Three cheers for Hampton, which mustered a 64 percent turnout in municipal elections in the fall, giving it the top score in the annual Democracy Cup competition.
Middlebury and Trumbull also turned in award-winning efforts. But why on earth give Waterbury a medal in the large city category for an anemic 31 percent turnout? I know this is the best of the big cities, but is this really something to be proud of? Better not to have a winner in the big-city category.
The competition is sponsored by the Secretary of the State’ office and the East Haddam Civic Association. Sectretary of the State Denise Merrill said:
We had some towns with some very strong voters turnout on Election Day in 2011, despite the difficult challenges presented in our state by the devastating October snowstorm … The voters in these communities really set an example for all of the voters in Connecticut of why local races matter and why it is important to get involved with your community and participate in democracy. I congratulate these three communities and the town of Hampton for doing the best job this year of getting voters out to the polls.
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History is replete with great men like Barack Obama — transformational leaders of wide renown, seeking to shape history in their own image, never realizing it is not great men who make history; it is history which makes great men.
Our president has never been more than an epigone of a great man. And the cold glare of history will see Barack Obama for the man he truly is — and it will not matter what the meaning of “is” is.
“The world will little note, nor long remember” Barack Obama, because contrary to his own opinion, he is the nation’s worst president. He is an arrogant, hyper-partisan, race-baiting, committed socialist — a man whose deliberate attempts to transform the nation into a banana republic, with pictures of himself on the side of every building, have been thwarted only by his need to win one more election.
I can see Jimmy Carter smiling already, having handily won the battle to be penultimate — if only by default.
People like the president as a person, saying he’s a great guy, a good husband, and a fine father. Good person or not, he has been disastrous as a president. And he is the worst kind of disaster: a disaster who thinks himself a huge success — fourth-best president ever — and that was him just being modest.
Didn’t he give himself a “good, solid B+” on Oprah after his first year? Didn’t he halt “the rise of the oceans” and heal the planet? Hasn’t he “got some game” like LeBron, and doesn’t he “know more about policies on any particular issue” than all his policy experts?
When he departs the presidency, whether it is on 1/20/13 or after four more years of our misery, he will surely sashay into the history books, great or not. In his next job as emperor of the U.N., he can air out his post-American anti-Americanism to his natural audience — other anti-Americans — while maintaining the myth of his autodidactic polymathism.
The world knows that Obama worships at the altar of Obama, but what I don’t understand is why so many Americans and the press buy into his self-delusional perception of magnificence. From his first day in office, he has made one bad decision after another, ham-handedly making the nation’s situation worse at every turn.
His energy plan has been to triple the retail price of gasoline, home heating oil, electricity, and all energy in general — he’s almost there. We can afford it — we’re all working…aren’t we? In any case, haven’t we reached a point where we’ve “made enough money”? Us, not him — he’ll always make money. He’s an author; just ask Bill Ayers or Jack Cashill.
His policy to reduce the unemployment rate has been to get as many people as possible to give up looking for work — because you aren’t really unemployed if you’ve given up hope and stopped looking. Reduce the labor force participation rate enough, and the unemployment rate will go to zero — something even Reagan never dreamed of.
You see, Reagan went about it the wrong way; he tried to create jobs, when the better course of action would have been to destroy people’s hope of ever finding employment. Congress had better not “muck” up Obama’s master plan of reducing hope, or the rate will go up again.
His Justice Department seeks justice for some and not others. A Black Panther in paramilitary garb is not an effort to suppress voting, yet asking for ID is. Photo identification is necessary to get food stamps, cash a welfare check, get on a plane, and even enter the Department of Justice building itself, but having to show ID at the polls is a racist plot to deprive minorities of their right to vote.
The Justice Department’s Fast and Furious program killed hundreds of Mexicans, yet Obama’s “my people” attorney general, Eric Holder, acts as if our outrage is racially motivated. Barack Obama does not care about dead Mexicans on the other side of the border. Really, they’re only Mexicans, and they couldn’t have voted anyway. At least if they had made it to America, they would have been able to “punish” their “enemies” and vote for him in the coming election. It’s not like anyone needs ID to vote.
