Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
Interesting piece with this title by Michael Medved on the WSJ op-ed page today (and free online at the link. He takes a slap at comments by Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and others that suggest President Obama is purposely doing damage to the country:
"None of the attacks on Mr. Obama's intentions offers an even vaguely plausible explanation of how the evil genius, once he has ruined our "strength, influence and standard of living," hopes to get himself re-elected. In a sense, the president's most paranoid critics pay him a perverse compliment in maintaining that his idealism burns with such pure, all-consuming heat that he remains blissfully unconcerned with minor matters like his electoral future. They label Mr. Obama as the political equivalent of a suicide bomber: so overcome with hatred (or "rage") that he's perfectly willing to blow himself up in order to inflict casualties on a society he loathes."
Medved's point is two-fold. One: it ain't true that Obama is out to get us. And two: it's bad politics for conservatives to say he is, as it alienates the rest of the country.
In truth, as much as I love El Rushbo, I've had qualms about his take on this from the beginning. I don't think Barack Obama is purposely trying to harm America, but I do think it's possible that he thinks it will be somehow better for America to be a European socialist country, weaker in the world, settling for less but "more just" in the sense that instead of a wide range of economic classes, there'll only be him and his powerful ilk at the top - and the rest of us below. I think he's a man who has risen to the top in the grip of a bad and destructive ideology--and that, at this point, it's too late for him to learn from real life experience that it's all terribly mistaken.
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Oct '10
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
I love your writing but I disagree with you on this point. Aspiring to lower our standards as well as lowering the expectations of achievement in this country is doing great harm. I cannot begin to understand his motives because I have no experience in that type of thinking. I was raised to believe that the American dream depends on individual achievement outside of governmental control. I am reminded of late night college discussions, where we sat around convincing each other that we were so much smarter than the "adults", everytime I hear this man pontificate. Fortunately, most of us grew up, apparently, he has not.
Sep '10
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
Let me just say that many, many anti-capitalists elected Obama, and he is one of them.
Disagreeing with you any more strongly would of course violate the exalted Code of Conduct, since doing so would, of course, make me sound like a crazy loon.
Oct '10
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
Jul '10
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
I have one question for Michael Medved regarding this subject...
"If Barack Obama were in fact 'Out To Get Us,' given the limits of the Office of the President, what whould he be doing differently?
Dec '10
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
It looks like that old liberty/equality trade off. Obama is simply very much for the equality side. It is so important to him that the concept of the balancing act never enters his mind.
Jul '10
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
Andrew Klavan: Interesting piece with this title by Michael Medved on the WSJ op-ed page today (and free online at the link.
Medved's point is two-fold. One: it ain't true that Obama is out to get us, but I do think it's possible that he thinks it will be somehow better for America to be a European socialist country, weaker in the world, settling for less but "more just" in the sense that instead of a wide range of economic classes, there'll only be him and his powerful ilk at the top - and the rest of us below. I think he's a man who has risen to the top in the grip of a bad and destructive ideology--and that, at this point, it's too late for him to learn from real life experience that it's all terribly mistaken. ·
You say tomato, I say tomahto.
May '10
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
Obama loves his own dream of America, but hates America as it is. He's a "citizen of the world" who seeks to transform America into a more conforming member of that world community. He thinks of himself less as America's leader than as a world leader.
Thus, Obama doesn't seek to hurt America so much as to bring us to "justice" by making us play by the same socialist rules of so many other nations. And he's an egomaniac who can be played by any foreign leader or group who appeals to his pride, treating him like a vital part of world peace and justice.
Focusing on Obama's motives is helpful for anyone trying to predict his future behavior. That's what Rush is paid to do, and he has a strong track record predicting politics (though not as strong as he claims).
I agree that Obama's character should not be the public focus of Republican politicians. They should bluntly call out his lies and propose a better path. But it doesn't pay to be perceived as one of the fools who thought Obama was moderate either.
Feb '11
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
At a minimum, Obama lacks the deep affection for America and Americans that many earlier leftists...for example, George Orwell...have felt toward their countries.
Analogy: We are a large corporation with a fabled history but also with some current problems. Obama is our new CEO. He has a very low opinion of our executives, our workers, and our product line. His previous experience, ever since leaving business school, has been as a consultant, teaching theories about strategy and restructuring. He is very eager to prove these theories out in practice, and he is prepared to be quite ruthless in eliminating traditionally-successful parts of the business–and ways of doing things–in order to implement his strategic vision. But the workers, executives, and products of the corporation are not part of his emotional landscape.
Jan '11
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
I think you've put your finger on it.
And I believe we should be criticizing President Obama's actions and policies, not his character. The Left is all too ready to attribute evil motives to anyone who disagrees with them, and I think that, as well as the dreadful policies, contributed to their losses in the mid-terms; people don't like being called evil, bigoted, racist, or just plain dumb. Let's be better than that.
Oct '10
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
This sounds great, right up until you read Stanley Kurtz's Radical-In-Chief. It makes claims questioning President Obama's values and goals—that is, suggesting that they might be actively evil—considerably more credible by assiduously documenting the dramatically underreported ties that Obama has to American Socialism, including American Socialist terrorism.
