PrintAugust 7, 2009
Doing the Obama Hustle
It's becoming clearer day by day. The President and Democrat leaders have been doing the Hustle. Not only hustling voters from the get-go, but hustling all year to push their statist legislative agenda through Congress. And, most often, they're attempting to do so in the still of the night.
Why? Because undemocratic Democrats understand better than they're given credit that a solid majority of Americans occupy the center-right. Democrats, especially party liberals, well appreciate that last November's election wasn't a resounding mandate, but, rather, a small window through which to squeeze massive leftwing measures.
Wasn't it the lighthearted Rahm Emanuel who said: "Never let a big crisis go to waste?" And, he might have added, if the crisis isn't big enough, gin it up.
As we are witnessing, the window is now closing on Democrats' fingers more rapidly than they could have suspected. Their blithe leader, Barak Obama, with a glance, a smile and a lot of helium-inflated rhetoric, was suppose to dazzle Americans -- dazzle them long enough to complete the stealthy process of transforming the nation into a reasonable replica of a European socialist state. Whether modern France or Russia (circa, 1950) is your call.
Now to finish the nation's transformation from red, white and blue to institutional gray, they may have to use a crowbar to pry open the window. The crowbar is also known as "reconciliation." ()
The Disco Democrats' mad rush to the finish line has produced some startling results. Co-opting the nation's financial and automotive sectors is no mean feat. Mussolini must be smiling from somewhere.
The absurdly named economic stimulus would be better coined "The Democrats' Pig Trough.") Didn't pig troughs get a bad rap when Republicans ran the show?
Cap and trade, which sounds more like sports lingo, now only enjoys a half-life. If it's stymied in the Senate, it's one stillbirth that won't be lamented.
Democrats want to cap industrial emissions, drive up the cost of energy, and with higher costs, cap energy consumption. The "trade" part falls squarely on the shoulders of most every American not considered elite.
Americans are expected to trade prosperity and their standards of living for the satisfaction of helping 1) restore the Garden of Eden; or 2) return to the Dark Ages, or some approximation thereof. Democrats aren't very choosy, but they are quite nostalgic.
And like Disco era President Jimmy Carter, Mr. Obama has those obedient lads at Treasury (Tim Geithner) and the Federal Reserve (Ben Bernanke) printing money with abandon. The Misery Index is coming back to your neighborhood soon.
The modestly named "Healthcare Reform" that salivating Democrats are pursuing is, of course, the Big Kahuna. Wrapping their tentacles around one-sixth of the nation's economy is the ultimate prize in the power grab game. Coming with it, quite literally, is the power over life and death.
Content not just with permitting the termination of life at its beginning, healthcare rationing allows the "system" to weed out all those old people with expensive medical conditions.
Democrats, always fair and compassionate, don't want the elderly to be burdens on you and me. But, take note, nor do they want us to be burdens one day, either.
Occasionally, one wonders how far off Democrats are from reviving the notion of eugenics.
The President and Democrat leaders are slyly avoiding sober deliberation and substantive debate about their mammoth society-changing proposals. Thought and consideration would spell their doom.
Affable Americans, who actually believe in the democratic process, mightily resent efforts to hoodwink and sandbag them. Whatever sophistication they may lack in the fine art of politics, they make up for with good gut instincts. In increasing numbers, they're catching on to a scam.
This bodes ill not just for the Democrats short-term legislative prospects, but for their longer term political prospects.
Thankfully, conservatives and average Americans are taking destiny in their own hands; they've begun to slam shut the Democrats' window. That's what deer-in-headlights Democrats are witnessing at town halls across the nation. At least at those town halls they haven't cancelled.
Today, a dwindling number of liberal diehards -- Nancy Pelosi and her ilk -- may consider themselves gods, but tomorrow, thanks to voter wrath, may well wear the goat's mantle.
One has the sense -- call it a gut instinct -- that Democrats, rather than routing the Indians with their cavalry, are, like Custer, setting themselves up for a Last Stand. There will be no marching bands and laurels for the victors, as they suppose. Only funeral dirges and flower-draped biers.
The star-crossed George Armstrong Custer thought he could lick the Sioux and their allies with a small force, divided. Though he had lost the element of surprise, and was told so by scouts, he charged on anyway. Conceit trumped good sense. Custer and five companies of soldiers paid with their lives.
Democrats needn't expect so ghastly an end, though for them, politics are their lives. Their conceit is creating a fierce, whirling hubris. Once caught up in that whirlwind, no amount of hustle will save them.
