The Man of Hope and Change...
...or the same old shell game?
Editor's Note: Thomas's commentary is in blue and
Marcie's is in purple.
A lot of people are hyping
up Barack Obama. They have for several months now, and it's a
more than a little sickening that his supporters are buying into
this garbage from a snake oil salesman. Yes, Barack Obama has
free-flowing flowery rhetoric, but his ideas mirror that which
has been offered before by Democrats. He speaks of hope as though
this nation has none when in fact America is the land of hope
and opportunity. He talks of change when it's obvious that we
will have change in January of 2009; President George Bush's tenure
in office will be over. But the sort of change Senator Obama is
speaking of, should he become president, will be a significant
change for the nation when it comes to the fundamental beliefs
of what America is, and what she stands for.
One thing that will significantly change
is the sort of posture we have when it comes to national security.
He has shown that in this realm he is little more than a neophyte;
a rookie who thinks he can play the game. But he lacks a basic
understanding of what national security entails. He has stated
that he will meet with our enemies without preconditions. This
is a momentous shift in US policy. While President Reagan did
meet with Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviets were not rattling sabers
the way Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has. An answer during a debate earlier
this season, he said he would go into Pakistan in pursuit of Osama
bin Laden. Pakistan is an ally, and going into that country without
their permission would be an act of war. He has also repeatedly
flip-flopped on the issue of troops in Iraq. He initially started
out as the typical, McGovern-esque candidate; one devoted to retreating
from Iraq despite the successes we have seen from the implementation
of the surge strategy by General David Petraeus. As I said he
has flip-flopped on that, and did so recently by saying that while
there will be a draw-down of soldiers in Iraq, we will still need
a significant presence in Iraq for years to come. This came after
his foreign policy advisers specifically explained that we could
not completely withdraw troops from Iraq.
When it comes to the economy, he is not
of sound mind. He has proposed $850 billion in new spending in
his first term alone. He has called for an increase in investment
taxes, payroll taxes, a raise in the capital-gains tax, Social
Security taxes, and corporate taxes. It seems he just will not
be content until he's finished the job of fleecing the American
taxpayer; repeatedly, early and often. If he institutes his nationalized
health care plan, and enforces it as he's enunciated, then we
can watch even more of our hard-earned money go into yet another
worthless government bureaucracy -- a bureaucracy that will just
as effective as a gridlocked Congress. With the nation still looking
at the beginning of a cogent and notable downturn in the economy,
his idea isn't to ease our tax burden, but to increase it. The
magnitude of such a decision could seriously hurt the economy
as it is trying to rebound. In fact, if he interferes in the market
as it is trying to adjust, he could easily force the nation into
a recession. While many on the Left wail and moan that we are
in a recession, none of the typical indicators have surfaced.
The market is going through a hiccup. If Barack Obama becomes
president, and raises taxes as he's proposed, those hiccups won't
go away, and they'll only get worse.
Barack Obama has boasted that he was a senior
lecturer at the University of Chicago on Constitutional Law. Yet
given his ideas regarding the rights we have we can see he is
far outside the mainstream thought on jurisprudential issues.
He is an advocate for stricter gun laws. He is a proponent of
abortion, including late-term abortion; a procedure the Supreme
Court ruled last year was unconstitutional. He believes that the
Congress has a greater role in certain aspects of decision making
inherent only to the executive branch. With this track record
can we believe that he would nominate Supreme Court justices that
would interpret the Constitution? Or will he appoint people to
the high court that will rule with judicial fiat; the stroke of
a pen to enact laws rather than going through the proper legislative
procedure? There are six Supreme Court justices that are age 68
or older. It is a fact that one or more could easily step down
in his first term as president. If he gets his way, he will appoint
judicial activists to the high court, and such a move could put
the court out of our reach -- keeping the proper interpretation
of the Constitution -- out of our reach for decades.
Well he can't be all that bad, right? He
has to have some good points, right? After all, what about those
he associates with? Well, his campaign staff isn't bad. we have
differences with them when it comes to what they believe in terms
of ideology, but those aren't the people who are raising eyebrows.
People like Jeremiah Wright provokes ire with his fiery rhetoric
that sounds very much like an anti-American, racist screed. His
ties to James Meeks has caused outrage in the gay and lesbian
community because the man is a rampant homophobe. And then we
have his friendship with William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn --
two notorious domestic terrorists from the Weather Underground.
He has tried to spin away that connection by stating he was "eight
years old" when they committed their acts, yet in 1982 --
just two years after they turned themselves into authorities --
Bernadine Dohrn was involved in the Broadway Babies robbery ring
where former Weather Underground and Black Panthers committed
robberies netting them almost two million dollars to fund their
global revolution. If this is the sort of company Barack Obama
keeps, shouldn't this cause voters to stop and think before they
vote for him in November?
Barack Obama is not the right person for
the job. The Presidency is more than just rhetoric and spin. They
will be the leader of the United States, and the leading spokesman
for America around the world. We have always stood for freedom,
opportunity, and excellence. But if Barack Obama is elected, freedom
will become a buzz word only; opportunity will only be bestowed
at the behest of the government. We can forget about the idea
of excellence because the taxes we will pay will whittle away
the sort of distinction and high quality America is known for.
(You cannot maintain quality without the necessary workforce --
one laid off due to the high taxes that will be demanded.) Instead
of being the lone voice of freedom in the world, we will join
the ranks of other nations content on appeasement and non-intervention.
Barack Obama is a radical, and the most liberal member of the
US Congress. That sort of ideology is contrary to the Founding
Fathers' vision for this nation, but Barack Obama cares little
for the storied past of this nation; the accomplishments and sacrifices
made by those who came before us. He cares only for changing this
nation into his ideal liberal utopia complete with cradle-to-the-grave
nanny statism.
He is a scholar of history, especially American
history, and the United States Constitution. She has finished
her undergrad studies, graduating with a BA in English and history
and will move onto law school this fall where she will specialize
in Constitutional Law. Together, Thomas and Marcie form the vanguard
of conservative opinion at Hamilton,
Madison, and Jay -- a blogging site devoted to advancing the
conservative cause by challenging the liberal lies and deceit
spread by the media, and espoused by the Left in general. Both
are expert debaters, and have beaten many liberals into submission
with their collective wit, and unmatched knowledge. The pair is
married, and resides in Arizona
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