own best self-interest. A boot to the throat of job creators, a wrench to the neck of a plumber or a nail to the neck of a contractor is no strategy for economic health.

Spending $3.4 million on a turtle crossing, nearly a half million designing video games for senior citizens, nearly one million dollars to develop “machine generated humor”, waste sold as “stimulus” destroys real jobs, does not create them. Federal money sent to states and municipalities which are massively over-leveraged only postpones the inevitable, doesn’t force needed downsizing and reprioritizing, puts current taxpayers – and future generations – on the hook for more and more staggering debt sums. Resulting unease, curtailed spending and layoffs should not be unexpected. On Main Street, they surely are not. Those symptoms, those realities are now what they see, what they are experiencing first hand.

Today, June 29, a consumer confidence number was reported to have plummeted nearly 16% in one month. While the figure was yet again “unexpected”, the experts and financial gurus’ reaction now comes off like clockwork. Pity the people who attended Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and paid tremendous sums to have their heads filled with idiotic notions of Keynesian economics, to have what is true and obvious replaced with what is false, contrived, and silly. Their track record spottier than the worst weather forecaster, their jobs still, seemingly, just as secure, these well educated “experts” plug on to be surprised another day. The education most Americans have received via owning their own business, by simply existing in society and seeing in themselves, their friends and neighbors what motivates and what discourages is knowledge obtained by doing, not lecturing or reading from a teleprompter. Many things in life may be complex, this is not.

Americans across the country have been participating in tea party events and marches over the past year to protest massive government spending, legislation such as the healthcare bill, cap and trade, ‘card check’ and others they know are contrary to a growing economy, a vibrant society with a bright future. They know that every dollar spent by government is one removed from the private sector where it was created. They understand such uncontrolled spending leads to more taxation and at best stagnation of the national economy, and potentially catastrophe.

The common sense of the average American -- novice they may be – those people understand things because they react and deal with them every day. They do not find any of this to be unexpected. Nor, the developing disaster such policies naturally lead us to.

Obama Presidency Decaying, Drawing Flies

The June 22 photo on the homepage of the Drudge Report was at first comical, especially when accompanied with the headline: Lord of the Flies.

But after the humor had run its course, perhaps it was sad symbolism for much that is happening with this administration, its impact on our country.

The faith placed in this man and his team is now dwindling by the day. Our outlook for the future getting dimmer. More and more Americans, going about their lives, caring for their families, are beginning to realize it. That tradition of handing off a better America to future generations than you inherited from those before you, impossible.

Remember the 2008 campaign? We were told Obama’s words and ideas were so lofty, so new and different from any other candidate who’d ever run for any office anywhere, people were fainting in the aisles. “Get that person some water!” the patron saint of gullible would order from the stage. “Give them some room”.

But why wouldn’t they faint, have trouble breathing? They were in the company of someone who promised to lower the sea levels, heal the planet, lollipops, unicorns, tooth fairy money under every pillow and income redistribution. Oh, wait, yeah, that last part, when it was allowed on the scene, as with the Joe Wurzelbacher (Joe the Plumber) interaction, that was for real. Just never part of teleprompter approved scripting. The truth was something for voters to later witness first hand, not what would place you in the seat of power, lead to spontaneous fainting on the campaign trail.

Obama won the 2008 election by only a few percentage points, but nearly double the electoral votes. As he came into office in January 2009, his approval numbers were among the highest in history for a new President. Even many Americans who didn’t vote for him were prepared to give him a chance. Pundits of all political stripes were not simply on the Obama pep squad, but still getting thrills up their legs, reassuring us that Obama was exactly who we needed, when we needed him. And all of that continued on long past its natural, realistic shelf life for many of us.

Today?

The bloom is not only off the rose, we’ve got a decaying piece of matter unrecognizable to its previous form, starting to attract flies. The list of outrages and policy, relationship implosions so numerous, they become difficult to list, but here are a few:

• The Obama-appointed general who leads our troops in Afghanistan, the only war – Iraq and ‘the war on terror’ being the other two – Obama has claimed is important, was shown in comments to Rolling Stone magazine to question not only the competence of those around Obama, but of Obama himself. He described a Commander-in-Chief uncomfortable and unsure around military leaders at first meeting.