His economic policy has been to borrow as much money as possible to reward backers and Obama-supporting crony capitalists, explode the deficit, and add $5 trillion to the national debt, while waging class warfare and labeling as obstructionist anyone who dares to oppose him — our messiah, the one “we’ve been waiting for.”
Our president speaks endlessly about the unfairness of people working harder and acquiring more, while others have less. Despite the fact that in America, the rich and the poor carry the same cell phones and watch the same cable TV shows on remarkably similar TVs. Both have access to comparable medical services — pre-ObamaCare, at least. Their homes are cooled and heated to the same temperature, and they each have access to the same information on the internet.
Maybe the rich man has more minutes, more channels, and a bigger TV. Perhaps he can afford a private hospital room, and a larger house, but the poor in America are not starving by the side of the road in tattered rags. In fact, obesity is rampant among America’s underclass. Remember when the rich were fatter than the poor? Not anymore — but give Obama four more years and he’ll take care of that. By then, we’ll all be starving by the side of the road.
On foreign policy he has held out America’s hand only to have our enemies slap our face. We will likely be at war with Iran within the next year. The mullahs have taken the measure of ourpPresident and come to the conclusion that the only people who fear Barack Obama are Americans. They will continue to develop a nuclear weapon, and war will become inevitable. The death toll in the coming conflagration will be staggering. All as Barack lines up his next putt or takes his umpteenth vacation on America’s dime. Maybe he’ll give a speech — he likes that.
The great man chooses not to help the poor earn more, but to make the non-poor more poor. His energy policy seeks not to make green energy cheaper, but to make all other energy more expensive. Jobs are not created; the workforce is shrunk. He talks peace, leads from behind, kills from afar, and makes war more likely.
Despite his handily destroying our present, and making a hefty down payment on destroying our future, the legacy media is still all-in on Barack Obama.
Since the New York Times has changed its motto from “all the news that’s fit to print” to “we print what news we see fit,” they have been shedding readers and advertisers, losing $40 million in 2011. They are like GM in 2007. Maybe there’s a bailout for them in the sequel, Obama, Return of the King.
Opposing a president was patriotic when it was opposition to a president opposed by liberals — now it is simply racist. You see, to be against a great man like our president is to be a bigot. Barack Obama and his minions will always judge a man by the color of his skin and not by the content of his character.
Isn’t it amazing how far the great Barack Obama has taken the nation in such a short time? Does anyone believe he will be a better leader when he doesn’t have to worry about our votes?
Certainly he will give us more change, but hope will have to wait until 2016.
The US Government continues actions that will result in its own demise. That might seem fitting, except that its failure will seriously harm the citizenry.
Government decisions and actions have assured an economic collapse that will result in another depression. Federal debts and promises are too large to be honored, a conclusion based not on economics but on simple arithmetic.
The government collapse will likely trigger the economic collapse, although the order could be reversed. Arguably, we are already in a depression which has been disguised by juicing GDP via excessive government spending. This spending has been funded increased government debt in magnitudes never seen before. To put matters into perspective, by the end of President Obama’s first four years, he will have added more to the federal debt than all 43 Presidents who preceded him.
The economic collapse, as a result of this borrowing and stimulus, will be terrifying and worse than it needed be. Whether it is preceded by hyperinflation or goes directly into a deflationary collapse is moot and immaterial regarding an ultimate depression. Resulting conditions will be worse than those experienced during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
As frightening as the economic event will be, it will be superseded by the political damage. Given the state of our economy and the state of our government, there is a high probability that we lose our form of government. The confluence of the horrific economic events coupled with what H. L. Mencken foresaw long ago brings the very survival of freedom and liberty into question:
As democracy is perfected, the office of President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be occupied by a downright moron.
Mencken’s “great and glorious day” is upon us. We have found our “moron,” not that he is the first or only one. His intent “to transform America” suggests that his actions will not be limited to methods considered appropriate by his predecessors.
In a recent article on American Thinker Steve McCann expressed his concerns that Obama is following in the footsteps of Twentieth Century despots:
… Barack Obama is the most corrupt, dictatorial, and ideologically driven president in American history? That his entire being and psyche are devoted to transforming the country not only into a socialist utopia, but into a nation permanently governed by a radical oligarchy?
Other observers share McCann’s opinion, and many do so in less complimentary terms.
What Made This Country Great?
