Obama's failing

When Barack Obama assumed office last January, polling showed he had an approval rating of between 65 and 70 percent. Now, the “good feelings” that carried him to victory have faded away as is normal for most political officeholders, and Americans are split in their view of him. With a year of rising unemployment and continuing ideological battles over health care, Wall Street, and of course two wars, most polls show Mr. Obama at his lowest approval rating yet, about 48%. Mr. Obama’s declining popularity is having an effect on the nation’s political climate however, in that the conservative right has been steadily gaining ground after the serious drubbing they took a year ago. Essentially, the American voters, tired of wars and the Bush administration’s adoption of left wing “tax and spend” policies, took Mr. Obama’s battle cry of “Change” to heart. Unfortunately the radical left mistakenly considered their win a mandate to implement a number of far left policies including the “Obamacare” health care plan, the “Stimulus” economic plan and an equally unpopular “Cap-and-Trade” climate change proposal. So, once again the voters are rebelling. Effectively riding on Mr. Obama’s coat tails, his loss in popularity is not helping Democratic political hopefuls, and it’s already cost the Democrats their congressional supermajority.

As the pomp and circumstance fades into history, and Mr. Obama continues to loose what approval he had, we might want to remember that his decline began in a fight with American conservatives over the stimulus package. We might also remember that despite the voter turnout percentages that handed Mr. Obama the Oval Office, approximately three fifths of Americans are politically conservative to one extent or another, making them the single largest voting bloc in the country. “IF”, and I repeat “IF”, the nations conservatives will get up off the couch, get their act together, and go vote next November, they could quite easily hand the loony left (and the Democratic Party by association) the biggest defeat in political history, repudiating Americas experiment with socialism clear back to FDR’s New Deal! In that sense, activism from Fox News and the conservative Tea Party movement certainly is a good sign, as Mr. Obama's fate is tied directly to the economic reality of voters' lives. It’s all about the economy, and the economy show’s no sign of improving for the average voting age citizen. For that reason, the White House has indicated that it plans to focus on jobs and the deficit this year, hoping to claim credit as the economy comes back from last year's collapse. If the economy doesn't rebound, 2010 could be a very difficult political year for Mr. Obama, determining how much damage he’ll be able to do in the second half of his term, and whether or not he'll get a second one.

The lean toward socialism in this country makes it seem that the more of our precious liberty we lose, the less we are able to understand its value. Americans no longer remember a world in which we could be reasonably secure in our life, liberty, and property without a government invasion of our privacy at every step. Nor do people remember that nearly all of our current problems were caused by that government intervention in our lives. The problem is that the less freedom we have, the less they are willing to fight for its restoration. We’ve lived through regime after regime since the 1930s in which the word freedom has been a rhetoric principle only, and each new regime has taken away ever more freedom. Now we have a president who doesn’t even bother to pay lip service to the idea of freedom. In fact, I don’t think the concept of personal freedom has ever occurred to Mr. Obama. If it has, he must have rejected it as dangerous, unfair, unequal, irresponsible, or something along that line. To him, and many Americans, government is nothing more than an extension of the personal wishes of those in charge.

And yet the demonstrated conservative disapproval, and the creation of the Tea Party movement, has failed to spur the “mainstream” Republican Party to reconsidering their “big government – big money” course of action. Scott Brown's victory could portend an epic shakeup in November, and while that may sound far-fetched, it’s no more so than a Republican with a connection to the Tea Party movement winning Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts. A few dedicated conservatives, somewhat shakily organized, made that victory possible. They have the experience, and the knowledge, of the consequences of turning the other cheek. We have seen what happens in a world where the "few" govern the "many". And it's not going to happen here as long as we do not roll over and stay silent. There is going to be a non-violent revolution in this country in the not to far distant future, and we are going to be asked to come forward with solutions. So be prepared, you will in some small way be involved in helping to re-shape and fix this broken system for our grandchildren. Start by pounding on your elected representative’s desks until you get their attention, or get a ticket for public nuisance. (If the latter happens, send a picture and your story to Bill O'Reilly) Don't strike the colors and fade away, organize. Express your anger in every way you can and make them listen. Preaching to the choir does little good, but there are millions of not yet completely convinced Conservatives out there that you should be talking to, reminding them of our conservative values, and that "We have not yet begun to Fight".

Dunno about the rest of you, but I and my family certainly did not serve in the Uniform of this nation thru several wars so that we could now go away peacefully and let a few “social kooks" destroy our country.