• As one of the worst disasters to the environment in United States history continues with little success in halting it, Obama and those he’s placed in charge actually stand in the way of possible remedies, rather than exploring each and every opportunity to halt the spill and clean up its expanding footprint. Obama then – not allowing a crisis to go to waste – moves for a six month moratorium on all deep water drilling. When a judge in Louisiana overturns the moratorium, the Obama team announce they will fight it. Obama told one interviewer it was useless to speak with British Petroleum executives just days before he summoned them to The White House for, what one congressman called the day after, a $20 billion “shakedown”.

• After a rancher in southern Arizona is killed by a Mexican national who’s entered the country illegally, the elected representatives of that state approve a new law which merely allows law officers, in the normal conduction of their duties, to ask for proof of citizenship if there is any suspicion they are not. Again, that is ONLY if they have been stopped for some other infraction. The law specifically states racial profiling is not allowed. Members of the Obama administration, including Attorney General Eric Holder and former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano denounce the law, but admit they have not read it. Obama and company, we are told, are preparing to file suit against the state to overturn the law.

• In New York City, never known as a hotbed of political conservatives, residents turned out in big numbers to protest a justice department plan to try current Guantanamo detainees in civilian courts in New York City just miles from the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and costing the city hundreds of millions in increased security. On May 1 a Muslim American attempted to blow up an SUV in Times Square. Though it was an observant street vendor and quick acting New York City policeman who foiled the effort and led to the bomber’s arrest, the Obama administration claimed the system worked.

• Then there is Obamacare. Americans, many of whom had surely never demonstrated before, took to the streets to protest a nearly year long effort to nationalize the United States healthcare system. Protesters, already mad about insane government spending, contended such an effort would eliminate innovation, force rationing while increasing costs. During the State of the Union, as Obama claimed those in the country illegally would not be included, one lone congressman, overcome with the same high emotions as so many others, yelled out for all to hear: You Lie!

There is much to be concerned with now in America, and very little reason to think those in charge will do anything but exploit issues and problems to enact their agenda. A fly upon the chin of the most powerful man in the world may be at first humorous, but the sad, uneasy feelings and thoughts which follow are surely not.

Rules for New Radicals

Barack Obama and his administration surely came into power as Saul Alinsky’s radical dream team. Now that they’ve been purposefully deconstructing the country for over a year and a half – from our financial system to our relationships with allies to our very way of life – their brand of anti-Americanism, idiotic as it is, would have to be said to be mainstream. He is, after all, the President.

The “new radicals” are those of us who prize freedom and opportunity, the Constitution, America itself. While we may be the new radicals, I thought we might need to adjust Alinsky’s rules a bit to fit our own more traditional brand of radicalism.

Alinsky & Obama Rule 1: Power is not only what you have, but what an opponent thinks you have. If your organization is small, hide your numbers in the dark and raise a din that will make everyone think you have many more people than you do.

New Radical Rule 1: Power needs to return to the individual. The people we send to Washington, we actually expect you to represent our desires for the country. We do not appreciate your form letters back to us oblivious to any concerns or stated issues we addressed, your efforts to avoid us, your snippy staff when we call. We do not appreciate you saying one thing when you’re running for office, then doing something very different once you are there. Our organization is large, growing. You might call us the freedom-loving citizens of the United States of America. We include more Americans every day; and, we plan to take our country back.

Alinsky & Obama Rule 2: Never go outside the experience of your people. The result is confusion, fear, and retreat.

New Radical Rule 2: Never hire an ANTI-American to do anything you wish to be done well on behalf of the country. Oh, and associations, things people say BEFORE they run for an office, yeah, those things really DO matter. If a candidate has to get all of his words from a teleprompter, you should pay that much more attention to the ones he utters when there’s no teleprompter around. Those unscripted moments are telling. It might also be nice if candidates have some real-life experience . . . have managed something, have done something (SOMETHING!) in the private sector and don’t think government employees are preferable to those in the private sector, that money grows on trees, understands that the money government has ultimately comes from these people we call tax payers and they do this thing they call going to work to EARN that money. It’s their money, and they intend to have more say again in how it is spent. Hiring people who have no real experience will, without question, lead to confusion, fear, and retreat.

Alinsky & Obama Rule 3: Whenever possible, go outside the experience of an opponent. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.

