Monday, February 2, 2009

Why Obama Cannot Succeed

And Hope filled the hearts of the American people. A Hope for a Change from whatever it was that they decided they would hate. And so did the American people elect their great hopeful savior. But little did they understand that the one unto which they projected their own visions of the future was but a blank slate, and rose to power by assimilating the collective views of the many, without ever once setting forth his own. He united all of his followers in a massive projection of hatred against his former, and so he was elected as the future.

It seems to be almost a law of human nature that it is easier for people to agree on a negative program - on the hatred of the enemy, on the envy of those better off - than on any positive task. The constrast between the "we" and the "they," the common fight against those outside the group, seems to be an essential ingredient in any creed which will solidly knit together a group for common action. It is consequently always employed by those who seek, not merely support of a policy, but the unreserved allegiance of huge masses. From their point of view it has the great advantage of leaving them greater freedom of actionthan almost any positive program. The enemy, whether he be internal, like the "Jew" or the "kulak," or external, seems to be an indispensable requisite in the armory of a totalitarian leader.
--F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
But what happens when the enemy no longer exists?

Those that hated Bush for his torturing and potentially illegal detaining of dangerous terrorists as a violation of their "rights" are finding themselves in a quandry. He's signed the order to close Guantanamo Bay, but he's expanded rendition. How will they continue to support him as he cheats their sensibilities? How can Obama be considered better than, or even different from Bush in their minds as long as he continues to carry out what they consider to be morally repugnant? Will they rationalize his actions, or will they turn on him? Eventually, my money is on the latter.

Those that hated Bush for his foreign policy and subsequent perceived cronyism in government yearned to cast aside the "politics of fear" and the "failed policies of the past." How long will it take the supporters that projected these hatreds to realize that Obama's exploitation of the current "economic crisis" is nothing more than the "politics of fear." The goose is a different shade of grey, but it remains a goose. How long will people be able to turn a blind eye to the reality that we have yet, as a country, to even bother to examine smaller government as a solution to our economic situation? Obama and his supporters suggest we have seen the policies of deregulation fail. How long will it take before anyone will acknowledge that while our government may have made poor deregulatory choices, government involvement and regulation have increased? Will they understand that bigger government is the problem, and can never be the solution? When they do, will they rationalize, or will they turn? Again, I'll put my money on the latter.

How long will Obama's supporters who wanted a President whose word they could believe, watch him declare an end to lobbyists in government, only to sign 17 waivers on the policy in eight short days? Will they rationalize, ad infinitum, his lying, or will they turn? Dollars to donuts on the latter.

When we strip away the myriads of interest groups that each projected their values onto a blank slate, who find themselves betrayed by a President who made them only empty promises, what will we find that Obama leans on as his unifying enemy?

The answer is simple: Wall Street.

Make no mistake here. Barack Obama is a socialist all the way down to the bones. He made this entirely evident in his comments about the recent reports of bonuses issued to Wall Street employees, when he denounced these profitable companies, whether they had received bailout monies or not, as shameful, deriding them for making a profit in a time of "crisis." As Patriot Girl pointed out:
I still think that the likes of Obama, Pelosi and Reid are truly against businesses making profits. It's not just that they might skirt the corporate taxes by giving out part of their profits as bonuses. But the concept of anyone profiting in this horrific economic situation is dirty in their view. Socialists don't understand how jobs are created and how rewarding work stimulates an economy. Profits to them is a dirty word which means the Rich are taking away from the Poor. Taxing profit is an expression of that disdain.
Obama will fall upon the tactic of class-warfare in his attempts to turn this country as far to the left as he possibly can, as quickly as he possibly can. What he will ultimately fail or refuse to realize, as will any socialist, is the truth of the matter:
There is, in a competitive society, nobody who can exercise even a fraction of the power which a socialist planning board would possess, and if nobody can consciously use the power, it is just an abuse of words to assert that it rests with all the capitalists put together.
--F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
We have seen the President begin his socialist, collectivist style campaigning against capitalism, against what has always been the American Way. He has campaigned against it as "the failed policies of the past" without recognizing that his own ideals find in their own history, a battlefield riddled with the skeletons of failed opportunity: the USSR, Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany; while our own experiment in democracy, economic and political freedom has shone as a beacon of greatness in the history of the world.

So why do I so boldly state, not that I feel he will not succeed, but that he simply cannot succeed? The answer is simple.

Once he has betrayed the multiple collectives that have latched onto him, once those collectives understand that he does not represent their values, that he cannot or will not fulfill their wishes, and he can no longer unite his followers against a common negative (Bush), he will necessarily attempt to focus his rhetoric fully against Wall Street, and subsequently the American Businessman in general. He will attempt to turn the "failed political policies of the past" into the "failed business practices of the past" in an attempt to garner some sort of majority socialist support, despite that business has not been the failure, but that government has been.

The American Businessman is the heart that pumps the blood of the economy, subsequently the government, and therefore is the engine of the country. Deep inside, every American knows this to be true. Deep inside, every American knows he or she is a particle of the engine that makes our country great. Deep inside, the American people will understand that it is each and every one of them, individually, that is subject of the attack at the core.

Americans will not long tolerate a man who continues to deride each and every one of them as the reason for a failure that does not exist.

4 comments:

  1. Very nice post. Unfortunately I'm not sure that Ican agree that

    "Deep inside, every American knows this to be true. Deep inside, every American knows he or she is a particle of the engine that makes our country great."

    I have far to many who are full of class envy and hatred of "big" business. Most of these folks are highly educated and have never run a business of any sort.

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  2. Yours is a common observation, I think. The biggest thing to realize about such people as you mention is that they are, and have been their entire lives, followers, and have followed what has been put before them. Therefore, though it may take time, they have only to be presented with the opposite, and forced to understand, absorb and digest it. The followers will see the light, and begin to think in terms of reason, rather than as they have thus far. The few left that are truly anti-capilalist and truly believe in a socialist utopia will be left to their own devices to rot without their followers around them.

    We need only to be persistent and stallwart in ourselves and our ideals, and have ego enough to confront them and change their minds.

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  3. Question: How long do you think Democrat voters will put up with Obama's empty promises? If this round-up of other Democrats' "honest mistakes" (http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2009/02/03/opinion/395479.txt) is any indication, I would say Obama will make it to a second term.

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  4. To me that depends on how long it takes us to make them realize they're not really Democrats. Slowly but surely we will turn them. Reason will prevail. We need only to be persistent.

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