If Michelle is like Marie Antoinette to whom shall we compare
Barack? The thought that he’s Louis XVI is unthinkable. George III is too easy. All of
the megalomaniacs or despots of the twentieth century would be politically
incorrect in the extreme. Some would be
considered too far left and some too far right though in reality the extreme on
both sides meet at the intersection of totalitarianism and brutality. Since he rode a wave of secular messianic
fever into power and since he won a second term due to the devotion of his
disciples perhaps an appropriate paraphrase from the Good Book would be, “Who does he say that he
is?”
First, who
do others say Mr. Obama reminds them of?
His rapid supporters have finally gone the extra mile. During his first presidential campaign they
merely treated him as if he was their messiah.
After his second victory they are shouting it from the roof tops. At the BET Soul Train Awards show Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx actually
called Barack Obama "our lord and
savior." Some will say he’s a
comedian and this was said tongue in cheek.
From the reaction of the crowd it was received like a proclamation from
Mount Sinai. The wild cheering brought down
the house. If this isn’t a cult of
personality what is?
I heard a woman who fled Venezuela to escape Hugo Chavez and
his democratic revolution crying, “Obama is doing the same things as
Chavez! He’s following the same path,
going to the same place, but now we have nowhere to run.” Someone who escaped the USSR told me, “I’ve
seen all this before. Obama is like Nikita Khrushchev. He says he brings hope
and change but really he’s just blaming the past because he hopes to rule the
present while destroying the hope of the future.” According to an escapee of East Germany,
“Obama is like Leonid Brezhnev. He promises security, pensions and benefits but
all he brings are taxes, regulations and more bureaucrats, always more
bureaucrats.”
I cannot
bring myself to compare an American President to Hitler, Stalin, Mao, not even
to Mussolini. To who shall I compare
this man who brings the crest of the century-long Progressive wave crashing
against the American experiment? Instead
of doing the comparing myself let’s explore who he and his unpaid media arm in
the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Press compare himself to.
President
Obama announced his run for the presidency in Springfield,
Illinois on the steps of the old state capitol building. Choosing a setting in Springfield where
Abraham Lincoln once gave a speech condemning slavery and calling for the
United States to unite prompted the Progressives at ABC News to observe, “Springfield allowed Obama to
immodestly and continuously compare himself to Lincoln.”
Immediately
after his first victory the cover of Time magazine depicted the President-elect as FDR
riding in an open car with his trademark cigarette holder clamped tightly in
his smile. So we know his promoters in
the press want us to compare him to the four term president-for-life who until
now has been the epitome of a Progressive president. But does President Obama make the comparison
himself? According to Politico, “President Barack Obama compared
himself to FDR.” What does History tell
us about FDR? Major portions of his New Deal were declared unconstitutional, many economists believe his policies prolonged the Great Depression, his advisor Alger Hiss really was a communist spy, and at Yalta Roosevelt gave Poland, whose freedom World War II was
fought to preserve, to Stalin who initially invaded the country as an ally of
Hitler. If we forget the facts I guess
comparing yourself to FDR is a good thing.
During his
first campaign the Washington Post said that Mr. Obama, “Sells Himself
as the New JFK.” At the time other news
outlets noted, fellow Progressive’s disputed the
comparison using the headline, “Hillary to Obama: You're No JFK.” Undeterred Mr. Obama continued to cast himself as the successor to Camelot.
In a review of his first term we
could agree his glorious adventure in Libya as revealed in Benghazi makes him the rightful heir to such
shameful military adventures as the Bay of Pigs or his much proclaimed victory over Al Qaeda to such questionable victories as
the Cuban Missile Crisis. Turning to
JFK’s most memorable phrase Mr. Obama, as any good Harvard trained lawyer would
do, has parsed the meaning of “ask not what your country can do
for you - ask what you can do for your country.” In Progressive newspeak this becomes, “If you’re a non-tax payer let me tell you
what I’m going to do for you –if
you’re a tax payer let me tell you what I’m going to do to you.”
President
Obama also compares himself to the icon of the anti-Progressives: Ronald
Reagan. According to Politico in an interview with a print
journalist the President, “made the case that his movement is as much about a
national moment as about him as a ‘singular’ individual” also noting “he drew a
rather odd analogy for a Democrat: Ronald Reagan.” President Reagan told us, “government is not the solution to our problems;
government is the problem.” President
Obama told us, “Only Government Can Fix the
Economy.” President Ragan told us, “We are today, the last best hope
of man on earth.” President Obama told us, “America is no longer what it could
be, what it once was.” That’s not even
comparing apples to oranges it’s more like comparing truth to fiction, good to
bad, or freedom to dependency.
All the
people mentioned above who escaped socialism, left homes, families, and
countries seeking freedom remind me of something else Ronald Reagan said, “If we lose freedom here, there is
no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth.”
The
Americans devoted to constitutionally limited government, personal liberty, and
economic freedom may have lost a battle.
We may finally accept that we have become a minority in our own land. However, we will never accept serfdom and we
will never accept the permanent imposition of socialism in the land of the free
and the home of the brave.
Now is the
time for all good citizens to come to the aid of their country. Educate yourself regarding the History of our
Republic. Learn so that you may teach. We must educate new generations of patriots
to carry the torch so that the light of freedom is never extinguished. A slender majority of our fellow voting
citizens may have chosen the path of central-planning and collectivism. Most through ignorance, some through avarice,
and a few through pure evil have diverted the American experiment into an
economic and political dead-end, but like all dead ends it will eventually
end. The empires of looters always
collapse when the loot runs out and another day will dawn.
That same
Good Book tells us, “the evil man has no future; the
lamp of the wicked will be put out.” And
it also promises, “I know the plans
I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to
prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” So the Progressives may have followed their
play book to a worldly victory. I don’t
know about you, but I’m going to follow that Good Book to an eternal one.
Keep the faith. Keep the
Peace. We shall overcome.
Dr. Owens
teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @
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