New Radical Rule 3: First, us new radicals, well, we think you idiots have sort of used this one on yourself. If you want a group who’s gone outside their experience, voila! Thanks for the demonstration. For us new radicals, experience, skills, talents, knowledge . . . all highly regarded. Hire people who have done something, achieved something, whose talents include more than clear articulation of points being fed to you via a teleprompter. If someone has run a business, made a payroll, not always existed within the distorted and warped world of politics and government ‘service’, we think that’s a damned good start. The result here is to NOT have confusion, fear, retreat. The desired result here is a strong, vibrant country and an even stronger, more vibrant one for generations to come. We had others before us who desired this for us; it’s time we start repaying the favor.

Obama and Alinksy Rule 4: Make opponents live up to their own book of rules. “You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.”

New Radical Rule 4: HAVE a book of rules, and, yes, make every attempt to play by them, govern by them. Rules and laws, to us new radicals, those are the framework of a productive, fair society. We do not consider them tools to be used arbitrarily, we do not make them up as we go along. And yes, sometimes we may fail, no one is perfect. When we do, we understand there may well be repercussions. We understand that will make our next attempt better. Trophies shouldn’t be handed out for participation. We appreciate and desire excellence. We want it! We also understand that much of the foundation for the laws in this country came from Christian teachings. We’re good with that. We think they’ve served us quite well. It’s nice to have ideals to aspire to, whether we reach them all or not.

Obama and Alinsky Rule 5: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.

New Radical Rule 5: If ridicule is good, healthy and productive criticism, sign us up. But we do not use it for simple political advantage, we use it to make a point, to promote positive change the next time around. “Ridicule” as used by the old radicals sounds like two children squabbling in the school yard. Perhaps it helps to move from ‘ridicule’ to productive criticism when you do not have leaders who govern like spoiled, malicious children interested in their own desires, what may benefit them and their power, and not what is truly in the best interest of the country. And if that sounds like ridicule, fine. Accuracy and truth can sometimes sting. Call it what you want.

Obama and Alinsky Rule 6: A good tactic is one your people enjoy. “If your people aren’t having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.”

New Radical Rule 6: We consider good “tactics” to be the rule of law, the American flag, freedom, liberty, truth, opportunity, equality. If you people weren’t so caught up in tactics, maybe you wouldn’t be so silly, malicious, and have such a warped view on all that is great and good about this country.

Obama and Alinsky Rule 7: A tactic that drags on for too long becomes a drag. Commitment may become ritualistic as people turn to other issues.

New Radical Rule 7: So far, the ‘drag’ on things is YOU. We intend to change that. Next rule, please.

Obama and Alinsky Rule 8: Keep the pressure on. Use different tactics and actions and use all events of the period for your purpose. “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this that will cause the opposition to react to your advantage.”

New Radical Rule 8: You people are just sad. What the hell happened to you in your childhood to make you so warped, to give you such a distorted, sad and pathetic view on what inspires so many millions . . . billions around the globe . . . keeps long lines in the cue to get into this country, keeps others flowing illegally over our borders? Our rule is this: DO WHAT IS IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE COUNTRY, ITS CITIZENS. That is to everyone’s advantage. Even your’s.

Obama and Alinsky Rule 9: The threat is more terrifying than the thing itself. When Alinsky leaked word that large numbers of poor people were going to tie up the washrooms of O’Hare Airport, Chicago city authorities quickly agreed to act on a longstanding commitment to a ghetto organization. They imagined the mayhem as thousands of passengers poured off airplanes to discover every washroom occupied. Then they imagined the international embarrassment and the damage to the city’s reputation.

New Radical Rule 9: November 2010. We’re now watching every move you make. November 2012. Or, maybe an early out via impeachment. How are those for threats? Though, we just consider them action items, checked off as completed.

Obama & Alinsky Rule 10: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. Avoid being trapped by an opponent or an interviewer who says, “Okay, what would you do?”

New Radical Rule 10: We don’t mind direct questions. We’re happy to tell you exactly what we would do. We can do that because, in a bizarre twist of reality, it’s what is in the best interest of the country, desired by a majority of its citizens. You’re going to be hearing a lot more of it. Count on it.

New Radical Rule 11: Never double cross proud, freedom-loving Americans.