America became great not because it consisted of great men (even though there were many). Our system of governance encouraged laissez-faire capitalism and the freedom and opportunity that allowed ordinary men to do great things. Greatness did not come from electing great leaders. They may have helped, but they were neither necessary nor sufficient for the country to succeed.
The Founding Fathers provide a framework and an “operating system” which allowed the country to prosper. These hearty men were wise, courageous and noble. They understood the nature of man and the danger of power. They established a system designed to protect people from both. They designed a form of governance to accommodate imperfect and less than honorable men. Their primary focus was on limiting the role and power of the federal government.
Under such an arrangement the energy and creativity of people pursuing their own self-interests quickly transformed America into a dynamo unlike anything seen before. In less than a century, the US grew from a backwoods society to one of the most powerful, prosperous nations in the world. Along the way the country elected its share of idiots and morons, perhaps not in a clinical sense but in terms of the gap between their abilities and the abilities required for their offices. The limited role of government restricted the damage that could be imposed on the citizenry. Imperfect men were constrained by a nearly perfect Constitution.
What Happened?
Sadly, the citizenry is no longer protected by the institutional constraints established by the Founders. Over time, continued attacks on the Constitution by the power hungry elite weakened the document. Today, it is more an interesting historical artifact than the basis of law and government limitations for which it was created. That is the problem, not the current occupant of the White House. The deterioration in government constraints enabled fools, hucksters and charlatans to exploit the country. The decline of the Constitution led to the decline of America.
Where We Are Now?
The government has now grown to Leviathan proportions. It is into everything from light bulbs to toilets and every other aspect of our lives. No business is immune from inane and arbitrary bureaucratic regulations, most of which make no economic, environmental or occupational sense. Faceless bureaucrats now run your life and your business, believing they are more knowledgeable and trustworthy than you. Via force they have slowly crippled the productivity of American workers and companies. In doing so, they raise the cost of living for all citizens. Their hubris and ideology supersedes any need for cost-benefit analyses. When they “know” something is “right,” they will make you conform.
This country is approaching the fascist state which ran the economy of Nazi Germany. Government has removed decisions from the board room and delegated them to the mindless bureaucracy. As a result, productivity has declined and uncertainty has increased. Investment has declined and much of it has been driven to more welcoming places overseas. Human capital is fleeing and the rate of outflow will likely accelerate if conditions continue to be unfavorable. Jobs are scarce and educational results are disgraceful. Everything the government has run is either bankrupt or soon to be. In short, we are in one big economic mess, all of which can be traced back to the relaxation/elimination of constitutional constraints. When government broke its chains, we began our descent into toward the dustbin of history.
Much of the emasculation of the Constitution happened surreptitiously and slowly over many years. No amendments were added or overruled. An implicit agreement among the political class seems to have been struck. Both parties apparently considered their work too important to be constrained by some old document. Court decisions soon reflected this political attitude. The judiciary, while a separate branch of the government by law, has always been de facto cognizant of and bent with the political winds. The notion that justice is blind or even consistent is questionable when judges are appointed based on political and legal ideology. Republican law says the Constitution is fixed and to be interpreted by original intent. Democrat law says the Constitution is a living document, subject to change to meet the needs of a changing society.
Blame for the destruction of much of the Constitutional constraints is bi-partisan. Both political parties had incentives to increase their power, only achievable by relaxing the legal limitations on government. Both chose to ignore or violate the Constitution when it served their purposes. After a century of this behavior, the Constitution is a shell of its original self. Unfortunately, that thin piece of parchment is all that stands between us and tyranny. It has been the difference between the development of the United States and the rest of the world. Now it is gone.
What Can Be Done?
Let us return to the beginning, or at least the McCann quote:
… Barack Obama is the most corrupt, dictatorial, and ideologically driven president in American history? That his entire being and psyche are devoted to transforming the country not only into a socialist utopia, but into a nation permanently governed by a radical oligarchy?
Read that quote again, slowly. Now read the second half of it again. I am not offended by the characterization of Obama or even its accuracy. What galls me is the presumption that one man, Democrat or Republican, believes he has the authority to change the governance model of this country. That notion is antithetical to everything this country was based upon and everything that enabled it to become so prosperous. It conflicts with all of our traditions, customs and laws. The mere thought implies that we are no longer a country subject to the Rule of Law but subject to the whims of whoever the current ruler might be. This is the governing principle of countries like North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and the old Soviet Union. If this is acceptable, then we are truly doomed as a country.
