The Hooligans of Hope and Change
Who among us, watching hollow-eyed hooligans destroy everything in their pathetic path in London, isn't enraged and alarmed? Who among us has heard their idiotic, incoherent, semi-savage justification that, "We're showing the rich that we can do what we want," and not concluded that we are witnessing not a decline, but a collapse? The barbarians never came through the gate. The west raised them inside its prosperous confines. Generation after generation, brought up to believe that plunder is a birthright and that they are entitled to the work and property of others so long as they draw breath, have finally taken the statist up on his dogma.
Personally, I don't know why these little punks aren't given Nobel prizes for economics and peace. Not only have they practiced wealth redistribution, they've eliminated the administrative overhead in the bargain. As a consolation prize, you'd think they'd at least get a polite nod from Paul Krugman for their innovation. All of those shop owners, all of those families who labored for generations in some cases, who built businesses that provided goods and services their neighbors needed and wanted, got what was coming to them. The effrontery! The sheer, insulting, ever-lasting damnable ambition of these people to improve their family's lot in life cannot go unpunished. At least that's what the redistributionists among us keep saying. As Joe Sobran once observed, "Politicians never accuse you of 'greed' for wanting other people's money --- only for wanting to keep your own money."
As a professor, Obama remarked that as radical as some people think the Warren Court was, "…It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution…" Break free? The Court didn't liberate itself from the most liberating document in the history of civilization? More to the point, he continued, "…one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was, um, because the civil rights movement became so court focused I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change." Then as President, Barack Obama picked up the bazooka of class warfare, firing blast after withering blast at pharmaceuticals, health insurers, doctors, corporate jet owners, and ordinary citizens tired of the government's chokehold on their lives.
Liberty gave way to amorphous notions of "social justice," where equality of outcome took precedence over equality of opportunity. Responsibility gave way to entitlement. Justice gave way to the sophistical rationalization of the self-aggrandizing, omnipotent state. The rule of law gave way to the whims of men. Through all of this, the Constitutional firewalls were breached by the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of government, in addition to the growing and unaccountable Administrative branch. The result is that the role of government, as understood by the Framers, has been subverted. Rather than protecting the lives, liberty and property of its citizens against foreign aggression and domestic usurpation, the government leaves them vulnerable to both by showing a weak and confused hand abroad while wielding an iron fist at home.
The result? Plunder is now enforced by the state. Innovation, excellence, entrepreneurship? Punished at every turn. And those who can't be bothered to be productive members of society? They've been watching. They've absorbed the vilification of the productive class, and they want their goodies. The only problem, as Lady Thatcher reminded us years ago, is that sooner or later the Socialist runs out of other people's money. The west is going broke thanks to this utopian nonsense, but the dependents didn't get that particular memo. Instead, to borrow from Barack Obama's own words, they've gone out and created, "… the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change." No longer content to wait for the government to plunder for them, they've brought about redistributive change on their own.
Take a bow, Mr. President. You've never been bashful before and it would be bad form to start now. Look in Wisconsin, in Philadelphia. Look at the mobs, too stupid to complete a sentence, but secure in the knowledge that they are entitled to whatever they want. Watch them beat innocent people and loot stores in our neighborhoods. This is what "Hope and Change," looks like. This is nothing less than the "fundamental transformation" of society. Do you like it so far? Because he's not finished. At his 50th birthday gala, the President said, "But the thing that we all ought to remember is that as much as good as we have done, precisely because the challenges were so daunting, precisely because we we were inheriting so many challenges, that we’re not even halfway there yet."
- Comment (14)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (3)
Comments :
Sep '10
Re: The Hooligans of Hope and Change
You made me cry. Then, I buried all of my money in the back yard except what I need for another gun.
Jun '10
Re: The Hooligans of Hope and Change
One of of the reasons the French Foreign Legion was brought into being was for situations such as this. National soldiers would often hesitate in firing on their own people, not so the Foreign Legion, most of whom were criminals looking for safe haven. In Napoleon's immortal words, "Give them a whiff of grape."
Mar '11
Re: The Hooligans of Hope and Change
Thank you, Dave.
Mar '11
Re: The Hooligans of Hope and Change
"An armed society is a polite society."
A firearm is a significant investment one makes, but prays never to have to use.
Oct '10
Re: The Hooligans of Hope and Change
Maureen Rice
"An armed society is a polite society."
