Anniversaries Yield Contrasts

Anniversaries of two U.S. historical events occurred this week – the 150^th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, and the 50^th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination.  Both offer insights and contrasts relevant to today. 

The Gettysburg Address

Bret Stephens, in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ.com - Bret Stephens: From 'Four Score' to 'Yes We Can!'), points out Obama’s hubris and use of various symbols of, and references to, Lincoln to draw comparisons with himself.  Of course we have no one alive who can say they knew Lincoln, that he was a friend of theirs, but that “Mr. Obama, you are no Lincoln.”  But Stephens points out, in addition to the failings of his signature Obamacare, domestic economics, foreign policy, etc., Obama & Lincoln are worlds apart in the area of “the president’s once-celebrated prose.” 

“Abraham Lincoln spoke greatly because he read wisely and thought deeply. He turned to Shakespeare, he once said, "perhaps as frequently as any unprofessional reader." "It matters not to me whether Shakespeare be well or ill acted," he added. "With him the thought suffices."

“Maybe Mr. Obama has similar literary tastes. It doesn't show. "An economy built to last," the refrain from his 2012 State of the Union, borrows from an ad slogan once used to sell the Ford Edsel. "Nation-building at home," another favorite presidential trope, was born in a Tom Friedman column. "We are the ones we have been waiting for" is the title of a volume of essays by Alice Walker. "The audacity of hope" is adapted from a Jeremiah Wright sermon. "Yes We Can!" is the anthem from "Bob the Builder," a TV cartoon aimed at 3-year-olds.

“There is a common view that good policy and good rhetoric have little intrinsic connection. Not so. President Obama's stupendously shallow rhetoric betrays a remarkably superficial mind. Superficial minds designed ObamaCare. Superficial minds are now astounded by its elementary failures, and will continue to be astounded by the failures to come.  [This brings to mind the “stage one thinking” many ascribe to liberals]

“Is there a remedy? Probably not. Then again, the president's no-show at Gettysburg suggests he might be trying to follow Old Abe's counsel in a fruitful way: "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool," the Great Emancipator is reported to have said, "than to speak and to remove all doubt."

When asked to do a reading of the Gettysburg Address for a video project, he conspicuously left out the key words, “under God.”  This only furthers the perception by many that he is not a real believer.  And that perhaps his real gods are his self-adulation, the power of the office & party, and the socialistic idealism passed on to him.  An idealism that puts itself above God, and God-given free agency.  And an idealism that, on the international level, diminishes freedom-loving nations, and elevates the freedom-hating nations and movements. 

  .

The Kennedy Assassination

All of our presidential assassinations were tragedies, and blows to democracy.  But as Democrats celebrate and commemorate Camelot & Kennedy, it is instructive to reflect on what else died with him in American politics.  As Dennis Prager noted, it was also the death of classical liberalism in the Democrat Party, which was then increasingly co-opted by Leftism.  In fact, the Democrat Party of Kennedy would by today’s standards be considered quite conservative. 

Some like Prager & Charles Krauthammer, noting this trend not long after Kennedy, transferred their loyalties to Republicans who continued those traditions.  Kennedy was fiscally conservative.  He strongly believed in American exceptionalism and relished American power and confronted Communism in the midst of a Cold War.  He saw the value in a strong space program and military, and fully funded both.  He said “Ask not, what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” 

Today’s Democrat president has repeatedly denounced and diminished the idea of American exceptionalism.  He, along with his cohorts, has reduced the military, and chosen to take a back seat in international affairs.  He has slashed the space program.  He continues to expand ways for people to expect more from their country, such as food stamps & welfare, federal jobs, federal health programs, illegal immigrant benefits, etc., etc.  These are all now called “rights” that the government must provide for.  And what is expected from the recipients in return is less and less.  The only ones who are asked to do more for their country are the wealthier taxpayers – the producers.  As described in my last post, Obamacare is the largest transfer of wealth in our nation’s history.  A large step in the direction of the very socialist governments that Kennedy fought in the Cold War.  Obama’s vision was all starkly laid out in “Dreams of my Father” – his father being a radical Leftist, and Obama’s early mentors extreme radicals.

It is also interesting to note the Liberal campaign to downplay or deflect blame from the Communist ideologue who shot John Kennedy (and the Palestinian ideologue who shot his brother) to any conspiracy that might implicate someone, anyone, on the Right (or at least not on the Left) – the city of Dallas, the mob, CIA, etc.  Just another cognitive dissonance that Democrats need to deal with as they consider where their party has gone since Kennedy.

Speaking of cognitive dissonance, the Democrats have just done what many of them had not long ago decried – the “nuclear option.”  That is, they reduced the majority needed for confirmation of judicial appointees from the 60% it has been since the founding of the republic, to 51%.  This was done to pack the courts with extreme judges while they can, fearing loss of their majority in the 2014 elections, and not getting all of the nominees they’ve put forward due to supposed Republican “obstructionism.”  Fox has been playing video of Senator Obama, Harry Reid, Pelosi, Biden, etc. all speaking forcefully against the option when the Republicans even were considering or threatening it when it was the Democrats who were blocking appointments.  Biden even said he prayed that when they regained power, they “...wouldn’t make such a naked power grab.”  Obviously, not all prayers are answered, or at least not that one. 

But inconsistency and hypocrisy are not new to this bunch.  Nor dishonesty.  Senator Gillibrand (D, NY) this week said “we all knew” [at the time it was being debated before passage that Obama’s promise about keeping your insurance plan was not true].  So much for promised transparency, etc.  But of course our benevolent Democrat leaders only do it for our own good – we couldn’t handle the truth, and it might ruin their utopian schemes. 

Yes, the electorate is finally awakening to the foibles of this administration, and the Democrats.  All a year too late, according to this article, that points out the many traditionally Democrat demographic groups where there have been dramatic shifts:

President Romney? Yes, if the election were held today
By: Aaron Blake in The Washington Post

For Mitt Romney, the 2012 election was held about a year too early.