Feb '11
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
I don't think there's anything at all wrong with attempting to understand Obama's character and pointing out the conclusions. If I'm going to hire someone to run something important, I'd like to understand something about what's important to him. Understanding how he feels about a particular business issue like Lean Manufacturing or Cloud Computing is important, but not sufficient.
The American people have hired Obama for a very important job, and now need to decide whether to retain him in it. This is not simply a matter of whether we agree with his opinions on, say, bank regulation or policy in Egypt; it is about understanding his overall worldview.
Feb '11
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
Another analogy for Obama's attitude toward America/Americans:
We are a young woman in a 19th-century English novel. Our personality is a bit quirky and not to everyone’s taste; however, we are good-looking by most standards, and we carry an enormous dowry.
Obama is a young gentleman of scant means who finds us pretty strange and not really to his liking, but nevertheless has wooed us fervently, knowing that once we are married he will win the admiration of his friends–we’re considered a darned good catch–and will become quite wealthy. And he’s confident that in short order he will be able to use his charm and his authority over us to change our personality into something more to his liking.
Dec '10
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
Squishy circumlocutional evasion: how much weakness is better, just a little itsy bitsy weaker, but that's all? For how much less do we settle, for just a little itsy bitsy less, but that's all?
Those who see him smile as a sphinx, poised as a lion, his inner workings illuminated as the dark side of the moon, are blind to his fundamentally transforming our country with his upright middle finger.
Our historic first Islamic apostate president subverts our way of life—in our interest?
Who gains at our loss?
Jun '10
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
Precisely. B.O. set out to "transform America" and he's doing a relatively effective job at it. He is intentionally transforming. But that transformation is harmful. Is he therefore intentionally harming? Objectively yes, but probably not in terms of the way B.O. sees it.
Edited on Feb 14, 2011 at 9:47amJul '10
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
Michael Medved? The guy who endorsed John McCain in the 2008 primaries and coined the clever term "loosertarians"?
He still has a career?
Huh.
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
david foster: Another analogy for Obama's attitude toward America/Americans:
We are a young woman in a 19th-century English novel. Our personality is a bit quirky and not to everyone’s taste; however, we are good-looking by most standards, and we carry an enormous dowry.
I like this analogy. But I also agree with Drew Klavan -- I honestly think Obama sees himself as a kind of missionary, a man whose job it is to transform and improve American society. We're the tribespeople; he and Michelle are the know-it-all missionaries. That's why everything to them is a "teaching moment."
I'm not worried about people who are out to do us harm. I'm worried about people who are out to "improve" us. Which kind of theft is the most insidious: a guy with bad intent who robs your house, or a government trying to improve your life that taxes you into submission?
Dec '10
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
This is semantics and pure politics. Much, much worse was said about GWB.
It's a variation on the "wanting Obama to fail" meme. It's a variation on the "best of intentions" theme. It's the "let's make Obama a victim" game.
The statement is essentially meaningless. It's touchy-feely, he's not really a bad guy psycho-babble.
To make the point using a sledge hammer....Lenin wasn't trying to hurt Russia. He had the best of intentions. Obama is no Lenin, but the fact is Lenin was not trying to hurt Russia, nor was Attlee trying to hurt Great Britain, etc. These statements are meaningless.
However, Obama is deliberately demonizing his enemies. Examples abound. And he is doing things that hurt the people he thinks are standing in his way and obstructing his noble agenda to remake America into a just collectivist socialist society. In some cases he may think the hurt is deserved, but hurting solely for the purpose of punishing is not his objective. It is a means to his ends. But IMO a difference without a difference.
Sep '10
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
This debate seems to center on a distinction without a difference. If the president's philosophy is such that it seeks to undo that which has made Americans who we are, then it is an attempt to destroy, just not in an overtly destructive way. That it derives out of a personal belief that he knows better than we do what's good for us—surely this is obvious on its face—shows it to be nothing short of a power grab, however his critics describe it.
Oct '10
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
At the end of the day, Obama does present best in the missionary role.
Believe and you will be better day by day until you are saved..
Missionaries are not practical or realistic thinkers .
Dec '10
Re: Obama Isn't Trying to Hurt America
Andrew Klavan:
Medved's point is two-fold. One: it ain't true that Obama is out to get us. And two: it's bad politics for conservatives to say he is, as it alienates the rest of the country.
"Judge, I was never at the scene of the crime. But if I was there, I didn't participate. But if I did participate, it was against my will. But if it wasn't, I'm sorry."
We know the following: People that Obama respects and has allied himself with do want to ruin the country. I bring out as evidence: Ayers, Dohrn, Cloward, Piven, J. Wright, Khalidi. I think it is beyond question to say that those people and many others are those who, in Alfred Pennyworth's words "just want to see the world burn."
At the very least, they want to burn America in order to save it. In the radical's mind, if the phoenix isn't perfect, it's because there wasn't enough flame.
Barack Obama is a passive-aggressive man who is seething with rage and bent on vengeance. You can see it in much smaller matters than budgets and foreign affairs.