A firearm is a significant investment one makes, but prays never to have to use. · Aug 11 at 8:56pm
Indeed. The British are insane, absolutely insane, for having allowed their government to take away their right bear arms.
Re: The Hooligans of Hope and Change
Mike LaRoche
Maureen Rice
"An armed society is a polite society."
A firearm is a significant investment one makes, but prays never to have to use. · Aug 11 at 8:56pm
Indeed. The British are insane, absolutely insane, for having allowed their government to take away their right bear arms. · Aug 11 at 9:00pm
Evidently, they defanged the police as well, since they went through a protracted version of the Hamlet problem when trying to decide whether or not to use water cannons. Unfortunately, many of our leaders here want us to be more like Europe, and we see how well it's all working out over there.
Nov '10
Re: The Hooligans of Hope and Change
Dave, you've always been a favorite writer of mine since you started contributing here. With this piece you've hit it out of the park.
I explain the riots in the West lately, when drawn into the usual handwringing conversations, as the natural outcome of the entitlement mentality our society has been feeding people: that one should blame one's problems on others and that one is owed something regardless of having earned it or not.
It is to this, for example, that I attribute the shameless display of mob behavior in Vancouver after the spectacular Bruins win against the Canucks in the playoffs. I'm not a big hockey fan, but like most Canadian Patriots it warms my blood a bit when enthusiasts chant the slogan "It's our game!" as if it were a matter of Canadian national pride that the East Europeans on the Vancouver team beat the Canadians on the Boston team. But this translated, for the mobs, into entitlement, and the riot was a predictable result given the winds blowing through our civilization.
My analysis, I think, was adequate, but yours, Dave, is far more complete and general. Well done!
May '10
Re: The Hooligans of Hope and Change
Dave Carter:
"Responsibility gave way to entitlement...The result? Plunder...."
In a recent conversation with a Wisconsin liberal (a vehement opponent of Governor Scott Walker) I tried to explain that the current situation is unsustainable: The welfare entitlements, ever-growing bureaucracy, lavish union benefits and stifling union work rules cause costs to endlessly increase. If budgets are not put in order now then the situation will only grow worse. Every year's delay only makes the inevitable reckoning more painful, until the logical endpoint is fiscal collapse and a long-lasting depression.
Her response? 'I don't care.'
Plunder, indeed.
Mar '11
Re: The Hooligans of Hope and Change
I dunno what's gonna happen when we no longer have Mr Obama standing between us and the pitchforks - it takes one to know them.
Aug '10
Re: The Hooligans of Hope and Change
What gives you the impression that 'Obama is standing between us an the pitchforks'?
Obama's class warfare rhetoric makes him more an enabler of our feral underclass than anything else and the Eric Holder Department of Justice takes it beyond rhetoric in its selective prosecutions and in turning a blind eye.
Sep '10
Re: The Hooligans of Hope and Change
Dave; I agree with your sentiments and characterization of Obama. I find him however not to be the real danger. He is more open about what he is trying to do and therefore less, not more dangerous. I know you realize that this has been going on for decades and would not have progressed to this point if it had been opposed by patriots who put country ahead of political careers. For the most part it has not and except for the Tea Party is not being selflessly opposed now. Things will get worse before they get better.
Apr '11
Re: The Hooligans of Hope and Change
The form UK businesses must fill out for their losses:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/8697448/The-19th-century-form-businesses-must-fill-for-claims-under-the-Riot-Damages-Act.html
Mar '11
Re: The Hooligans of Hope and Change
nordman
What gives you the impression that 'Obama is standing between us an the pitchforks'?
It was his self-proclaimed position back in the AIG fiasco, if I recall. There was a touch of irony in my post.
Apr '11
Re: The Hooligans of Hope and Change
nordman
What gives you the impression that 'Obama is standing between us an the pitchforks'?
Obama's class warfare rhetoric makes him more an enabler of our feral underclass than anything else and the Eric Holder Department of Justice takes it beyond rhetoric in its selective prosecutions and in turning a blind eye. · Aug 12 at 3:05am
Just imagine if the first and only black president is not reelected. It could be worse than Watts, MLK, and Rodney King all put together. I'm afraid the only thing that can prevent it is if O pulls an LBJ-like "I shall not seek . . ."
Ironically, Obama will still be the president when the protests start, though it will be the state governors who make the calls to the 'National' Guard.
Edited on Aug 12, 2011 at 3:52pm