Do the masses believe that a president has such power? Have they become so dumbed-down that they don’t understand the consequences? Has our country fallen this far so fast? If so, totalitarianism is just a matter of time. If Obama doesn’t achieve his objectives, then some successor will. America is over if mob rule (democracy) has replaced the Constitution and the Rule of Law.
Democrats in favor of what is happening should realize the implications. Just because your man is assuming these extra Constitutional powers today doesn’t mean the next in that office will be so pleasing. Remember how you felt about George Bush when you saw some of his actions as unconstitutional? How would you feel if he came back to office with expanded power? Or, how about a reincarnation of Richard Nixon? How would you feel about Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh or whomever your worst nightmare might be in office with virtually unlimited power? Hopefully, you understand the danger. It is not the man, it is the power. No man can be trusted with excessive power!
I see no reason for optimism regarding any solution to this problem. We no longer have politicians with conscience or integrity. Why have Democrats and Republicans not stepped forward to admonish Obama for his extra-Constitutional acts? Why has someone not issued a cease and desist order backed up by the threat of impeachment hearings? Why do these elected fools stand by and watch the destruction of their country? Does no one have courage? Do principles not matter?
Sadly, I think the answers to most of these questions are obvious. Both political parties participated in the destruction of the Constitution because they believed it to be in their personal self-interest. Strengthening government strengthens themselves. If both parties didn’t willingly participate in this destruction, we could never have moved so far off course.
Now we are close to going over a cliff from which there is no return. That would result in a substantial loss of our remaining freedoms, our prosperity and our country. The siren song of our Socialist in Chief does not explain this problem. We know how socialism works — it doesn’t! It steals freedom, impoverishes people (except the ruling elite) and ultimately results in the collapse of governments, economies and civilizations. The data on these claims are irrefutable. Socialism, even in theory, does not work. In practice it is worse; it is death, destruction and suffering.
The Outrage
I do not blame Obama for seeking to increase his power, control or even the pursuit of a dictatorship. Blaming him is like blaming a shark because it preys on other creatures. It is in the nature of sharks and politicians. That is what they do.
What I am outraged over is that he can so blatantly commit transgressions without a meaningful peep from either political party. That is clear indication of how corrupt our political system is. The 500 plus elected peacocks that strut around looking for TV cameras to impress us with how smart, important and necessary they are, are the problem. Republicans and Democrats alike ignore this blatant violation of the law and the anger of the public.
Obama is a problem on many levels. But he is merely a product of the corrupt system. Both parties have lost their will to do what is right and what they are legally obligated to do. They are different wings of the same predatory bird. Their behavior is indistinguishable from that two organized crime syndicates who have cut a deal. Rather than act on principles, they agreed not to fight other than at the ballot box. So long as neither party exposes the other, the plunder and pillage of the population can continue. The two mob bosses apparently have seen cooperation as a better solution than fighting. Some years the Bloods will be in charge and other years the Crips. No matter who is in charge, there is plenty of loot to divvy up. Better to share the scam than to jeopardize its continuance.
Congress is clearly in violation of their oath of office to defend and uphold the Constitution. Impeachment proceedings should be brought against this president. They will not be and our country will be lost. The selfishness and greed of the political class is best served in such a fashion.
Unless meaning is put back into the Constitution, it will not matter who wins or loses the next election. Elections no longer matter! We think we are voting for change and can achieve such by changing horses. That is exactly what they want you to believe. If you were to recognize that you no longer have any control over what is happening, then the myth of government has been exploded.
I have no solution to this problem other than to Impeach Them All. That is the correct solution, but not a practical one.
Thus we are left waiting for the collapse. Perhaps in rebuilding from the ashes a Constitutional Republic that worked and we wasted, can be re-instituted. But a collapse of the economy, the government and much of society is very dangerous and opens the door for a demagogue to assume power. That was the recipe used by Hitler.
Considering the corrupt, good ol’ boy network in Waterbury, you’ll probably find all sorts of fraud embedded in that 31% figure.