Somewhere in America, the last “Yes we can” poster is being torn from a bedroom wall.
At the moment, my favorite Democrats are the ones insisting that each scandal is an isolated incident. The left’s most strident operatives are trying to diminish the scandals and belittle Republican outrage. On television, they howl at the right’s silly conspiracy theorists, but their laughs are hollow and lonesome. The rest of the president’s faithful are sauntering between denial, despair and crestfallen befuddlement, asking each other where it all went wrong. And while the vision of a second Camelot dissipates as all mirages do, many of us conservatives are curiously observing our distraught progressive opponents. And instead of gloating, we’re scratching our heads and asking, “What did you expect?”
Never before in history has an American president so clearly and so often chastised the American people. Since his inauguration in 2009, President Obama has treated half of the country like enemies. In 2010, he rallied Democrats to “punish” their Republican “enemies” on the radio. And how many times has he uttered the word unfair over the last four and a half years? Consider what is collectively implied in those notions. What must Barack Obama go to sleep every night believing — that his selfish enemies are actively working against him and the greater good? And they have an unfair advantage! What’s a transformational president to do?
In the left’s most hyperbolic, calculating, demonic, imagined version of Richard Nixon, the reach of Nixonian evil is pretty limited. Whatever nefarious schemes Evil Nixon came up with had to be implemented by Nixon loyalists. Extensive wiretap networks and ambitious election sabotage could only extend as far as loyalists were willing to risk their careers and freedom for Nixon. There was no noble Nixonian vision. There was no implied safety net.
Today, not only does the president have his cadre of loyalists, the Obama administration is united under a noble progressive vision. The president, through endless repetition, has certified his administration’s moral high ground. The president, through endless repetition, has identified the problem: unfairness. And, through endless repetition, he has identified the enemy: Republicans who stand in the way of progress. Assuming no other directives from President Obama, is his administration galvanized to equitably serve the people? Or might they be on a crusade to stamp out unfairness?
Back in 2008, conservatives were in an uproar over Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Frank Marshall Davis and the blooming entourage of radicals that buzzed around Obama. The left predictably cried racism, and John McCain predictably sided with the left. But conservative opposition wasn’t about race or troublesome individuals. We opposed their radical ideas, which have led directly to a federal government that values the progressive agenda more than individual liberty.
Eric Holder may survive the next few weeks. Who knows? He may even finish out Obama’s second term. The only certainty is that the scandals are going to continue to erupt. They’ll get broader and deeper and more unnerving. And the reason that it’s a certainty is because Barack Obama is a disciple of Saul Alinsky. He practiced Alinsky’s confrontational, bullying tenets throughout his political career. He taught Alinsky’s tenets at the University of Chicago. And he’s filled the federal government with like-minded bureaucrats. Within his administration, Obama has created an aggressive culture with an activist bent and a radical notion of the “greater good.” We are just beginning to hear about Americans who got in the path of that greater good. There will be more.
In the end, President Obama may be untouched personally. He may have governed at such remove there were no incriminating direct orders. But as the abuses continue to tally, the president will be accountable for the monster he created.
Below are two quotes to ponder as the scandals unfold and we learn more about our federal government’s mistreatment of American citizens.
“Moral rationalization is indispensable at all times of action whether to justify the selection or the use of ends or means.” — Saul Alinsky
“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” — C.S. Lewis
Yates Walker is a conservative activist and writer. Before becoming involved in politics, he served honorably as a paratrooper and a medic in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. He can be reached at yateswalker@gmail.com.
