http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/03/24/george-jonas-ruining-america-coolly-calmly-and-collectedly.aspx
George Jonas: Ruining America — coolly, calmly and collectedly
Posted: March 24, 2010, 8:00 AM by NP Editor
Gorge Jonas
The historic day came and went. America’s charismatic President signed the health-care reform bill; the Vice-President kissed his boss’s posterior for succeeding where others failed, then quoted Virgil, calling him a Greek poet. Unlike a predecessor, however, he stopped short of misspelling “potatoes.”
The United States is much too big for one man to trash, but Barack “Yes, we can” Obama and his entourage are giving it a try. They’re making progress. Peace is already more elusive and security less certain for America and its allies than it was before Obama took office 15 months ago. His two-pronged foreign policy of sucking up to America’s enemies and putting down America’s friends is bearing fruit: Iran openly shows its contempt by redoubling its nuclear efforts and the Taliban has stepped up its outrages in Afghanistan. America’s friends are dismayed, and it’s just a matter of time before one or the other reminds America’s President of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s dictum that the only way to have a friend is to be one.
Ruining America at home is a more daunting task, even for Obama. Geography, coupled with traditions of individualism and enterprise, have made the land so wealthy, resilient and resourceful that even a $940-billion bill of compulsion — Americans will have to buy medical insurance by law — is unlikely to bankrupt it, though added to other measures to “stimulate” America’s economy, it might. The bill that Obama managed to con, charm, bully, cajole and finally squeak through the House of Representatives last Sunday — the vote was 219-212 — achieved something else, too: at least 14 lawsuits launched by states attorneys-general who consider the law unconstitutional.
Obama’s domestic policy of emulating various tried-and-failed models of interventionist government, from European-style socialism to regulatory despotism, has conjured up a multi-trillion dollar deficit, unemployment persisting at 10%, infestations of red tape worms and a general lack of confidence. It fits the style of “No Drama Obama” as a cool, calm, collected way of driving a country into the ground.
Does Obama want to drive America into the ground? I doubt it. Obama wants to be the president of a successful nation, not a failed one. Unfortunately, he seems to believe that the yellow brick road to success for America leads through a happy valley shrouded in what Tom Wolfe once described as a “quasi-Marxist fog.” He isn’t the only American (or Canadian) to be mired in this bizarre meteorological condition — obviously, for if he were alone, he couldn’t get elected. A lot of people wander about in a clammy, quasi-Marxist mist, aggravated by patches of Maoist or Marcusian miasma, dispensed by great academic obscurator-machines installed at most Western institutions of higher learning from Harvard to the Sorbonne. Occasionally these infected souls emerge from the haze, step into a polling booth and vote for one another. I’d describe them as dangerous, even deadly, but without malice. They mean well.
Obama means well, too. Of course, he’s ambitious and egotistical; he wouldn’t be a politician if he wasn’t, but when I wrote in 2008 that Obama’s platform of “change” merely meant he wanted to change from senator to president, I short-changed him. When Obama said “change” he meant it. He wanted to change America.
Obama is a patriot.
Samuel Johnson called patriotism the last refuge of the scoundrel, and no doubt it is, but patriotism is a mansion with many rooms and it also shelters genuine patriots who don’t just want to change their own status but think that by changing, say, an American-style free-enterprise democracy into a European-style social democracy, they’ll change their country for the better.
I think they’re mistaken, but what I think carries no weight. U.S. presidents endanger Canadians almost as much as they endanger Americans, but Canadians can’t defend themselves against American presidents at the polls. Fortunately, many Americans see Obama as I see him, giving rise to the “Tea Party” movement of popular opposition. Less fortunately, the clash is introducing a new tone of bitterness into American politics that I could do without.
“America has just witnessed an unconscionable abuse of power,” said Mitt Romney, the man to beat for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. He spoke a day after Obama’s health bill squeaked through. “It is a historic usurpation of the legislative process. [The President] unleashed the nuclear option, enlisted not a single Republican vote in either chamber, bribed reluctant members of his own party, paid off his union backers, scapegoated insurers and justified his act with patently fraudulent accounting ...
“For these reasons and more, the act should be repealed. That campaign begins today.”
Republicans, even under their current not-very-inspired leadership, stand poised to win several seats in both the Congress and the Senate in November’s mid-term elections. Opposition to Obama and Obamism is a rising tide and it’s lifting many boats. I suggest that between now and 2012 something is likely to give: Either the Obama presidency or a free, prosperous America. The country isn’t big enough for both.
National Post
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the canadians weigh in....
the canadians weigh in....
Jimmy stole the last paragraph for his FB status...and didn't credit the writer...tsk tsk. 
Interesting article...thanks Rad!
Interesting article...thanks Rad!
Okay, let's try this!
the canadians weigh in....
Oh so now the Canadians have something to say? Day late and a couple of trillion short to be part of this party.
Can I borrow your towel? My car just hit a water buffalo.
the canadians weigh in....
This Canadian student called into Andrew Wilkows show today saying that Canadians are free and the health care and educational systems are great, etc. Where was he calling from? And American university in NY that he was going to...okaaaaay. It was sort of funny actually.
Okay, let's try this!