This includes both Republicans and Democrats. I want to state this clearly since most of the following thoughts pertain to our Democratic President, President Obama. Two years ago he swept to victory by promising change and hope and convinced a lot of Americans that he could deliver on that promise. When he took office, his approval ratings were generally over 70%, indicating that even many people who had not voted for him were willing to support his plans and agenda. His party controlled both Houses of Congress and he had a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. As the old saying goes, "he could have been a contender" for one of the great Presidents of all time.
Unfortunately, he did not deliver on those promises despite having all of the best cards in his hand at the poker table called Washington D.C. and as we see the midterm elections getting closer, we are actually starting to see that President Obama is just a politician looking forward to the next election. Consider:
- Rather than explain and boast about his accomplishments in the first two years of his Presidency, he has resorted to some rather low political tactics. The latest tactic from him and his administration is to accuse the U.S. Chamber of Commerce of accepting foreign based money and using it to campaign against Democrats. He and others have made these serious allegations without any facts or proof. An investigative report published by the Associated Press on October 11, 2010 found absolutely no evidence that this funneling of foreign money was going on. The article quoted any number of election experts, lawyers, and scholars, all of whom said there was no evidence and that this was just cheap political posturing by the President. This seems to be just a sleazy and cheap way to avoid the issues and confuse the voters with non-starter, unproven scandals.
- The President took a different tact last week, floating the idea that he and Hillary Clinton would run together on the Presidential ticket in 2012. This was obviously another cheap political ploy intended to get the Hillary supporters excited and out to vote in November if they thought that their favorite candidate would be on the ballot in 2012. But think about this, how feasible and likely is this pairing to be? Obama would obviously not run as the Vice Presidential candidate after being President, Hillary would have to be the Vice Presidential candidate. Does anyone really think that she would accept that position after her high profile job as Secretary Of State? Just another political ploy that avoids talking about the issues and this administration's accomplishments (and failures).
- The favorite strategy of President Obama and the politicians is to accuse the Republicans of being the party of "no" and not having any substantial alternatives to be considered. Now, I have never voted for a Republican for national office in my life but even I know that this is a false, politically motivated ploy. I remember actually reading the highlights of what the Republicans wanted to to with health care and they had some excellent ideas. These included implementing tort reform that was akin to what some of the states had done in this area which had a significant impact on reducing health care industry costs. They wanted to increase the law enforcement resources for going after Medicare and Medicaid fraudsters as opposed to Obama Care that wants to increase law enforcement resources to ensure that innocent Americans actually sign up for mandatory health care plans. If you read Nina Easton's article in the September 6, 2010 issue of Fortune magazine, you would see that the Republicans have an excellent plan on how to reduce the nation's carbon footprint that is simple, elegant doable, and will work as opposed to the cumbersome, complicated, and impossible to operate Obama Cap and Trade Plan. On a weekly basis for the past several months, the Republicans have allowed ordinary American citizens to vote on what government programs should be eliminated in order to reduce our national debt (YouVote program) and have then submitted those programs receiving the most votes to the House Of Representatives for action, only to see all of them defeated by the House Democratic majority. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin has a well thought out plan on how to get our ever rising Social Security and Medicare costs under control, only to be attacked and ridiculed by an administration that refuses to tell American the truth about these porgrams' costs and future. Better to have a political motto, "the party of no," than to address the issues like a leader and statesman.
- In Bob Woodward's latest book, "Obama's Wars," Woodward talks about how the President interacted with the military leaders in order to come up with a winning strategy and troop deployment level for Afghanistan. If you read the excerpts, for the most part, the President comes off as quite Presidential. He looks for data, information, and feedback from his military top brass and civilian experts and tries to put together the best strategy for the country as it relates to the war in Afghanistan. Very cool, very Jeffersonian. And then he blows the whole aura of the process by stating that "I can't lose the Democratic party." Rather than do the right thing for the situation, he, as always, wants to the right think for the politics of the situation. Here we are talking about billions and billions of taxpayer dollars, possibly thousands and thousands of injured and killed U.S. soldiers and in the middle of the whole process he is trying to figure out how to not make his Democratic supporters mad. Not very Jeffersonian.
- In the past few days it has been reported by numerous sources that Senior White House Advisor David Axelrod will be leaving his highly sensitive and important position to return to Chicago. CBS News reported that his actual time of departure would be in the spring of 2011. The reason for his leaving? He will begin working on the President's 2012 re-election campaign. More than eighteen months before the election, President Obama will already be working on his re-election rather than the business of the nation. And when you think about it, since they already know what Axelrod will be doing in the spring, the administration is obviously already thinking and/or working on the next Presidential election before this term is even half over. In my mind a statesman would be working for the good of the country and letting his accomplishments be his re-election platform. A politician is more focused on his re-election plans and tries to work in the affairs of the country as they fit around the re-election agenda.
- Although we have covered this topic many times, a statesman is a figure that represents all of the people, a politician is a figure that represents only those that would vote for him or her. Thus, when Obama had the chance to be a statesman and put an end to the name calling that various members of his party have used to describe Americans that have a disagreement with this administration's policies and plans, he chose to let the name calling continue unabated. From Charles Rangel likening those opposed to Obama Care to the racists of the Civil rights era to Nancy Pelosi describing those opposed to Obama Care as un-American to Alan Grayson calling those opposed to President Obama's plans racists, terrorists, and knuckle dragging Neanderthals, and others too numerous to mention, the President played the politician's hand and allowed the vicious name calling and mud slinging to go on rather than acting like a leader of all Americans and putting an end to it. Rather than step above the fray, he stepped around it.
And it appears President Obama is just another one of this crowd. Consider a quote from a recent Time magazine article by Mark Halperin: "The White House is in over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress, the media, the business community or working class voters." Hardly sounds like the words you would use to describe a statesman. But it does sound like the words to describe a politician that refuses to discuss the issues during a campaign but would rather make up stories about foreign money, future and probably ficitious campaign plans, calling others names, and worrying more about their political future than the future of the country and the wars it is fighting and the lives that are in danger.
We need to go find some statesmen and stateswomen to run this country and several steps from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" would be a good start:
- Step 14 - stop gerrymandering Congressional districts to virtually ensure the re-election of sitting politicians in order to give a real statesman a chance of getting elected.
- Step 38 - require all politicians to sign off on a shared values pledge in order to dial down the political hatred and language so that we can become more civil and productive in our discussion of issues and solutions to those issues. Any shared values pledge must include to adherence to principles such as respect, integrity, commitment and teamwork.
- Step 39 - impose term limits via a Constitutional amendment so that the career politicians becomes a relic of the past and future elections are won by people looking to make a positive contribution to the country and the future in a relatively short time.
- Step 45 - hold both political parties to the same rules, quotas, and laws of affirmative action that the rest of the country have toabide by in order to get more stateswomen involved in the political process.
Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the followng sits of freedom:
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
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