PrintFebruary 17, 2011
Alfred E President
Barack Obama resembles, more and more, the hapless, clueless, sappily cheerful mascot of MAD Magazine, Alfred E. Neuman. Given the intellectual vacuity of his life so far, attending schools and working in "jobs" that did not require a single original thought, or even exercise in critical thinking, it is increasingly hard to determine whether our illustrious leader actually grasps the profound seriousness of civilized life today.
Our national debt is exploding. Right now it is only a measly $45,000 per person, but it is growing fast. This does not just mean the federal government faces political problems with gigantic deficit "investment" appropriations, but it also means that no one wants to buy our government debt instruments any longer. Simply paying the interest on that federal debt is becoming harder. The value of the dollar and the credit of the government are both dropping precipitously. States cannot pay their "bills" (i.e. lawful obligations). When high unemployment rates are the way to control our porous borders and illegal immigration problem, then the long term prognosis for our nation is much grimmer than the calm demeanor of Alfred E President would suggest.
Europe, the other half of our bastion of Western Civilization, faces a comparable unraveling. Public pensions in nations like Greece are simply unsustainable. Ireland, the once thriving Celtic Tiger, not only needs a Euro bailout, but the Bank of Ireland, on its own, simply began printing Euros. Belgium has lesser but serious economic problems, but the longest European nation unable to form a government must also deal with ethnic schisms in an artificial nation half Walloon and half Flemish. What does one call a bank that essentially begins counterfeiting money and a democracy that cannot form a government? Well, to everyone outside the world of Alfred E President, one calls that "a clue."
Angry young Moslem men continue their thuggish conquest of the European street. The docile, graying population of homegrown Europeans no longer cares to defend its Judeo-Christian heritage or its continental culture. The economic disintegration, which seems so near the edge in much of Europe, will not inspire these Moslems to pick up the heavy burden of pensions caused by a declining indigenous European population. The bitter young men of Islam will, instead, compete with white haired Frenchmen for the shrinking pie of social welfare benefits. Does Alfred E. President seem concerned? He is concerned only in the vague, rhetorical sense that concern can be traded in for modest bumps in personal approval ratings.
Egypt, a friendly government on peaceful terms with Israel, will soon be run by those less friendly to us and more threatening to Israel. China builds more modern weapons that have only one possible use. Russia cozies up to anyone who does not like us. NATO resembles a vestigial organ which does not protect our nation and which "talks" with Russia about a missile defense system which will not threaten Russia's national security -- how a missile defense shield or a bulletproof vest threatens anyone remains a grand mystery of life. Iran, meanwhile, moves closer to the day that it can turn Tel Aviv into radioactive dust. What will regional terrorism mean to us? The semi-official attitude over the last decade has been that our nation faces another massive terrorist attack not "if," but "when." But it has not happened yet, so Alfred E. President smiles at the television monitor and likes what he sees.
All over the simmering mess we call our world, the persecution of Christians continues. Every "victory" -- Christian massacres in Egypt or Pakistan or Nigeria, bigoted federal court rulings against crosses at military cemeteries or smug, mendacious defamations of Christianity -- kicks the can farther down the road to perdition. Anti-Semitism, the other canary in the mineshaft, surrounds Israel, inspires militant Moslems everywhere, and encourages an increasingly miserable world to blame its oldest official scapegoat. Those two nations lovingly called the "Great Satan" and the "Little Satan" needs no defense from Alfred E President, even though a spirited argument supporting America and Israel might defang the lust for their destruction. The plight of Jews and Christians is not helped in these lands by skyrocketing food costs produced, at least in part, by undue interest in the Iowa caucus and ethanol.
What could Alfred E. President do? He could ask for a repeal of ObamaCare so that a truly bipartisan healthcare reform could be adopted. He could propose entitlement reforms, rather than waiting to counter-punch any Republican proposals. He could insist that missile defense be the heart of our defense budget. He could ask for a comprehensive reduction of all federal requirements on states and all existing federal roadblocks to growth, so that drilling for oil and construction of nuclear power plants could start oh, say, yesterday. He could call ethanol a no longer so funny joke. He could issue a spirited re-affirmation of the faith of Christians and Jews and express the opinion that holding fast to that heritage is the only true hope of world peace.
Or Alfred E President can watch the world unravel on his watch. He can fiddle while Rome burns. He can say nothing risky, do nothing real, and wait to be re-elected. What are our prospects for having a real president when we need him? So far, so bad.
Bruce Walker is the author of a new book: Poor Lenin's Almanac: Perverse Leftists Proverbs for Modern Life.
