Brushfire of Freedom
The Irritable Pundit
What was really behind the Obamacare farce we just witnessed? Well, let’s look at the most popular suspects:
1) Obama is a statist
2) Obama is a socialist
3) Obama is a “pie in the sky” ivory tower-type.
For each of of those, I think the answer is “Yes, but no”.
1) Obama is a statist, but it was never about “control”. That is just a happy (and hoped for) coincidence for him and a painful side effect for us.
2) Obama is a socialist, but it was never about “Each according to his need”. Like most socialists, there are always those “more equal than others” (i.e. themselves). All you have to look at is the fact that Obama and his allies exempted themselves from all Obamacare mandates to see the proof of that. Socialism and wealth redistribution among the classes is certainly a goal of our leftist leader, but it is not the driver of Obamacare.
3) Obama is an academic, but the usual academic blindness does not explain Obamacare. Far too many in the hoary old halls of higher learning are educated beyond their intelligence and this certainly applies to Obama. The leftist echo chamber atmosphere combined with tenure (and its associated insulation from reality) often generates dreams and utopian schemes, if often rudely awakened by reality. Such stardust dreams are plentiful in Obama’s puerile musings, but they do not explain Obamacare either.
So why would Obama spend money yet unearned by your great grandchildren so profligately? He has the intelligence to know that our economy cannot continue as it has before with that debt load. He knows that the great engine of the United States will either grind to a halt, or slow to European levels of stagnation at best. He knows this without question, and since he knows this, it has to be intentional.
Get that. Let it sink in for a moment. The end result is intentional, as opposed to a foolishly denied but likely outcome. This is key.
Vast government entitlements and programs, controlled by an inefficient bureaucracy will require more and more of the American budget. The pressure to change our budget priorities rather than cut those entitlements will be enormous – almost unstoppable. Taxes, even at the maximum an economy can bear, will not be enough. Budgets will get stretched ever thinner, until something has to give. That something is the power and military prestige of the United States.
Dollar-diplomacy foreign aid and total funding for the military and our bases (here and abroad) from which we project our power will have to be cut back to levels not seen since prior to the launch of the first great US Naval fleet in 1907, often called “The Great White Fleet”. That collection of freshly painted ships (hence the name, in spite of race-baiting deconstruction attempts to insinuate otherwise) circumnavigated the globe in one stunning voyage, announcing our entry as a power on the world stage. Obama’s budget machinations will ensure our exit from that same stage. Our ability to move and shape the world, to influence the outcomes of affairs of state around the globe, will diminish with every passing year. The vast majority of our modern fleet will be mothballed, pulled out for the occasional chest thumping charade (ala the French naval exercises today). Our Army's forward operating bases will be shuttered, never to be opened again as local governments take advantage of the real estate. Airfields will be crated throughout the European and Asian Pacific theaters. Our power will be forever lessened.
And that is, and always was, the goal.
Obama has made no bones about the fact that he looks disdainfully towards colonialism, American foreign policy, and even the concept of American exceptionalism. He has always been convinced that this country, and all western powers in their time, exploited the smaller and took advantage of those less fortunate through their military power. You have heard the old liberal saw before I am sure. It is just another take on the old refrain of “the West, mostly white, has always taken advantage of brown people throughout the globe”. It is as old and played as a union handbook, but Obama was raised on that pap. He has a chip on his shoulder born of his heritage and an unearned sense of victimization that, mind boggling enough, only seems to infect the truly privileged elites. To Obama, it is well past time for America’s comeuppance.
The First Lady’s “For the first time, I am proud of my county” moment of candor on Obama’s rise has been endlessly dissected, but Obama’s own disdain for this country is no less demonstrable. His endless “I apologize for America” world tour has explained exactly what he thinks of our past and present sins and he made plain, from Indonesia to Saudi Arabia, that he will make sure those sins are never repeated. Now we see how he will keep us from doing so, by forcing America’s resources away from the rest of the world forever. We simply will no longer be able to afford to be the world’s policeman, its savior, its enforcer or place of refuge in time of trouble. In one fell blow, Obama will end American foreign power and (mark my words) the Pax Americana it has produced, though that sad side effect does not concern Obama I am sure.
What is important to Obama is that there can be no “American exceptionalism” if America is no longer exceptional. We are being forced, step by step, into a European model for that reason. America can commit no more sins against developing nations if we are as neutered and ineffectual as Europe.
Obamacare, Cap and trade, and the rest of his agenda are just the means to an end.
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