Many conservatives had a reasonably good idea what candidate Barack Obama meant with promise to “fundamentally transform the United States of America.” Students of the actual history of the left knew more exactly what he had in mind. What we did not know was how far or how fast the transformation would travel and, from our current vantage point, how much farther it might go.
Conventional wisdom would hold that a President with low approval ratings, opposition in the House, and scandals pending would slow down, reevaluate; that he would look for some common ground. Conventional wisdom does not apply to this President.
The transformation, so far, has resulted in a stagnant economy chugging along at 1.9% GDP growth. You don’t need a degree in economics to surmise that debt, deficits, printing money absent backing, and severe trade deficits may be transformational but not in a positive way. Presidential budgets consistently call for more of the same on all fronts (i.e. more transformation). If the President’s budgets are any indication, the transformation requires financial collapse.
Again, absent that economics degree, your local news outlet will tell you that every week, north of 300,000 people file first-time claims for unemployment. They also tell you that, on average, 150,000 jobs a month are created. $1.2 million a month verses 150,000: That’s simple, transformational math. Only 40% of Americans approve of the President’s handling of the economy but it doesn’t matter to the President. His agenda is not about the economy but about the transformation.
Socially, the transformation has greased the slippery slope. No sooner do states codify gay marriage than multiple marriage hits the agenda. What’s next, marrying a house pet? As we eliminate “don’t ask, don’t tell” for gay soldiers, the next demand is for transgender equality in the military, whatever that is. Our liberal friends mock any mention of a slippery slope, but the truth is it is exactly what they need and demand. The President has been there for them.
The attack on religious liberty is critical to the Progressive transformational path. Reliance on God, the ethics of religious teaching, and a community of faith inhibit reliance on government. The very idea of a higher power is anathema. Our supposedly Christian president does not spend a lot of time with the faith community, unless you count Al Sharpton. Obamacare attacks religious liberty, the President’s allies in the Muslim community attack it for anyone who is not Muslim, and liberals of all stripes denigrate the very idea of religious faith as a foundation for guiding principles.
Eroding American faith in Constitutional protections must also factor into our transformation. For the first time, the Supreme Court was attacked publically by a sitting President in a State of The Union message. The IRS and in some cases up to four sister agencies attacked the political speech of individual American citizens. At their most fundamental level, your rights come from the government. It is up to government to dictate which of them you may have, when, and under what circumstances. Those circumstances include a President’s unilateral decision how how laws are applied and enforced — and when they can be ignored. With each incursion, the next becomes easier: immigration, ObamaCare, IRS, Fast and Furious.
The transformation demands a compliant media. Enough said.
The transformation is dependent upon redistribution of wealth occurring on multiple levels simultaneously and must be the subject of constant pressure. the transformation relies on everything from the U.N. climate agenda to taxing the rich to the classic model of fascist corporatism all applied at the same time and all unrelenting. Bread and circuses for a mere majority and you’re nearly there.
The population must be inculcated to a “new normal”: Food inflation, $3.75-a-gallon gasoline, a disappearing middle class, job growth insufficient to keep pace with population growth, and growing dependence. There are no big ideas to address any of it because we don’t want to solve it. This is all a requirement of the transformation. The transformation requires a new mind set, a new attitude; you will obey!
Dissent must be minimized, attacked, derided and potentially punished. Facts are fungible and fall prey to the rhetoric of the moment. Personal attacks on individuals from the Oval Office and legislative leaders are what we now allow to pass for leadership. You must be made wary, you must wonder if what you think and say or write can be intruded upon by the machinery of government, listened to, read, and potentially used against you. The transformation requires that men of good faith consider consequences to a degree heretofore unseen.
The bureaucracy must be empowered beyond the law for the transformation to reach its full flowering. Questionable judgments by the EPA, FBI, Homeland Security, OSHA, NSA, and Education and Interior Departments all extend the reach of government and result in a new definition of property rights and must by definition limit individual liberty. The bureaucracy is critical because you must be left with the feeling that that you are being overwhelmed. I know that’s how I feel.
The rule of law must be replaced by men. An Attorney General under a contempt citation from Congress matters not at all. Tortured regulatory interpretation becomes the order of the day. Federal employees involved in scandal may not be touched. Witnesses from Benghazi are hidden, all surrounded by a cascade of untruth that evolves as facts disprove the last iteration of the “story”. No problem our “men” will create a new story. The media, by way of omission and commission, comply!
Convoluted logic must become the norm. Mike Morell captures this week’s award for twisted logic as he testified about Benghazi. “Inflamed Islamists, who have brutally attacked the Benghazi Consulate, must not be called Islamists in the talking points because they will become inflamed!”
Your health care must become a decision not based on you and your doctor, but on some interpretation of the greater good. You may need that hip replacement, but what you get is a lifetime supply of pain pills. Eighty years old with heart problems? Too bad you’re not worth the investment in the surgery because the death panel has decided that your use to society is limited by your age. (Wait a minute isn’t age discrimination illegal?) Your health care options are now limited by a central government incapable of even the most fundamental efficiencies and accountabilities. This week’s waste and fraud winner: five billion dollars missing from the State Department.
The bottom line here is that the “transformation” is occurring at a pace heretofore unseen in recent political history and unanticipated by most. For the average person it is simply impossible to keep up. And that, my friends, was the entire idea.
