Tired Battles?

By Mr. Curmudgeon

“Rather than fight the same tired battles that have dominated Washington for decades, it’s time for something new,” said President Obama in his State of the Union address. “Let’s try common sense. Let’s invest in our people without leaving them a mountain of debt. Let’s meet our responsibility to the people who sent us here.” The president, of course, is wrong. The “tired battles” Obama refers to are confrontations that have raged on this continent for over two hundred years – many on real battlefields. The president’s words are an attempt to normalize the abnormal and destructive drive of his party to impoverish our country and thereby destroy our freedoms. His speech was also an attempt to disarm the army of his discontented countrymen who muster to fight the “tired battles” with the president and his party this election year. In this regard, his speech was a failure. The slow death of his health care program is just the first of many battles to come. Alexis de Tocqueville said, “The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.” The election of Scott Brown was one such repair.

In what must have been music to the Tea Party’s ears the president insisted Congress press ahead with ObamaCare. “As temperatures cool, I want everyone to take another look at the plan we've proposed.” The anger, Mr. President, will grow stronger as you and your party continues ignoring America’s objection to government-run health care. Many more Americans prefer the status quo to ObamaCare, which was built on a foundation of bribery and back room deals.

Then the president spoke directly to Tea Party conservatives. “From some on the right, I expect we'll hear a different argument – that if we just make fewer investments in our people, extend tax cuts for wealthier Americans, eliminate more regulations, and maintain the status quo on health care, our deficits will go away. The problem is, that's what we did for eight years.” The president’s clumsy attempt to lump Tea Party conservatives together with “compassionate conservative” George W. Bush won’t wash. The formation of the Tea Party was a repudiation of Democrat-Lite “compassionate conservatism.” In fact, many bipartisan Republicans face uphill battles this election year for their complicity in leading the country down its current ruinous path.

Then Obama addressed the disaffected voters of Massachusetts and Scott Brown, the 41st no-vote on ObamaCare. “Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it's not leadership.” And with this short statement, the president got the heart of the “tired battles” he alluded to earlier in his speech. It is Obama the community organizer’s belief that the coercive power of the state is the great perpetual motion machine of economic and social evolution. Like the great utopians of history, Obama never stops to consider the lives and liberties of those crushed under the weight of that behemoth machine. His utopian definition of “leadership” makes him deaf to the will of the people if it subverts his narrow and dangerous will to power. Just saying no to Martha Coakely in Massachusetts led to Scott Brown saying no to ObamaCare. Saying no to an army of Martha Coakely’s standing for re-election will add a full-throated no chorus to the president’s brand of leadership. In 2012, the hope is that a free people will say no to being organized by saying no to the organizer himself.